What do removal companies do

hungrypig

It is likely that we will be moving soon. We have 4 young children so there will be a lot to move. The house we are moving to is 5 minutes away. I’ve never used a removal service before. What exactly do they do ? Do they do any packing or is it just moving. What are the typical costs ?Any advice appreciated and thanks in advance

Carlos Orange

I moved 2 years ago and it cost about €300. Boxes were extra but it only added about €20. The rest was charged by the hour. I had packed some stuff myself so that probably helped. That is for a single guy moving from a rental so not much in the way of furniture. I have quite a lot of stuff I think but obviously 4 kids and 2 adults will probably have more. The guys I used were fine and I would use them again. Not sure if we are allowed to recommend companies here so pm me if you want their name. They will drop over and give no obligation quotes. I'm sure most removal companies will.

rameire

there are a good few different companies and they all do different things.
some will only move what you have boxed already but will take all large items that you obviously cant box up.
they will then place the new boxes into the new location, without unboxing, but will place the boxes in the desired location.

others will provide the full service which is box rap pack and move and unpack.

others will also provide the above with a storage service incase you cant move straight away.

there are others that will provide plastic crates for you to place all your items into.

cost vary widely from a few hundred to thousands depending on what you want.

my 3 bed house move was about 900 for moving boxes and large items and dismantling large items and reassembling again in new location.

catrionanic

We recently paid €500 to move from a small 2 bed terrace across Dublin. We did our own packing and unpacking and had very little furniture (just a sofa, tv table, cot and a double mattress). They stored the stuff for 4 nights for us though because there were a few days between the sale and purchase completing.

Doolittle51

Moving companies seem to charge by the hour, so they will give you a quote based on how long they think it will take. The more packing you do yourself, the less it will cost you overall. Hourly rates for Dublin are in excess of €100. I got quotes recently in excess of €1600 for moving the contents of a 3 bedroom apartment to a house. Quote was for moving all my stuff into storage and from storage into the new house, so essentially 2 moves. Storage costs were extra.
I ended up doing it myself. Storage unit for a month was about €300. Van rental about the same, and the van came in handy for a few other bulky things I wanted to buy for the new place.

mikemac2

Since it’s not a long distance maybe you can do some of it yourself if you like. You could do it in stages

https://www.gocar.ie/

They are not all around Ireland but may be in your area. They have vans to rent and that’s how I did my move and saved a lot

More for a single person than a family though which I’m aware is you OP

comuirch

We've just been through this a few weeks ago. Moving from a choc-a-block 3-bed (lots of furniture and contents) to a house about 5 minutes up the road. We wanted packing, and dis-assembly/reassembly of furniture at the new house. Quotes varies wildly (we got 4). The first two quotes were from two of the more well known names (that come top of the google search list). These came in at €2,600 and €2,100. We also got a quote from another company (proper moving company, fully registered, and insured) and their quote for the same work came in at €950. Needless to say, we went with the €950 quote. On the whole we were very pleased with the service. They did knock a few chunks out of the walls at the house we were moving from (without telling us), but the team were very nice and worked their a*ses off. Overall, great value. At the same time, my mother in law used one of the well known names above (the one that quoted us €2,600). It was a much smaller job, but she wasn't thrilled with the service provided. A number of things were broken, and the team were a bit rough....

Happy to provide details by PM, but on the whole just make sure you get a number of quotes and play them off against each other. Huge scope for negotiation in price. In my experience they tend to chance their arm unless you tell them you have a quote at a certain level. They seem to ask for evidence of the quotes if you try to haggle, so be prepared for this.

hungrypig

Thank you all for your responses, that gives me a much better idea. I'd appreciate any pms of recommended companies

fjon

I moved last week. I had a lot of stuff (2 adults 2 kids), about 90% of which we had boxed ourselves.
I paid two guys and a van to move it and it took them 5 hours or so, with very little driving between houses.
They initially quoted me €120, but I gave them €150. Even then I think it was a bargain.
I tried anyvan.ie where you can get different quotes and the cheapest I got there was about 500

C3PO

fjon wrote: »

I paid two guys and a van to move it and it took them 5 hours or so, with very little driving between houses.
They initially quoted me €120, but I gave them €150. Even then I think it was a bargain.

€30 an hour for 2 men and a van .... they need their heads examined!

fjon

C3PO wrote: »

€30 an hour for 2 men and a van .... they need their heads examined!

They definitely underestimated the job.

BailMeOut

The more packing you do the cheaper it will be.

We have moved a lot over last 10 years and have used a local removal company and we always do the the packing so the company only moves boxed and furniture. We then unbox/unpack at other end and the removal company will put all the furniture where it needs to be.

They come in before the move, take a look at what you have and give you a quote.

They also provide boxes and packing materials but this is usually cheap. We always get lots of 'chip paper' which is brillant (and cheap) for packing everything.

Call around and get some quotes.

hungrypig

That’s very cheap , another option worth considering , thanks

CosmicFool

If it's only 5 mins away would it not be worth renting a large commercial van? Depending on the company could be anywhere from €50 - €70 a day.

Baybay

We moved house just over a year ago. Our buyers made things a bit messy so we ended up moving out of our house fairly speedily but were then unable to complete our purchase, again due to buyer complication.
All of this meant that we needed a moving company at shortish notice so they came first day & packed all house contents in boxes they provided. Each box had what room it came from written on it plus say, pictures or books etc. Three men, six hours. Large four bedroomed house, three reception rooms etc with stuff for four people.
The next day, the day buyers proposed for completion, five men spent about four hours disassembling items & loading one large truck & one van.
A number of days later having had to unload their vehicles, store our house contents & then reload for delivery to our new house due to our buyers delay, six men reassembled items & placed boxes in appropriate rooms based on what was written on them in the old house. This worked quite well & took maybe four hours.
They also came back on two occasions to collect the flattened boxes, 132 of them, once emptied.

This came in at €1,800 with which we were happy.

Graces7

hungrypig wrote: »

That’s very cheap , another option worth considering , thanks

With that short distance, "man with a van" is a good option. google and get a few quotes? when I came up here. some companies wanted eg E600. The one I used cost E120 and did a grand job.

April 73

We moved from a 4 bed house to another similar house 1km away a few years ago. The distance is really irrelevant.
We used a moving company that packed literally everything for us down to cups & plates & everything in wardrobes, kitchen cupboards etc the day before the move. On the day of the move they packed up the van, hung around until 5.30 when we finally got keys & brought everything to the new house & put everything in the correct rooms. They broke the glass on one picture & had it back to us within the week with the glass replaced.
We had messed them around with dates several times as the closing date was difficult in the chain we were in. They were super accommodating.
Forget the man with the van option - nightmare for a big house. We moved ourselves with a hired van & friends ten years ago. It took an entire weekend & was hell! The €1500 I paid last time to the moving company was worth every cent. I’ll pm you the name of the company.

hungrypig

Thanks, that's a huge amount of work for that. I also did it with a borrowed van 12 years ago and husband said never again 😕

April 73 wrote: »

We moved from a 4 bed house to another similar house 1km away a few years ago. The distance is really irrelevant.
We used a moving company that packed literally everything for us down to cups & plates & everything in wardrobes, kitchen cupboards etc the day before the move. On the day of the move they packed up the van, hung around until 5.30 when we finally got keys & brought everything to the new house & put everything in the correct rooms. They broke the glass on one picture & had it back to us within the week with the glass replaced.
We had messed them around with dates several times as the closing date was difficult in the chain we were in. They were super accommodating.
Forget the man with the van option - nightmare for a big house. We moved ourselves with a hired van & friends ten years ago. It took an entire weekend & was hell! The €1500 I paid last time to the moving company was worth every cent. I’ll pm you the name of the company.

E. Fudd

April 73 wrote: »

We moved from a 4 bed house to another similar house 1km away a few years ago. The distance is really irrelevant.
We used a moving company that packed literally everything for us down to cups & plates & everything in wardrobes, kitchen cupboards etc the day before the move. On the day of the move they packed up the van, hung around until 5.30 when we finally got keys & brought everything to the new house & put everything in the correct rooms. They broke the glass on one picture & had it back to us within the week with the glass replaced.
We had messed them around with dates several times as the closing date was difficult in the chain we were in. They were super accommodating.
Forget the man with the van option - nightmare for a big house. We moved ourselves with a hired van & friends ten years ago. It took an entire weekend & was hell! The €1500 I paid last time to the moving company was worth every cent. I’ll pm you the name of the company.

Hi, could you please pm me the name of the company? Looking for a good removals company. Thanks.

Assetbacked

I moved stuff yesterday. A man with a van, he dropped over cardboard boxes a few days ago and we packed everything ourselves but he of course helped move everything onto the van and into the new house.

It was €1.85 per cardboard box (used 15) and €80 for him and the van. It only took an hour as the two houses weren't far apart but the hassle of moving completely dissipated by using him. It's never been so easy to move.

riclad

In theory they move all your stuff, furniture , tv,s ,pc,s clothe,s ,
fridge ,delicate items, like pictures, antiques etc
from location a to location b without damaging it.
My advice is put everything in large boxe,s .delicate items in 2 box,s
wrapped in paper , or tiles .
put labels on all box,s .
Have 1 box with kettle ,cups , tea,coffee ,in it .
Put the most delicate items in last with large label,s
this way up, delicate item, near the rear of the truck ,at floor level.
Put tv,s ,monitors in 1 box, wrapped in paper , with towels in between.
cover lcd screens in paper ,.taped over, to prevent random scratch,s .
Do not trust any mover,
all glass ,cups, tv,s must be wrapped with 3-4 layers of paper .
if you have a car put your laptops ,tablets, chargers ,in one bag
or in a padded box.
in the boot lock the boot .
cos when you arrive at the new location ,
the mover will simply put down all the boxs in the room nearest the
front door .
Make sure the van is empty before it leaves the new location .
if you are paying 80 -100 euro
do not expect A1 service .Say mover is arriving at 1pm,

have everything packed away by 11pm or 12 pm .
There,s professional movers ,
who do this very day,
or just a man with a van,
who just moves anything from a to b.
i would pay at least 100 euro for a full van,
if its full all the way to the roof .
and 20 euro chip.
See adverts,ie services.
People who are very well off pay for a professional moving service,
who just move anything, furniture,fridge, beds etc
its like wine you can buy wine for 7 euro or 300 euro ,
depends on what you can afford.
If you have any old stuff you don,t really need ,or do not really like
furniture, tv,s , beds ,put an ad on adverts.ie free ,
or jumbletown.ie or give it to your local charity shop.
books, dvds etc
Makes it easier to move.
When i was moving i gave most of my furniture away,
i took 2 chairs , and 1 small coffee table .

Foxtrotter

hungrypig wrote: »

It is likely that we will be moving soon. We have 4 young children so there will be a lot to move. The house we are moving to is 5 minutes away. I’ve never used a removal service before. What exactly do they do ? Do they do any packing or is it just moving. What are the typical costs ?Any advice appreciated and thanks in advance

I'm sure you can find a "full service" moving company that can do that. It's a short distance so it shouldn't be too difficult to pin down. With 4 kids I imagine you've got a decent sized place with a fair amount of stuff so it might not be as cheap as you'd like, but still doable. In answer to what they do exactly, the website for <SNIP> explains it pretty well. What type of stuff did you need packed? If it's toys and so forth probably not a big deal (and I don't blame you as a parent myself!).

3DataModem

Would never ever consider doing this myself for a full house with kids.

Pay them to pack and move, and you can unpack yourself.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/109077656#Comment_109077656

I got similar for a normal 3 bed but they had grossly underestimated how much time it would be and essentially held a gun to my head on moving day looking for more money. If I didn't agree they were walking away. The 2 guys spent the whole day moaning about how crap their lives are aswell.

Wish I had done it myself.

You can rent storage for very cheap so I would recommend you move all non essentials before moving day to the storage and just move the last few items when needed.

riclad

i paid a guy 100 euro, drive van 4 miles,fill van,put stuff in, take stuff out, i took maybe 2 or 3 small chairs, the rest large boxs, but then i,m a single man.that was 5 years ago.driver on adverts ie.eg a family would probably have 10x boxs as i had plus furniture,tvs, fridge,beds, tables, etc

whomitconcerns

I've moved about 5 times.. And have a lot of stuff. Last move was over 100 boxes plus the big furniture. Cost 2k. But worth it. They packed everything but I had to unpack everything. It's a lot of stress and hassle...

bawnBeag

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/109079081#Comment_109079081

Hi comurich, could you PM the name and details of the moving company, thanks!

sheepondrugs

Moved a few years ago from a 2 bed apartment to a 3 bed house. the apartment was on the 3rd floor with no lift so everything had to be hauled down 6 flights of stairs. Got a moving company in and paid 950 euros. I also gave a decent tip as it was hard heavy work and the guys were sound. took about 5 hours all in . had packed all the boxes ourselves. We had about 45 boxes plus furniture .took all the stress away. (had previously moved and did all the work ourselves, took 2 days and was a total nightmare.)

pooley124

Ive moved three times, first two I used movers who completely wrecked my head , 3rd time I hired a van with a tail lift and did it myself. Much better.

Most of them work off an hourly rate and because of this , they will waste as much time as they can. I thought I'd just been unlucky the first time, but the second crowd were just as bad.

Just to give you some idea of the time wasting, when the truck pulled up outside the house it was a full 20mins before they set foot inside. They spent that time smoking , faffing about opening the doors of the truck, and folding blankets. Folding blankets is their favourite time wasting exercise I think, the second guys loved it as well.

One of the cushions from our sofa went missing as well, which rendered it pretty much useless.

Oh and they'll expect a tip as well!

Chris_5339762

Absolute rip off prices for what they do, but I guess thats the going rate thesedays.

Hire them for the big stuff - furniture etc. Do the rest yourself, its only a short drive. Give up one weekend to it and use the money you save on something extravagant.

Source: Me. 13 carloads. Worth it.