Plenty of people worry about their belongings getting damaged in the course of moving house. Some wooden furniture can be very expensive and obviously you don’t want it scratched. You also don’t need a big crack across the front of your flatscreen TV and you really don’t need someone putting a foot through that large, valuable painting that means a lot to you.
Here at Philip Marks Removals we take great pride in our consistent delivery of first class removals and especially in our record of moving high value items safely and carefully. We’ve got 2 aces up our sleeve that help us guarantee a high level of service. Firstly, we have an established team of people who are very good at what they do. We’ve been moving people in and around Kent and all over the UK for more than 20 years and our guys really do know this work inside and out.
Secondly, and this is what the following article is primarily about, we have got all of the necessary equipment that a company really needs in order to deliver a top notch removal. So, let’s have a look at some of our vehicles and the stuff that we’ve got on the back of them that’s going to be protecting your household goods and helping to get them to your new home, safe and sound.
Some people make the decision to hire their own vehicle and do their own removal. And to be fair, if you haven’t got that much stuff it might not be a bad idea.
It is surprising though that even if you have not got that much to move, it can be quite awkward loading it onto a hire vehicle in a way that ensures it’s all going to arrive at your new home in one piece.
Something that all of our vehicles have in common is that on the inside they are all fitted out with horizontal rails that run the length of the body. These rails are positioned at various heights.
What this allows us to do then is tie furniture securely to the inner walls of the vehicle in question, ensuring that it can’t slide around or fall over. So if we have to move say, a 2.5 metre tall X 1.5 metre wide cabinet/ bookcase what we would do is wrap the item in blankets, push it up against the inner wall of the lorry/ van and then using very strong straps (designed solely for this job) we would tie it to two of the inner rails (1 at 1 metre off of the floor and the other at 2 metres off of the floor. So now the item in question cannot slide in any direction, it cannot fall over and because it’s wrapped in blankets it will not be scratched by any other item that is adjacent to it.
The blankets I just referred to are proper transit blankets, they are quite thick and although soft they are also very tough. They really are the best covering and protection for all types of furniture.
I don’t wish to plough into too much detail about loading lorries here but there really is an art to it. Our teams of guys make it look easy because they’ve been doing it a long time. So, a good team + the correct type and size of vehicle really is what you want when removals day finally comes around and fortunately Philip Marks Removals can provide you with both!
All of our vehicles have a super sturdy wooden crate on them that’s securely tied off inside the vehicle. So what we do with large flatscreen TVs is lower them in to this crate and then carefully wrap transit blankets all around it to keep it super secure. These crates are wide enough that we can usually put other vulnerable items inside with the TV as well. So perhaps some pictures and/ or mirrors can go in with the TV, all blanket wrapped and safe and snug.
Some customers might have 3 or 4 TVs and lots of pictures and mirrors in which case we’ll put the most valuable items in the crate and what’s left outside of it we’ll wrap in blankets which we then shrink wrap into place so that the protection stays in place.
And here’s where an experienced team really matters because what our guys will do, typically, with mirrors and pictures that won’t go in the crate is position them between 2 mattresses that are going to get tied off to the side of the vehicle. Now the fragile items are not going to shift in transit and nothing else is going to come in contact with them either.
All of this is tried and tested and it just works, simple as that!
We have very sturdy quilted bags that are sofa and armchair shaped. Typically we’ll need to remove the feet from any sofa that we move so once that’s done we then pick the item up and lower it into a correctly sized bag. This then gets zipped up and now we can manoeuvre these items through doorways without fear of scraping or tearing them.
Some items of soft furniture won’t fit inside a bag so in these cases what we do is wrap multiple transit blankets around them and shrink wrap them in place so that they stay put.
Whenever we move a mattress we always put them into mattress bags. It’s quite difficult to get a mattress (especially a King size) out of a house and onto a lorry without putting it down on the ground at odd moments. So having these items bagged up is an absolute must, no-one wants to sleep on a mattress that’s got a big dirty mark on it.
Nobody wants to sleep on a wet mattress either so if it’s raining on removals day then mattress bags really are a no-brainer.
Any removal that we attend to we always ensure that we have enough hanging wardrobe boxes on our vehicles so that whatever clothing you, the customer, have on hangers, in your wardrobes, we can transfer straight into our boxes. This ensures that all of your hanging garments will arrive at your new home without getting all creased up and wrinkled.
It just takes one little bit of hassle out of the removal and if you look at what you’ve got hanging up in your wardrobes, and then imagine trying to get all that clothing out and stuffed into suitcases and holdalls, well, you see what I mean.
We love stretchwrap!
We have big industrial sized rolls of this stuff as it’s so useful. For example, it’s all well and good wrapping large items of furniture in transit blankets but how do you keep them from falling off? Go around them with stretchwrap a few times is the answer.
It’s also super useful for wrapping around display cabinets so as to prevent the doors opening at inopportune moments. Incidentally, sometimes people think it’s a good idea to wrap parcel tape around cabinets for the same reason but this is best avoided. It’s a devil of a job to get parcel tape off of things and the glue on it can leave a lasting mark on anything it touches so best not to do this.
There seems to be an enduring myth that if you dismantle a bed the best thing to do with the bolts, screws and other fixtures and fittings is to pop them in a sandwich bag and tape this to some part of the bed. Not a good idea, sandwich bags are lame and when that tears open and half the screws vanish down a drain it’s going to be a real problem come reassembly time!
By far the best thing to do with these bits is wrap them up in a bundle of shrinkwrap and then shrinkwrap this bundle to one of the legs of the bed, going around and around it several times. This is not going to tear open. This is not going to fall off. This is the most secure way to ensure nothing gets lost. We do this on every removal we do, tried and tested, time and again.
Having mentioned disassembly of a bed I’ll take this opportunity to point out that all of our vehicles have extensive toolkits onboard.
Sometimes a client might not realise that although their large dining table was carried into their new home through the patio doors at the back with the legs on it’s not going to go into their new home the same way because there’s no patio doors at the new place/ there are patio doors but they’re smaller/ the side entrance to the back garden is very narrow etc etc.
No problemo!
We are going to flip the table over onto a transit blanket. Use whatever socket wrench/ allen key/ screwdriver is required to get the legs off. Then we’re going to shrinkwrap blankets around the table top, wrap the legs in blankets and shrinkwrap that bundle and finally we’re going to shrinkwrap the bolts/ screws to that bundle to guarantee they don’t get misplaced.
We’ve always got tools available (and people who know how to use them) so that we can work around issues like these.
We always have carpet protector with us. If a client is moving to a new home that has just been fitted out with brand new carpets then they don’t want our guys treading a load of dirt onto them.
Obviously we are always really respectful when we enter a person's new home but sometimes It can be a bit tricky avoiding treading dirt into the property, say for example if it’s been raining heavily on removals day?
The solution to this issue is carpet protector. It’s a big roll of sturdy plastic stuff that has a harmless glue on the back of it (kind of like the glue on the back of post it notes). We roll this out over the carpet runs where our guys are going to be walking and once the removal is complete it’s up to the client to pull it all up and throw it away. (If it keeps raining you may want to leave it down for awhile if you’ve got stuff you want to do outside as you organise your new life in your new home.
Something to bear in mind is that carpet protector does cost 75p/ metre, so if you have a large home, fully carpeted, then it is going to end up costing you some money. However if you’ve got thousands of pounds worth of new carpet throughout your new home then it probably is worth that minor additional expense.
We have an array of different sack barrows that can come in really handy for differing types of removals. Say if a person has a lot of boxes of books and a long, flat driveway then a sack barrow would be perfect for wheeling them all up to the dwelling.
We have skates, again if it’s a long, flat walk to the door of the new home then trundling larger items along on a skate makes a lot more sense than carrying it.
We also have a piano trolley, ideal for moving any type of upright piano. (A grand piano would require a one off plan for moving.)
So hopefully reading the above has shown you, as a potential customer, of us here at Philip Marks Removals (or any other professional outfit you might want to do your removal) that part of what you’re paying the professional for is the fact that they’ve got the people, the vehicles and the special equipment needed in order to facilitate a smooth, safe and successful move into your new home.
Good luck and all the best from Barry, here at Philip Marks Removals!