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.

In that case, I'm also surprised

I would've thought it would be a case of employing more people on the day.

my parents did it in one day. Quite a lot of furniture. I can't remember how many movers they had. They didn't use packing service. Unless you count their kids packing for weeks before 😂

It took two days with packing for a three bed - but they knew it was going into storage with them so maybe that influenced things.

We paid for packing because everyone said it would be better - and with kids though fuck it - really wasn't great they didn't have much packing material with them used a lot of our cases/stuff etc. They were awful other end had to wait a week to get things - and just dumped everything nearest place - it was awful and few things went missing and more were damaged.

Next move we doing what we did previous one - and packing before hand though kids will be grown and it will just be cats to work round.

I'm also surpised at two days as most people are moving out and in same day.

In our case they did downstairs first day and took it to storage and then upstairs next day and storage.

A lot depends on whether you have a lot of built in furniture that won't be going with you. If it's just beds and bedside tables that need packing that's very different to dismantling Ikea bookshelves and wardrobes.
It's worth bearing in mind that this is Europe. The movers will work late if needs be but they're not going to work a 6am to 11pm day doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Check you're insured, often you're not if you pack yourself.

2 days to move from a big 2 bed flat. First day to pack up, second day to move.

I don't know how house buying/selling works in the US, but potentially our system is more convoluted and risky. There's no way of guaranteeing what time you get the keys to the new place. The wheels of solicitors grind slowly! Even in the simplest of moves you might not exchange till 2pm, then the vendors deliver keys to estate agent, you go collect the keys... It could all mean it's really late in the day before you can even start unloading.
I suspect we also have much tighter laws about working hours (especially when it involves driving HGVs), so there's probably a point where if the unload goes past a certain time they won't legally be allowed to drive the lorry away from your new house.
(I might be wrong on the above - just know there are rules about breaks professional drivers have to have, so making a guess)

We have moved twice in the last 2.5 yrs, 1st time, 3 bed house, garden items plus alot of gym equipment, moving 200 miles away, 2 day removal. Last move same items, moved 14 mins away, yep 2 day removal. Both occasions we had packed ourselves.

If you are selling and buying you usually have to be out by 12. So starting at 8am (to be generous) that isn't a lot of time to physically move everything out of a house.

On onevof our house moves, the lorry could only be outside the house for 1hr. Everything had to be moved onto the verge by the road in the hours before that. It still took more than an hour to actually only load the stuff. (Although they need to stop to move the lorry twice and then come back.... narrow road!)

We moved from a 4 bed house to a 5 bed house last year, 3 hrs drive, and it was done in a day.
We had packed / boxed everything ourselves.
The movers arrived at 8 AM, packed until 11-ish(?), then drove 3 hrs to the new place. We only got the keys at 4PM that day so they worked until past 6… awfully long day but finished in a day

We had a proper removal company (not a man with a van) do our last move from a 3 bed semi, with a full packing service. They came in on day and packed 60% of out stuff (including 6 x 6ft bookshelves filled with books, out of season bedding, spare bed, shed stuff, ). They took it to their depot and stored it for 48 hours. They then came back on moving day around 8am and were packed by 11am. Worth every penny!

We moved from 2 bedroom house and the day before the move they swept through and packed everything except beds and toothbrushes, basically (they also packed the kettle by mistake and had to fish that out of the lorry when I offered them a cup of tea and then realised the kettle had vanished). Day 2 they turned up and packed the last of it, drove ten minutes down the road as soon as we had completed and then spent all day unloading the van and carrying the furniture in (we unpacked the boxes they had packed). No way would I try and pack up my own house unless I had absolutely no alternative!

I must be weird because I like doing the packing and use it as a chance to have a clear out, so I start ages before the move. I’ve done 6 moves so far, 7th incoming!

We have only needed 1 day for local moves.

Next move will be at the end of our divorce, can’t see a packing service being any use for that as they won’t know what's for which house. So I’m expecting to do it myself again.

2 days might be excessive for no packing, but it’s hard to tell.

Our moves (mostly long distance, between 150-200 miles) have taken between two and four days, using professional movers.

We prefer to do our own packing as we have a fair number of fragile/valuable items that are pretty much irreplaceable.

Having moved eight times now, we're pretty organised and get majority done - allowing us to clear any crap along the way - in the couple of weeks between exchange and completion. That way we're not beginning the packing process at the last minute.

That said, we have historically had lot of stuff (at a previous six bed, 3500 sq ft house we had seven sofas 🙄), although we've downsized massively over the past couple of moves.

Back in 2014, moving from a 2500 sq ft, five bed to a 2000 sq ft four bed house, our professional movers took three days to load everything/drive to new location 150 miles away and one full day (got keys at 11am and they worked till 7pm) on day 4.

Have moved many times - military - it’s always taken two days no matter how far or near we’re moving. One to pack and load most of it. The second to get it to the new house and unload. Two days of about 9am to 4-5pm. On longer moves they've loaded everything on day 1 and driven it closer to the new house and we’ve hotel-ed overnight en route. I was never brave enough to ask where exactly the lorry was overnight!

Always get the packers!! Per pound spent I think it’s the best value for money around.

Three days here- Day 1 packing, Day two loading and driving (140 miles). Overnight stay then waiting for keys and offloading. A lot depends on the size of the crew for the pack and whether you have lots of items that need particular care, a piano etc.

I’m really surprised by these answers. We have always done it in a day. Including from a six bed.

we’ve once used a packing service - they came for a day a few days before the move to box everything up. But the move itself was done all on one day.

We had a cracker. No chain as we were cash purchasers. The Bank systems went down on the day we moved and we were v v lucky the money actually went through at 4.30ish. The movers were brilliant and the lads unpacked, finishing at about 8.30pm. They sunbathed all afternoon. They stayed because DH tipped bribed them handsomely.

We had an hotel booked for moving night in any event. It was a godsend.

I'm not surprised at the suggestion that American movers are a lot better than movers elsewhere. To me (living in the US) it seems ridiculous thst the company wouldn't want to 'exhaust' the movers - are they not used to carrying furniture?

My DS and his friends moved me out of a four bed house into a second floor apartment over a decade ago - they were seniors in high school, and it took two days and lots of back and forth with a van. We had bed frames, mattresses, box springs, a heavy sleeper couch, hundreds of books, bookshelves, armchairs, china, glassware, kitchen appliances, boxes and boxes of clothes and shoes, two area rugs, pots and pans, half a dozen chests of drawers, coffee table, art, Christmas decorations, a large Victorian sideboard, microwave, TVs, dining table and chairs, kitchen table and chairs, plants, toys, console, lamps, window AC units, fans, everything from my pantry and fridge, bedding, and much more.

That is wild IMO. We moved a 4 bed, North to SE London and our movers did it in a day. We packed a load of it ourselves but they also dismantled and re-assembled a load of our furniture etc. We used Happy2Move (who I highly recommend BTW). Which company said this?

I've had 5 bedroom houses moved in both tje US and the UK. Both took 2 days. The Americans worked faster and harder and did a much better job, but expected a much much bigger tip which I was more than happy to provide.