How do I measure the turn?

Stand on the half-landing, measure the clear diagonal from the inside corner to the furthest opposite point, and allow for the handrail. Send us that and your longest rigid item.

Is a walk-up much more than a lift job?

It is a different job rather than a surcharge. More crew, more time, and a quotation that says so rather than absorbing it and overrunning.

Does the floor number matter or just the stairs?

Both, but the turn matters most. A wide straight flight to the fourth floor beats a tight turn to the second for almost everything large.

Do you protect the communal staircase?

Always. In a converted house the decoration is usually the freeholder's responsibility recharged to leaseholders, so damage there is a collective bill.

What if the sofa will not go down?

Established at the enquiry rather than on the landing. The options are a window with an external lift, dismantling if it comes apart, or leaving it — and you decide, in advance.

Can we carry some of it to help?

We would rather you did not. It is our insurance and our technique, and extra untrained hands on a staircase makes it slower and riskier.

The building · STAIRS

There is no lift

A fourth-floor walk-up and a fourth floor with a lift are not the same job with more steps. They are different jobs, crewed and quoted differently, and the thing that decides both is a measurement almost nobody has taken.

It is not the width of the staircase. It is the clear diagonal at the turn.

What a walk-up job involves

The turn measured The clear diagonal, allowing for the handrail. The number that decides it.

Crew sized for stairs Not for the volume. Stairs are a crew question rather than a van question.

Stair protection Runners on treads, covers on the handrail and guards on the corners.

A route rehearsed Worked out with the largest item before the first one is lifted.

Rest sequencing Heaviest first while everybody is fresh, which sounds obvious and often is not done.

A window plan Where something genuinely will not go down, and it has to be known in advance.

Measure the turn, not the flight

The width of a staircase tells you very little. What stops furniture is the half-landing: the clear diagonal from the inside corner to the furthest opposite point, with the handrail eating into it.

That number, set against the longest rigid dimension of your largest piece, answers the question weeks before anybody is standing on a landing with a sofa at an angle. It takes a tape and two minutes.

Why the crew is sized differently

On a ground-floor job the constraint is how much there is. On a fourth-floor walk-up it is how many times somebody has to climb four flights, and that is a limit on people rather than on vehicle space.

A crew sized from the volume alone will do a walk-up slowly and finish tired. We size it from the stairs, and the quotation says why.

Victorian conversions are the London case

Terraced houses divided into flats, which is the commonest address in inner London, put a communal staircase with a turn in it between your flat and the street. It is nobody's staircase and everybody's responsibility, and in most leases the decoration is recharged to the leaseholders.

So protection goes down as standard: runners on the treads, covers on the handrail, guards at the corners. Marked communal walls are the most common complaint against a van service and very nearly all of it is avoidable.

When it genuinely will not go

Occasionally the numbers do not work and no amount of angling will help. The answer is a window and an external lift, or the item does not come — and either way it is established before the day rather than at the top of four flights.

There is no lift

Questions about there is no lift

How do I measure the turn?: Stand on the half-landing, measure the clear diagonal from the inside corner to the furthest opposite point, and allow for the handrail. Send us that and your longest rigid item.
Is a walk-up much more than a lift job?: It is a different job rather than a surcharge. More crew, more time, and a quotation that says so rather than absorbing it and overrunning.
Does the floor number matter or just the stairs?: Both, but the turn matters most. A wide straight flight to the fourth floor beats a tight turn to the second for almost everything large.
Do you protect the communal staircase?: Always. In a converted house the decoration is usually the freeholder's responsibility recharged to leaseholders, so damage there is a collective bill.
What if the sofa will not go down?: Established at the enquiry rather than on the landing. The options are a window with an external lift, dismantling if it comes apart, or leaving it — and you decide, in advance.
Can we carry some of it to help?: We would rather you did not. It is our insurance and our technique, and extra untrained hands on a staircase makes it slower and riskier.

What is the awkward bit?

Both addresses, what the item is, and the one thing about the job that is difficult. A photograph beats any description.

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