Asked often, answered plainly

Because a quotation is a measurement, and measurements need a tape. Volume, the route out and the standing outside are the three variables that decide the price, and none of the three is visible from a phone call.

No. It is how we work out what the job is, which is at least as much our interest as yours.

As soon as you have a date you would defend. Book the survey earlier than that — most people have one while the sale is still uncertain, which is exactly the right time.

It is in the plan before it happens: what notice a change needs, what we can do at short notice, and how storage bridges a gap. Tell us the moment you know rather than the morning it bites.

Saturdays regularly, Sundays by arrangement where a building or a chain requires it. It goes on the quotation like anything else.

Goods-in-transit cover applies during a move and the limits, including any per-item limit, are stated on your quotation. Where you packed a carton yourself and the packing was the cause, that sits with you — which is why we would rather explain how to pack the awkward things in advance.

Anything flammable, explosive or corrosive — fuel, gas bottles, paint, solvents, fireworks — and nothing perishable or living. Money, jewellery, deeds and irreplaceable papers should travel with you.

No. We hold no waste carrier licence, so a load bound for the tip is not a job we can take. It is worth dealing with before the survey, because a measured volume that includes things you intend to throw away is a quotation for a larger move than you are making.

As soon as you have a date you would defend. Surveys can happen earlier than that — most people book the survey while the sale is still wobbling, which is sensible, because the survey is what tells you how large a job you are actually organising.

The volume as measured, the crew, the vehicle, the packing you have chosen, the access arrangements at both ends, anything needing a shuttle or a permit, and what would change the figure. If a line is not on it, it is not assumed.

No, but tell us it is full. Lofts are the single most common reason a measured volume turns out to be wrong, and a loft counted at survey is an hour of planning rather than a problem discovered while the van is filling.

Pots, tools and garden furniture all travel, and they are worth mentioning because they take more room than people expect. Anything with fuel in it — a mower, a strimmer — has to be drained before it can go on the vehicle.

Deal with them before the survey if you can, because a measured volume including furniture you intend to give away is a quotation for a larger move than you are making. We do not carry waste and hold no waste licence, so the skip or the charity run stays with you.

Because the contents are spread over more places. A flat is what you can see. An interwar semi has a loft, a garage, a shed, a side return and frequently a converted room at the top of a staircase that was never designed for furniture. The volume is genuinely harder to guess.

Usually the staircase does. Loft conversions tend to arrive with a narrower stair and a tighter turn than the rest of the house, and anything that went up there before the balustrade went on may not come down the same way. It is measured at survey.

Then the route out gets protected before anything moves: thresholds, door edges, the newel post and the glazing. We work without fixings of any kind in period fabric, and where a route cannot be taken without risk to the house, we say so rather than trying it carefully.

On the Pinner Green and Eastcote roads, almost always. On Pinner Hill and parts of Hatch End it depends on the gateposts and the slope, and the answer changes whether we bring one vehicle to the door or shuttle from the kerb. It is a survey question every time.

The contents, certainly. The structures only where they are already dismantled and can be handled safely. Tell us what is out there so it appears on the inventory rather than in a conversation on the day.

Usually a lift booking and a loading window, sometimes a porter and occasionally a bay suspension. Managing agents differ wildly in how much notice they want. Find out early: the building, not the furniture, is what sets the shape of the day.

It is a crew-size question, not a refusal. Carrying up a shared staircase is slower and heavier work, so we plan for more hands rather than fewer trips, and we protect the communal parts before anything goes up.

Yes, and the parade below is the thing to plan around. The loading window is set by the shops, deliveries and the traffic through it, so the start time follows the parade rather than the flat.

So do we. Floor protection, corner protection on the lift and cover on the communal carpet go down before the first item moves, and the building is left as it was found.

That is what the measuring is for. Sofas are the usual casualty — the piece that went in through a window or before a partition wall existed. Measured at survey, it is a decision; discovered on the day, it is a problem with an audience.

Scale and planning, not care. A van job is a room, a piece of furniture, a collection or a delivery: two crew, one vehicle, no room-by-room inventory. The wrapping and the carrying are the same.

Yes — furniture showrooms, auction houses, storage sites and trade counters, in and around HA5 and further out. Send the collection reference and the address, and tell us whether anyone there will help load.

Often. Pianos, safes, large marble pieces and garden statuary are all possible, but they are specific jobs — tell us the weight or the dimensions and where it has to come out from before booking, because a heavy item in an awkward place needs the right crew, not more crew.

Both crew carry. A van job where you do the carrying is not something we offer; the point of the service is that the piece gets handled properly at both ends.

Kitchens, glass, pictures, books and anything with sentimental value. They take longer than people expect and they are where breakages actually happen. Wardrobes and soft furnishings are easy to do yourself.

Yes, and most households do exactly that. Say at survey which rooms are yours and which are ours so the materials and the crew time are right on the quotation.

Double-walled cartons for books and heavy items, wardrobe cartons so clothes travel hanging, layered paper and bubble for glass and china, purpose-made picture cartons, and blanket wrap on furniture. Labelled by room, and by which room they are going to rather than the one they came from.

You are, for what is inside the boxes you filled. It is not a technicality: a carton packed loosely or overfilled behaves differently on a staircase, and cover reflects that. We will tell you how to pack the awkward things if you ask.

Containerised. Your things are wrapped and inventoried at the house, loaded into containers, sealed there, and not opened again until they come back to you. It is not a unit you drive to and unlock.

By appointment, with notice, because containers have to be brought out and opened. If you need weekly access to a few things, a self-storage unit is genuinely the better tool and we will say so.

The inventory taken at collection, which you get a copy of. It is also what the storage cover is based on, so it is worth reading rather than filing.

Nothing perishable, flammable, corrosive or living: no fuel, gas bottles, paint, solvents, plants or food. Documents, jewellery and irreplaceable papers should stay with you rather than go into a sealed container.

It is a long way from a port, which mostly affects sequencing rather than difficulty. The load usually leaves HA5 and is on the road for the crossing the following morning rather than the same afternoon, and that is planned rather than improvised.

An itemised, valued inventory — genuinely itemised, not "box of kitchen" — evidence that you are taking up residence at the other end, and proof of the address you are going to. We prepare and lodge the export side; the residency documents are yours to obtain and they have the longest lead time.

It matters more than anything else on the paperwork. Relief on used household effects depends on genuinely transferring residence. Furnishing a holiday house while remaining resident in Pinner is an ordinary import, assessed on declared value, and it needs declaring as such.

A dedicated vehicle carries your household alone and goes when you are ready. A shared load travels with other consignments heading the same way, so you pay for your share and fit around the schedule. Neither comes with a day count from us — the quotation sets out the expected window and what would move it.

Yes. Households leaving the country are rarely all in one building — there is usually a storage unit, a parent’s garage or a grown child’s flat involved. We collect from London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bristol and consolidate before departure. Arrange it early; adding a collection after loading is a different job.

Pinner and HA5 first — the village, Pinner Green, Hatch End, Eastcote, Pinner Hill and Rayners Lane — then outward across NW London and anywhere in the UK a move needs to go. Longer moves out of HA5 are ordinary work rather than an exception.

Because a firm that works a town every week knows its roads, its parking and its buildings better than a visitor does. Northwood, Harrow and Ruislip have their own; we would rather you had the right crew than that we had the job.

We deliver into it regularly. For a move that both begins and ends inside the congestion zone, a central firm with the right permits and vehicle sizes will serve you better, and there are pan-London firms set up precisely for that.