What might I be expected to pay to move the contents of a minimally furnished three bedroom house from Maidenhead to Lincoln?
What alternatives to removal lorries exist? For example, on a recent TV programme about moving to Australia, the people concerned had their stuff packed and moved in a container.
MM
Hello Mike
Are you serious? Containers are used for sea travels because they're the way freight is shifted and doing it any other way gets EXTREMELY expensive.
I freely admit geography is not my strongest suit, but AFAIK there aren't many container routes between Maidenhead and Lincoln.
If you don't want to hire removals, hire a van/lorry and do it yourself.
In message , Mike Mitchell writes
Pass, the furthest I've ever had some one move me was a bout 20 miles and they did it in about 1/2 a day so not of any use really (cost about GBP 300 IIRC)
Well, I know of someone who moved their house using bicycles, trailers and the like, but Maidenhead to Lincoln would be a fair way by cycle.......
Well, yes that makes sense for shipping overseas, wherew the container can just be offloaded the other end onto a trailer and taken to the destination. what would be the point of doing this for domestic moves?
I can't really imagine what alternatives you imagine there are. Other than DIY-ing it. Having done a number of DIY moves and then paid for the last one I would only ever do it again if I just could not afford to pay someone
OP>>For example, on a recent OP>>TV programme about moving to Australia, the people concerned had OP>>their OP>>stuff packed and moved in a container.
It makes quite a bit of sense - Hire the thing and have it put outside your house - it's not a a vehicle so parking rules don't apply - although you may have to light it. You can take your time about filling it up.
And here's the really useful one - if the sale falls through (of your target house) you can leave the stuff in the container - get it moved to a secure yard, and you're then able to take a more reasoned decision about whether you're going to carry on with your own sale - which will give you plenty of cash leverage on the next attempted purchase. A friend has just got caught with the the sale falling through whilst the pantechnicons were on the road. It's cost a lot of money to have everything palletted up and put into conventional storage - MORE than the cost of buying a container outright and putting it on a farm ...
Suspect you could even live in one if need be ...
Barley Twist (Please put out the cats to reply direct)
Any book or article on moving usually has a section on removal, with options and costs. Unless you want to DIY with the help of mates, contact some removal companies and ask for quotes. the costs vary among removers and what exactly you want them to do: packing/unpacking everything, only packing breakables, or DIY packing with boxes provided etc. A big firm like Pickford's will charge in excess of £1000 even without packing, while a small local but reputable firm will be a little cheaper. If they cannot complete the move within a day, they'll charge more. Labour rates vary and Maidenhead I'd have thought is a high-cost area. If you get it under £1000 you'd done it rather well IMO. Ask some friends and neighbours who've recently moved for recommendations. In my experience reputable firms use professional packers who work efficiently with care, while cowboys hire untrained labourers who can cause a lot of damage and inconvenience afterwards.
Alec
and how do you secure it whilst it is half empty?
tim
I must say the last time I moved I got a real shock at the prices. It was the only part of moving that had gone up about three fold in 9 years - everything else was about the same. I got several quotes from big and small firms at both ends of the move and even tried for a discount for letting them choose the day (IIRC I got a useless 20 quid off for this), but they all came in at around
800 quid for a 30 mile move.However I was in the fortunate position of having both houses for a while so I moved the valuable items myself by car and got a man and a van (plus two more men) to move the heavy stuff for about a quarter of the price. Though whether a man and van and his three mates will be competitive for a move that probably requires an overnight stay is another matter (the nationals will use their own staff at each end and only the driver will go with the van)
tim
There was a program about this. In the USA I think. People were renting lockable containers in a temp. controlled store and living in them. Cost was very low for warm dry housing of the bedsit flavor.
Would make great housing actually - kit them out as blocks - the living block, the sleepng block, the loo and bath block, and stack em.
umm - close the doors and put decent padlocks through the hasps?
I'm familiar (having helped fill the thing!) with one being used for this purpose - very solidly built and I'd say the doors are much more secure than on many cars and vans.
And if it's still close to the house whilst being filled then alarm it...
Barley Twist (Please put out the cats to reply direct)
You will need a licence from most local authorities to leave it in the street over night.
when we did house clearance we had to store the house contents for 4 weeks or so.
we used 2 20' ships containers, they gave us loads of room and we never had any problem with security as the lock is hidden in an opened metal box
would use this method again in future but would get planningh permission first but that is another story!
david
That wouldn't work around here or in London. You even have to have LA licence for a skip and the time you can have it on the highway is limited.. Someone would complain about it obstructing the highway and the LA would have it removed
Would they remove it to Lincoln, though? :)
MM
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote | There was a program about this. In the USA I think. People were | renting lockable containers in a temp. controlled store and living | in them. Cost was very low for warm dry housing of the bedsit flavor. | Would make great housing actually - kit them out as blocks - the living | block, the sleepng block, the loo and bath block, and stack em.
A charity in Glasgow refurbishes old bikes and sells them cheap to people on a housing scheme. The unfashionable models that the local neds won't be seen dead on go into a container which is sent to Africa, and the container is used for housing there rather than being sent back.
Owain
Can only give the example of moving our maximally furnished (with books and junk rather than any real amount of furniture) 3 bed semi from near Sheffield to Caerphilly (about 200 miles). We got three verbal quotes from people at the Wales end because the bulky stuff is in storage while the house is sorted out. Moved the china, computer, TV, HiFi, child's toys ourselves over a couple of weeks as we had the "new" house before having to vacate the "old" one and I was commuting anyway.
Verbal quotes came in at approx £600, £1,000, £1,200 plus VAT IIRC to load lorry (four blokes) drop off some stuff at house and put the rest into storage. We went for the £600 people on a couple of recommendations and because they were the closest in location to the new place. The final bill came to about £1,000 including the first four weeks of storage (£28/wk). They set off from Caerphilly at about 3 a.m., had a slow journey because of lorry trouble and arrived about 9. They left sometime after 3 but didn't do the drop-off until the next day (suited us fine).
Great bunch of guys, bit rough and ready, but no complaining about the odds and ends we hadn't quite managed to fit into boxes :-) As I said, we'd taken most of the important stuff separately but they did take the piano - we hid in the front room while they manhandled it up the back garden path. If it was worth any serious amount of money we'd have hired in some specialist movers. Time will tell if it's been damaged, though I suspect it'll be ok.
HTH
Hwyl!
M.
Sounds good to me! I'm glad you found some decent blokes who didn't rip you off. Who cares if they were a bit rough and ready!
Best of luck!
MM
Easiest way to find out is ring round for quotes,failing that ring a hire company and see how much a large van or 7.5 tonne truck costs per day...
Plenty! They're called roads, ahh you don't have those on Dartmoor:-)
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