How much will it cost to move my house?

While there are similarities with moves, it is important to understand that every move is different.  Before, we can give you a price we need to establish some key points, falling into two categories.  Firstly, we need to understand your specific service requirements.  Secondly, we need to know the volume and restrictions of access.  Once we have established the information necessary, we can calculate the resources required and associated costs for your move.  The role of the estimator is specialist.  Employing an inexperienced or less-than-thorough removal company can result in additional costs and a stressful experience.  If quotes are much cheaper than others, ask why – It might not be the bargain it seems.

Pre-move assessment

As a professional moving Company, we send a surveyor or ‘removals assessor’ to visit your property to evaluate all the possessions that you need removing.  Jon Atkinson is trained to the Certificate of Practical Estimating (CPE) by the Moving Institute, the original name of the training arm of the British Association of Removers.

We will visit your home in order to undertake a survey.  At this meeting, usually lasting 30-60 minutes, we will determine the following information, all of which will affect our quotation:

• Volume of items that need transporting – crucially, this will tell us the capacity / space required to safely transport your goods
• Specific items of interest – things require special care, dismantling or specific equipment.
• Access – This is two-fold.  Firstly, removal trucks are BIG.  We need to get as close to your front door at your current home AND your new home.  Difficult access can cause delays, especially with large volumes.  It may require multiple smaller vehicles in convoy
• Prohibitive factors such as locality to a school, parking restrictions or even acrimonious relations with a neighbour can all affect timings and resources

Service Specification

• Insurance.  When moving house, it’s a great idea to check with your home insurance company to see if they’ll cover you being moved by a removal company.If not, we can provide Extended Liability cover for your move.  Our policy summary will accompany our quotation.
• Packing service – If you don’t want to pack your items yourself (we get it), we can take care of this.
• Packing materials – Have you got boxes?  Are they strong and durable?  Are they fit for purpose?  In line with our environmental policy, wherever possible, we will provide recycled materials, which have been used once already.  They will be clean, dry and fit for purpose.  We can include them in our quote.
• Fragile packing – An extra handling charge might be required if you have fragile items like antiques, fine arts or a large instrument such as a piano.
• Third-party services – Such additional services can include un-plumbing washing machines, disconnecting your dishwasher, taking down curtain rails and lifting up carpets. You can request that these be included in your move but they are subject to restriction of liability.
• Dismantling and re-assembling – If any items need to be dismantled prior to your move and re-assembled at the other end, we can absolutely handle this for you.  If you elect to undertake the fitting yourself, we expect this to be done in advance of our arrival as with packing.

We take all of the information above and calculate a time frame and schedule based on volume, distance and service specification.  We will then present a formal quotation for professional services.  That said, if you want a rough price, please give me a call and I’ll try my best to give you a ballpark!

This blog is by Atkinson Removals Chelmsford.  For a free, no obligation quotation for your move please contact us today.