Flats & apartments
Flats, and the buildings around them
In a house the furniture sets the plan. In a flat the building does — the porter, the lift, the permitted window and whether a vehicle may stand on the parade at all.
Three kinds of Pinner flat
Mansion blocks. Interwar, handsome, and run properly — which means a porter to speak to, a lift that may need booking and occasionally a permitted loading window. Predictable once arranged; awkward if nobody arranged anything.
Above the parades. Around the station and at Rayners Lane. Access is usually a side door and a straight steep flight, and the loading question is decided by the traffic rather than the building.
The newer buildings. Lifts, bays, and a management company with a booking system. The easiest flats in HA5 to move, provided the booking exists before the day.
What to arrange before we arrive
- The lift, if it needs booking — the building will usually only speak to a resident
- The loading window, where the block sets one
- Any protection the building requires on the lift or communal floors
- Somewhere for the vehicle to stand, and for how long
- The same four things at the other end
When the lift is smaller than the sofa
It happens regularly in interwar blocks, where lifts were built for people rather than furniture. The answers are dismantling, the stairs, or occasionally leaving a piece behind — and all three are better discussed at survey than in a lobby with a porter watching.
Downsizing into a flat
A good share of the flat moves we do in Pinner are people leaving a family house for something smaller and better run. That usually means more furniture than the new place can take, and a decision about what goes into storage while the family works out who wants what.
We would rather build that into the quote from the start than add it halfway through a loading day.
Worth knowing
Flat moves, before you book
Do mansion blocks need anything arranged?
Usually yes — a porter to speak to, a lift to book and sometimes a permitted loading window. The building will generally only deal with a resident, so tell us what you have arranged and we will work to it.
Is there a lift, and does it matter?
It matters more than the floor number. A lift built for people rather than furniture changes what can go up in one piece, and a stair carry changes the crew size. Both belong on the quote.
Can you load on the parade at Rayners Lane?
With planning. The traffic decides the window rather than the building does, so we pick a time and work to it rather than arriving and hoping.
Do you move from flats above shops?
Regularly. Access is often a side door and a straight steep flight, which is fine as long as everybody knows in advance what will and will not go up it.
Is a studio too small a job?
No — that is a man-and-van booking rather than a removal, and it is priced accordingly.
Send the block name and the floor.
Between those two we can usually tell you what the access looks like, and what needs booking, before anybody visits.