House removals · Croydon
House removals in Croydon, where the volume is the problem rather than the access
House removals in Croydon turn on volume rather than access. A 1930s semi in Shirley, or a detached house towards Sanderstead, normally has a driveway or a front path, so the van gets close and the carry is short. What catches people out is the quantity. People estimate from the rooms they live in and forget the three rooms they store things in: the garage, the loft and the shed. Behind all three sit decades of accumulation, and a garden with its own furniture and tools. So the survey here is a volume exercise rather than an access exercise.
Written by Daniel, founder, Metro City Moves
Usual job
A semi or a detached house, van on the drive
Decides the plan
The loft, the garage and the shed
Quote
In writing, after a survey
What is different here
House removals in Croydon is its own job
What changes the plan and the price here, rather than a list that would fit any London postcode.
The rooms you live in are not the rooms that fill the van
Ask a household in Purley or Coulsdon how much there is to move, and the answer describes the lounge, the kitchen and the bedrooms. Those rooms are tidy, so they are easy to picture. The garage, the loft and the shed are neither, and between them they frequently hold as much again. A garage accumulates bicycles, tools, tins of paint, a chest freezer and boxes nobody unpacked after the previous move. A loft accumulates suitcases, baby equipment and the Christmas decorations. A shed takes whatever the garage refused. None of it is visible from the hallway, which is why a bedroom count is close to meaningless here. We ask to see all three at the survey, and we ask you to open them beforehand.
The loft and the garage decide the van size and the crew
Out here the survey is a measuring job rather than a route-finding one. The question is not how a wardrobe leaves the bedroom. It is whether the load travels on one vehicle or two, and how many people it takes to fill them inside a working day. So the loft hatch, the ladder and whether the boarding reaches the eaves all matter, because together they decide how long emptying a loft takes. A separate garage at the end of a block is a longer carry than the whole house. Underestimate either and the day finishes with a second trip, which is precisely what a survey exists to prevent.
A driveway only helps if it is clear when we arrive
A drive gives you the shortest carry available, and in Shirley, Selsdon and Kenley it is the ordinary arrangement. It also belongs to you, so clearing it is your job rather than ours. Both cars want moving the evening before, rather than while a crew stands waiting. The bins want pulling back off the frontage. The side gate wants unlocking, because garden furniture and the contents of the shed come out that way instead of through the hall. Branches over the entrance matter as well, since a Luton stands considerably taller than the car that uses the drive every day. We settle all of it at the survey.
Upsizing out of inner London, or downsizing inside the borough
The job we run most often in Croydon is a family leaving a flat in inner London for a house with a garden. They arrive with more space than contents, so the work moves to the unloading end. That wants a room plan, so boxes land where they belong, and a decision about the garage before it quietly becomes the destination for everything undecided. The opposite pattern downsizes into something smaller inside the borough, and there the contents defeat the house. Those decisions belong before the day rather than on the driveway, because what travels, what goes into storage and what is let go are three separate answers.
Where this applies
The parts of Croydon this page is about
Named, because a page about an area in general is no use to anyone standing in one. These are the places where what is written above is what we actually find.
- Shirley
- Sanderstead
- Purley
- Coulsdon
- Selsdon
- Kenley
- Before you fix a date
- Open the loft before the survey and photograph it, including the hatch, the ladder and whether the boarding reaches the eaves.
- Treat the garage as a room and show it to us full, including whatever is stacked behind the door and along the walls.
- List what is leaving the garden: the furniture, the planters, a trampoline, the mower, the barbecue.
- Move both cars off the drive the evening before, pull the bins back, and leave the side gate unlocked.
- Decide what happens to petrol, gas cylinders and paint, because none of it travels on the van alongside your furniture.
Questions
House removals in Croydon, answered
- Our loft and garage are full. Does that change the quote?
- More than the number of bedrooms does. Volume decides the van size and the crew size, and those are the two things that genuinely move a price. It is also why we want the loft hatch open and the garage door up during the survey, instead of taking a description over the telephone.
- Do we have to empty the loft ourselves?
- No, although it helps considerably if everything up there is reachable. We bring a loft down where the hatch and the ladder are sound and the boarding is safe to stand on. Where it is not, we say so at the survey and plan around it, so the additional time sits inside the written price rather than appearing on the morning.
- We are moving from an inner London flat into a house in Croydon. How is that handled?
- As one job with two ends that pull in opposite directions. The flat sets the access problem and the house sets the placement problem, so both ends get surveyed. Send a room plan for the new address, including which boxes belong in the garage, and the crew works to it instead of asking you repeatedly.
- What decides the cost of a house move in Croydon?
- The volume, and the crew that volume requires, considerably more than the mileage between the two addresses. The loft, the garage, the shed and the garden are where the volume hides, which is why all four are surveyed. We survey before we quote, the quote comes in writing, and the number you accept is the number you pay.
Keep reading
Everything else on house removals and on Croydon
House removals elsewhere in London
What people say
Reviews left by people we have moved
Left on our Google profile. Every card links back to it, so you can read the rest — including any we would rather you did not.
Good experience with Metro City Moves. 4 bedroom house seemed bit difficult to move from London to Liverpool, but they planned well and successfully executed. Thank you.
Saqib AwanRead on Google, opens in a new tab
Get started
Tell us where you are moving from
Send a postcode and we will come back to arrange the survey, which we can do on a video call.
What you get before you commit
- A survey first, by video call or in person, so the price is built on what is actually there.
- The quote in writing, listing what is included and what is not, so both sides read the same list.
- Anything you add before you accept is priced into the quote you sign off.
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