Remove a window to get a sofa in?

[reggiebean]

We've just bought a new house and the way the front door is situated, it makes it impossible to get any furniture inside.

We have been told by many people that you can get someone to come out and remove the window for about £40-50, but every service I've called (under Google search for "window fitters London") either doesn't do it, or charges about £200!

Have any of you found someone who can do this, and can you give me an idea of how much you were charged?

Also, if anyone is in SW London and can recommend someone, that would be greatly appreciated!

if you've got upvc windows you can easily do it yourself.

you carefully prise off the beading with a scraper or something similar. with my windows you can see that the side beading would be taken off before the top and bottom beading.

the double glazed unit in the middle should easily 'fall' out, so you need to be very careful at this stage.

then just reverse the process when you have finished.

good luck

I've done it in SE London. Cost £150- there's quite a bit of hanging around waiting for movers etc. It looked v straightforward though with wooden sash windows.
Are you usuing a removal company? Ours had someone that they could use but we used a local handy man and gave him all kinds of odds and sods to do like putting up curtain rails and blinds etc so he wasn't sitting around eating hobnobs. It was a godsend and money well spent in the end.

I love your user name and the fact that you're giving advice on handling fragile things

I've got no idea if it's a upvc window or not unfortunately, we've only been in to see the house twice! I'll have a look next time we go over there though to see if it's something we can do on our own.

Thank you!

It's quite easy my Dad didn't believe my sofa had came into my house this way until we moved house and couldn't get it out, ours had 4 little screws to remove then the glass just popped out, he had his friend with them and it looked quite easy. Good luck

oscarwilde I'm not sure of the window type, I had no idea it made so much of a difference. Will add that to the list of things to look at next time we get into the house.

No, we're not using a removal company. We're having sofas delivered from Harvey's, so just sort of assumed we'd only need the window guy around for an hour, max? Pop the window out, chuck the sofas in, pop the window back in, done. Surely it's really that simple??

Is there anything about the front door that you can change (hang it the other way, or something)? Otherwise, you're going to have this problem again and again (and please don't ever try to let it out: as a tenant, I already hate having to deal with other people's ideas and mistakes, without the power to do anything to change it!)

I know

I'm really careful with fragile things, it's the normal everyday things when I'm not paying attention that things go tragically wrong (I have 14 scars to prove it too )

anyway, to windows.

yes it will make a huge difference to the type of windows is wooden sash, upvc etc.

when you are there next have a good look at home the glass is fixed in place - maybe take a couple of photo's and upload them, then we should be able to advise better.

RenterNomad Unfortunately not. As soon as you walk in the door, you have a 90 degree turn, and it's not a very wide hallway so it means for rigid things like sofas, you've got to get it in another way. It has a back garden, but it's in the middle of a row of houses, so we can't go in through the back either :(

soaccidentprone
14 scars?! Yikes! I thought I was clumsy!

Here's the only photo I have of the room. If you zoom in really close, can you tell what type they are??

Will Harveys not do it when they deliver ? It was DFS Sofas who 'popped' mine out to get our one in. They made it look very easy.

No, both Harvey's and DFS say it's our responsibility to have the window out by the time they arrive. I suppose we could always hope for a nice delivery man who doesn't mind helping, but I don't think I want to count on that!

Hmm Perhaps they only did mine as I was too thick didn't notice it wouldn't fit, until they arrived.

I was looking for someone (in Scotland) to do mine for moving house and put ads on Gumtree etc. No-one answered or seemed to believe me that I needed my windows 'popped out'

There was talk of sawing a sofa in half to get it out at one point. Best of luck!

Unfortunately, they actually give you a tape measure after you place the order so you can measure stairwells, doorways, etc., so I don't think I can plead ignorance.

An ad on Gumtree is a good idea though, I hadn't thought of that!

Gosh, we had this problem years ago with some IKEA sofas. It was back in the day when you couldn't pay on a credit card and we had to buy the two sofas two months apart and leave the first one in a communal garage until the second was delivered.

We had sash windows which had to be removed.

I'm reasonably sure a joiner could do this for you. It was a joiner who fitted out UPVC in this house.

My friend moved house and employed a man to take her sofa apart, move it inside, and then put it back together again. I think it might have been SofaAssist?

When dfs delivered our sofa a couple of years ago they had to pop out the window to get it in the flat. I wasn't there, but dh said they were quite quick. From what I remember, the removal men had to do it when we moved out (that bloody sofa has moved four more times since...) and didn't charge extra for it. Man with a van type outfit :)