4-5 bedroom house takes movers 2 days to move?

[bananashoes]

Hiya.

I am originally from America and only have dealt with moving while there. I’ve managed on several occasions to move a 4 to 5 bedroom house in a day to a new location. Sometimes even three hours away and even when we moved to the UK.

I’ve just got a quote from a very reputable moving company in London stating a 4 to 5 bedroom house would take at least two days to move as they don’t want to Exhaust their workers. Now while I appreciate not wanting to exhaust anyone, I don’t understand why it would be so different? Has this been anyone else’s experience? Don’t mean to be offensive in anyway just genuinely baffled.

It took ours two days, one day to pack and load, one day to drive 3 hours and unload.

Are you having a packing service?

We moved a 4 bed in a day but were only going 10 miles away. Removal company used one big lorry and 3 men.

Edit to say we packed the boxes in the weeks before,

I asked if that was even if we had everything packed ourselves and she said yes. I was really shocked to hear that.

I'd expect a large 4/5 bed family house with books, China, furniture, etc, to take two days. A day for packing and getting non essential items on the van. An hour to scoop up the essentials - get to the new house, wait for confirmation of the key release and unloading the new furniture.

I can't imagine a big move taking just a day.

Yes, this company is notoriously famous for their moves. We are moving 21 miles away.

sorry, meant to say they are notorious for using lorries- I had expected that

Well, having moved a large 5 bedroom house, it took them from 8 in the morning until about 5 in the afternoon just to get everything packed and put on the truck.

Another day to drive to the new house and unpack.

not sure how it could all be done in a day but I guess it’ll depend on how much stuff you have and how far you are moving.

We were planning to pack ourselves in the week before. We will have the keys already for a week prior, so there is no waiting around for keys or anything.

I packed myself 40ish years ago. Single person, two bed flat to a small house about a mile away. Never, ever again.

Packers are worth every single penny.

I would much rather that the movers were building in a contingency and being realistic about their capacity and timescales .

We once moved with a ‘firm’ who seemed fine on the surface, when they turned up they had one chap who was a professional mover, and several college boys who didn’t have a clue. One of them actually collapsed, I had to sit him down and look after him , he was pale from exhaustion.

Moving houses is a skill. Listen to what skilled operators are telling you,

Ours was one day to pack, one to actually move and unload. We were only moving two miles though. I can't quite remember but think they may have put most the boxes on the truck the first day, but they left the the furniture until the second day.

I've recently moved. We had 2 people packing everything on day 1 into boxes and dismantling what they can (spare beds, garden furniture etc), pictures off the walls etc

Day 2 had 5-6 people. They arrived at 7.30am and loaded boxes and furniture onto the 2 lorries plus the final dismantling bits. This took until about midday/12.30. They arrived at the new house about 1.30pm ISH and it took them until 5pm to unload, rebuild furniture. They worked very hard the whole time and only stopped for the hour between houses.

I don't think movers want people to do their own packing as they won't do it as well (IE overload boxes, use bad quality packaging etc).

I don't see how it could have been done in a day unless you had a huge team of people and a number of different exits to bring furniture in and out of.

How are they ‘notorious ‘ for using lorries, OP ? What did you expect them to use, a pony and trap? 🛸? 🚁?

Seriously, if you have the keys , which I am presuming means you own the property, why don’t you move in stages? We have done this a couple of times, move all the boxes and the non essential furniture and get it put in the right place, then move everything else next ( we had two days in between) . It’s much less stressful.

They're building in contingency because I bet half of the people who say they'll be all ready to go first thing actually just have a few bits and bobs left to pack.

I think 2 days is a really good estimate.

Yes, two days is reasonable. Back in the day when my grandfather started a removals company, extremely long days were expected. These days professional removals firms take better care of their workers and they do a normal length day.

Two days sounds about right. I have recently moved from a five-bed house and it took them more than two days just to pack and load, and then another day and a half to deliver and unload, but I do have a lot of books and stuff.

Presumably it depends how many of them there are? If it is a large company, perhaps they would be willing to assign more staff to your job if you desperately needed it all done on the same day, but it would still cost the same as a two-day move because you'd be paying for more people's time, and possibly paying overtime rates if you wanted it done outside of their normal working hours.

That would make sense to me.

We moved out of our two bed house, took approx three hours to load. We already had the keys to our ongoing purchase, but had agreed with vendor we wouldn't let removers in before completion had taken place. They had to wait until 2.30pm and then spent the afternoon unpacking. That was basically a day's work, and we were a one minute drive around the corner.

My tiny 2 bed ground floor flat took 3.5 hours to pack into a lorry with 4 movers. Packing the boxes and wrapping furniture only took 45 mins, but pivoting wardrobes around doors and disassembling bits that wouldn't fit took ages. 2 days doesn't sound unreasonable, especially since the movers will struggle to maintain the physical pace for more than 6 hours even with breaks

Don't forget to take out transit insurance !
We used a " reputable " big removal company for moving 2 miles away , same size house.
1 day to pack/load , next day to unpack.
Looked after removal guys ( endless food/drinks/snacks ), tipped big on eve after packing, same guys returned next day.
Van was in a locked depot overnight.
Arrived next day, minus DH's £££ racing bikes, they were loaded last.

Van was broken into in locked and fenced depot and only bikes PICKed ( there's a clue in there ..re company name ).
No transit insurance = our fault.
Still fume when I see their vans and regret looking after the staff so generously.
So make sure everything is covered.

Actually I think one day would be okay if you are doing all the packing yourselves (crazy for a large house imo!) and only moving 21 miles away.

two days is right as pp say - one day to pack the van another day to drive it and unload. For context, as you able to tell us what you thought would happen?

What do you mean "notorious for using lorries"?

And yeah if you have the keys now, absolutely load up your car now with stuff you don't need immediately and get it over there. I highly recommend you take a box full of tea/biscuits/cereals for your first breakfast and linen to make up all the beds.

I’ve had both - if they packed it was 2 days- if we’ve packed ( not done this since 2009) it was all same day - even to 70 miles away

Ours packed most of the stuff on Friday, then the rest on Monday. They’d finished by midday, but completion was a nightmare and we didn’t get the keys until after 5 pm, which is when they finish. It was November, so they couldn’t unpack in the dark. We had to pay £350 for them to return the following day, plus the cost of a night and a meal in a hotel.

I thought this was normal.

A day to get everything in the van except mattresses.

Next day add mattresses, drive to location and unpack.

What about furniture are you going to disassemble everything yourself ?