Moving out of a warehouse conversion
Marrickville's factories became apartments without becoming ordinary. The ceilings stayed high, the lifts stayed industrial, and the furniture grew to fit. Here is the order we solve a conversion move in, and why the order matters.
First: the lift, and what it really is
The word "lift" covers three different moves. A working freight lift means big pieces travel whole and the day runs fast. A passenger lift means everything gets measured against a smaller box, and some pieces take the stairs anyway. No lift, or a decommissioned freight lift, means the whole move is a stair job, and the estimate needs to know that before anyone books a date.
Find out which you have, and whether the building requires the lift to be padded and booked. Buildings with an active strata usually publish a move-in and move-out procedure; ask the building manager for it early, because the lift booking is often the only thing on the critical path.
Second: the pieces that came in before the walls
Conversions swallow furniture. Three-metre couches, full workshop benches, wardrobes assembled inside the room. Some of it came up in the freight lift years ago; some came in through a window opening during the original fit-out. Walk the flat with a tape measure and list anything wider than the narrowest point it must pass through on the way out. That list is the difference between a plan and a surprise.
If a piece needed the window to come in, it needs a plan to go out. Sometimes that plan is disassembly, sometimes it is the stairs with padding and patience. We would rather measure twice on the phone than improvise at hour three of billed time.
Third: the mezzanine
Anything living on a mezzanine reached by a ladder or an open stair moves first, before the floor below fills with wrapped furniture. It is slow, careful work with two movers on every carry, and it is much easier at nine in the morning than at four in the afternoon. We schedule it first on purpose.
Fourth: strata rules and the paperwork
Converted buildings often carry strict move windows, common-property protection requirements and sometimes a bond. None of it is a problem when it is known in advance; all of it is a problem discovered on the day. Tell us what your building requires in the enquiry and we will work inside it, including the insurance paperwork building managers commonly ask a removalist to provide.
Fifth: the truck
Old industrial streets are better for trucks than terrace streets, and many conversions keep a dock or hardstand. But docks have their own bookings and height limits. We confirm the truck's spot the same way we confirm the lift: before the day, in writing where the building requires it. Our Inner West parking guide covers the street side of that question.
What the crew looks like
A full warehouse floor usually runs as 4 movers + 2 trucks at $500 an hour, because two trucks keep the freight lift working continuously instead of waiting on a round trip. A smaller loft runs happily as 3 movers + 1 truck at $350. Rates are hourly, published on our rate board, and the estimate we give on the phone accounts for the lift, the stairs and the list of oversized pieces, so the day holds no surprises.
Tell us about the move
Rooms, stairs, the piano, the plants. Send it through the form and we phone you back with a straight answer on crew, truck and rate.