Where exactly is the line on flat size?

A one-bedroom flat where the furniture is yours and nothing needs packing is a van job with two people. Beyond that it depends on packing more than on volume, and we will say which side of it you are on.

Could you do a house if I packed everything myself?

Still no. The packing is only part of it — the loft, the garage, the shed and two floors of furniture is a crew-and-two-vehicles job regardless of who boxed the kitchen.

Will you recommend a specific firm?

We will tell you what to look for — a survey, a written inventory, packers as a separate visit, storage of their own where relevant. We do not take referral arrangements and we do not pass your details anywhere.

Is this not just turning away money?

Yes. It is also the difference between a job that goes well and a job that ends badly for both of us, and we would rather lose the booking than the afternoon.

We turn these down

Five jobs we will not take

Sometimes the answer is no, and it is better to hear it now than on the morning.

Man-and-van sites tend to accept everything and then discover on the day that the job needed four people and two vehicles. This is the page most of them do not have: what we turn down, why, and what to look for instead.

No upsellNo quoteNo call-back sequenceBook a firm

The five, in short

A whole house Loft, garage, shed and two floors. Four or five people, two vehicles.

A full pack Packing is a separate trade done by separate people on a separate visit.

Anything with a piano Specialist equipment and specialist people. Not us at any crew size.

Storage in the middle One party responsible across a gap, with an inventory that survives it.

A completion-day chain A crew standing by and a vehicle that can hold a house indefinitely.

Everything else Almost certainly a van job. Five other pages on this site cover it.

A three-bedroom house

It is not a large flat. It is four or five separate jobs stacked on a staircase.

A house is a loft, a garage, a shed, a garden, a kitchen, and two floors of furniture that has been in place long enough to have been assembled where it stands. That is four or five people working in a planned order across two vehicles.

A van crew on that is a very long day that finishes in the dark with things still in the house. Anybody quoting it as a van job either has not understood it or is hoping you have not.

Book a removals firm with a survey and a written inventory.

A flat where everything needs packing

Packing is its own trade, done by its own people, before the movers arrive.

If the packing is still happening when the vehicle arrives, the crew waits, the van waits, and the day loses its shape before it has started. Done properly, packers come on a separate visit and leave a home ready to be carried out of.

We will carry boxes you have packed. We will not pack a flat on the morning of a move and neither should anybody else.

Book a firm that sends packers ahead of the moving crew.

Anything with a piano in it

No. Not at any crew size, on any floor, with any equipment we own.

The weight sits high and off-centre and a piano does not behave like furniture. It needs specialist equipment and people who move them every week, and the failure mode is somebody getting badly hurt rather than something getting scratched.

We will not take a booking that includes one, and we will tell you rather than quietly leave it behind.

Book a specialist piano mover.

A move with storage in the middle

Someone has to be responsible for your things across the gap. That is a contract.

Loading a household, storing it, and reloading it later means one party holding your possessions across weeks or months with an inventory that survives the interval. It also means insurance arrangements that cover the storage period rather than a journey.

A run into a storage unit is ours and we do it regularly. A move that goes through storage is not.

Book a removals firm with its own storage and its own inventory.

A completion-day chain

Keys and solicitors are nobody's to promise, and the plan has to survive that.

A completion move works by loading everything before anything is expected to happen, and then waiting — with a crew standing by and a vehicle that can hold a whole house for as long as it takes, including overnight if the second address is not ready.

That is a resource commitment a van cannot make, and improvising it is how a completion day turns into a driveway full of furniture.

Book a firm quoting a full crew with the load held on the vehicle.

What happens if you send us one of these

You get a reply telling you it is not a van job, and roughly what to look for.

No quote, no call-back sequence, no attempt to talk you round, and no handing your details to somebody else. We will describe what sort of firm you want and what to ask them.

It costs us work and it is the most useful thing on this website.

When it is not a van job

Questions about when it is not a van job

Where exactly is the line on flat size?: A one-bedroom flat where the furniture is yours and nothing needs packing is a van job with two people. Beyond that it depends on packing more than on volume, and we will say which side of it you are on.
Could you do a house if I packed everything myself?: Still no. The packing is only part of it — the loft, the garage, the shed and two floors of furniture is a crew-and-two-vehicles job regardless of who boxed the kitchen.
Will you recommend a specific firm?: We will tell you what to look for — a survey, a written inventory, packers as a separate visit, storage of their own where relevant. We do not take referral arrangements and we do not pass your details anywhere.
Is this not just turning away money?: Yes. It is also the difference between a job that goes well and a job that ends badly for both of us, and we would rather lose the booking than the afternoon.

Tell us what it is and where it is

If it is not a van job we will say so, and say what to book instead.

Both addresses, what the item is, what floor each end is on, and a photograph of the biggest thing. That is enough for a straight answer and a written price.

Get a price What we turn down