Means what you think · H
House removals
Also searched as removal company, home removals, house movers and simply movers. All five mean the same thing and all five get you the same service, which makes this the least troublesome entry in the index.
If this is the phrase you typed, you want roughly what it sounds like. The rest of this index exists for the words that are not so obliging.
What the phrase buys you
What the phrase does not tell you
The words are unambiguous; the quotation is where the variation lives. Two house-removals quotations for the same job can differ enormously and both be honest, because one includes packing materials, waiting time on completion day and a parking suspension, and the other does not.
So the useful question is never what service is this. It is what is in the figure, and what would change it.
The four things that actually set the price
The volume, which is why a survey exists. The access at both ends — floors, lifts, stairs, parking, approach roads. The distance. And whether packing is included, which is the single largest optional component of most domestic quotations.
A bedroom count tells you almost nothing about the first of those. A three-bedroom house with a boarded loft and a full garage holds roughly half as much again as one without, and it is invisible from the rooms.
Completion day, and the word for waiting
Where the move depends on a sale, keys are released once money has moved up a chain and the household at the bottom is paid last. Crews therefore wait, sometimes for a long time.
The trade word for that is waiting time or standing time, it is chargeable almost everywhere, and it should be on your quotation in writing. A quotation silent on it is not cheaper — it is incomplete.
Where the other entries become relevant
If your dates do not meet, read the storage entry, because the word covers two different products. If somebody has offered you a cheaper option on a long run, read the backload entry first. And if you are moving abroad, most of the vocabulary changes.
"House removals"
Questions about "house removals"
- Do I need a survey?
- For a whole house, yes — by video is fine where the access is plainly straightforward. A quotation given without one is a guess, however confident it sounds.
- Why will nobody quote over the phone?
- Because the volume, the access and the options decide the figure and none is knowable from a postcode. A phone figure that turns out low becomes a conversation on your moving day.
- Is packing included?
- Sometimes, and it is the largest optional item in most domestic quotations. Check which of full, partial and materials-only your figure covers.
- What is waiting time?
- The period a crew and vehicle are at your disposal but cannot work — most often on completion day. It is chargeable almost everywhere and it should be written into the quotation.
- Will you dismantle furniture?
- As standard, and rebuild it at the other end. Fixings are bagged, labelled and kept with the item rather than in a communal box.
- How far ahead should we book?
- As early as you can name a date, and earlier still around the end of a month, which is when completions cluster. Nothing about that is unique to us.
Not sure which word describes your move?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and how firm the dates are. If you are unsure which service you actually need, say so — it is the commonest note we get and the easiest to answer.