The terrace move, done properly
A Victorian terrace was designed around a horse, a cart and furniture that came flat off a dray. Your couch was not consulted. Moving out of one is mostly geometry, and geometry rewards preparation.
The three narrow points
Nearly every terrace carry is decided at three places: the front-door turn (often straight off the street with a step and a low lintel), the hallway (a metre wide if you are lucky, with a skirting-height gas meter waiting for an ankle), and the stair turn, where the winders cut the usable width just as the ceiling drops. Measure your biggest pieces against those three points and you know your move's shape before anyone quotes it.
What actually helps
- Measure the big five. Couch, bed base, wardrobe, fridge, washing machine. Width, depth and the diagonal, because the diagonal is what turns a corner.
- Feet off, doors off. Ten minutes with an Allen key buys ten centimetres, and ten centimetres is usually the whole game. We bring the tools and do this as part of the job.
- Check the back lane. Many Marrickville terraces back onto a laneway with a gate. For a wide piece, out the back and around can beat the hallway entirely. Tell us if you have one.
- Clear the hall completely. Bikes, prams, the shoe pile. An empty hallway is the cheapest speed upgrade a terrace move has.
- Plan the kerb. Terrace streets are narrow and permit-zoned. Our parking guide covers holding a spot legally.
Queen and king bed bases are the usual stair casualties. Most split or stand on end with practice; the ones that will not are known in advance because we asked for the measurements. Nothing about a staircase should be discovered while holding furniture.
The crew that suits a terrace
Two to three bedrooms runs best with 3 movers + 1 truck at $350 an hour: one wrapping ahead of the carry, two on the furniture, and the truck packed so the load never shifts. Smaller cottages can suit 2 movers + 1 truck at $250. Billing is hourly, so everything in this guide is really about one thing: making the hours honest and few.
Settling in on the other side
Label boxes by the room they are going TO, not the room they came from. Terrace rooms are small and alike; a box labelled "front bedroom, new place" lands right the first time, and the unload runs at twice the pace of a pile of mystery boxes in the hall.
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.