May 2012 has been an exteremely busy months so far fingers crossed .. started the week with a few big moves in north london and looking forward to the giant office removals in north london finchley.

We will have 12 men and three removals lorry 1200 cu ft each removing furniture and crates in between two collection points in East Finchley, and Finchley Central in north London to the clients new location also in Finchley, north London

Pretty wet this week but thanks to our carpet protetcion facilities we have managed to leave our clients carpets clean and dry

Yet another awkward item that was in desperate need of being moved. We had a very different call from a gentleman requesting a snooker table to be moved from 1st floor though a french window going to a storage unit in Vauxhall Bridge.     The customer explained how a previous company had tried to move the snooker table but couldn’t.

I left my office in Wembley at around 11pm.  I feed my monster dog and hit the North Circular Road. We were told that tonight was the wettest night in the last 100 years.    It was pouring like crazy, couldn’t even see 2 meters ahead of you. As usual I kept my phone on silent, simply because I hear it ringing none stop during the day, plus I was driving.  Anyway I was just heading through the Finchley area at around 11:30 pm when I saw the phone ringing with this 0208 landline number from sort of Barnet, Finchley area. In which I answered to this young lady, asking if I can move a piano for her right now!!!!

Let me be honest I am quite used to be called in the last minute when our cowboy friends failed to do a job but boy this one was meant to be the shock of my life.

She explained the guys took the piano down the stairs to the lower ground floor but since they were not qualified piano movers, they couldn’t turn it to get into the flat.  I asked her if there is anyone there who could give me a helping hand so I can tilt the piano on its end.  She said she is alone but she can call the guys to come back again.  One side of me was saying, come on, they have done well they took the piano up one flight of stairs.   They probably just needed a piano wheel to tilt the piano on its end or maybe they don’t really know they actually CAN tilt the piano on its end.  Anyway I promised the lady I would be there in 30 minutes providing one of the other guys was there to help, and then we should be able to get it in.

How much is it the lady asked? £50 I replied (You wouldn’t want to sound like a shark would you? let’s be fair)

I went back to Wembley to get the piano wheel and managed to arrive in the Barnet flat just before 1am. At the same time one of the heroes arrived swell.

When I checked the Situation out …  Oh my lord! I was speechless!! The piano had been slide down the straight flight of stairs to the basement without considering whether it would get a turn through the flat door or not, or whether it’s going down on the right angle or not.

They basically just let the piano slide down and land on its side on this concrete floor which was flooded by the time I got there.   (She was very pleased that the guys advised her to cover the piano till we get it in, She even told them thank you for that   .. )

The pianos keyboard was dented into the door frame and the back of it was stuck to this wall so she couldn’t even use the front door! Seriously this was one hell of a mess. I explained to her that there was nothing I could do as id need someone who knows what he is doing in order to get the piano up the stairs, then measure it and bring it down on the right angle again… And if after measuring it shows that doesn’t fit there is no point in using the stairs, as it will need to go through the window.   But again I wasn’t quite sure as to why she wanted that piano in her house????? The piano was already flooded in a major way.

So I walked out of the site and left the job in the hands of the pros…

Easter Weekend 2012 ; Moving a baby grand piano through the window

Last week we took over another house removals job for a lovely client of ours who initialy was only going to hire us for a Piano specialist move through the window.

Two weeks ago, Mrs. Kingsmill called our office to book a survey for her precious Baby Grand Piano to be taken down two flights of stairs through the living room window and delivered to Surrey.
I attended their property and realised they were in the middle of packing the house.   As usual i took the opportunity to convert a piano removal job to a complete house removal job and more, my favourite …..”STORAGE”

I explained to Mrs. Kingsmill that it would be a lot more straight forward and cost effective to hire one firm who is able to deal with both household moves and piano removals, and of course that would be us Mrs. Kingsmill made an instant decision on using Pers Removals for their house move as well as moving the piano through the window.

Once we were given the moving date, we informed our fantastic crane company Lee Lifting, and got a high reach crane booked for the big day.  On the big day the Baby Grand Piano was covered, disassembled and ready to be craned out of the second floor window.  Sleeves were carefuly placed around the Precious Piano making sure the balance is kept level while the 300kg beast is flying from the second floor.   I must admit this was one of the most exciting crane works i have personaly witnessed as it took 2 hours to get this right making sure the piano is taken off the second floor window with minimum swinging to avoid any knocks to the window edge or outside building.

Finally the flying giant landed on the floor with no damage or a single scratch and was sucsesfully delivered the week after to its new owner,  Mrs. Kingsmills sister in surrey.
The rest of the house was packed and stored in three containers and kept in our secure storage units until Mrs. Kingsmill’s new house is ready for them to move in.

Another successful house removal, and fantastic crane work!

An unusually Awkward ground to ground floor piano move

When we booked this Baby Grand Piano for removals from the ground floor house in Finchley at 10am and deliver to another ground floor house in Neasden we never thought this was going to be a HALF A DAY JOB!

It took our 2 man crew almost 45 minutes for this beautiful Baby Grand Piano to get a turn from the living room to this very tight corridor and safely into our vehicle.  The crew got to the delivery address in Neasden near our second depot in Wembley where I then had to meet the guys to pass over some paper work for the additional job which was scheduled for later in the day. But once I arrived, let me be completely honest with you, its embarrassing to admit but when i saw the corridor I couldn’t stop myself saying “it won’t fit” although i hate saying that without trying.

Sure enough our professionals ignored my comment and continued with the severely tight manoeuvres until the Piano was successfully set up in its new home. The owner was very happy. I admit I was extremely impressed. Well done to Danny and Grant.  Keep up the good work boy.

Another move that could only be done by us!

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Once you decide to move house

• Create a “move file” to keep track of estimates, receipts and other important information.
• Decide on a moving date (usually the completion date) as soon as contracts have been exchanged. Try to avoid Fridays and bank holidays when removal firms are in high demand and may be stretched.
• Call your local GUILD or BAR removal companies to get three free estimation visits in order to obtain three written quotations.
• When you receive all the quotations, compare the quotes in details and choose your removal company.
• Make sure you only consider the removal companies who are willing to come in and view the job before giving you a quotation this prevents last minute surprises.
• Start decluttering. Decide which items can be taken to a charity shop, sold at a car boot sale, or offered to your friends.
• Start packing non-essential items such as books and non-seasonal clothes into boxes.

Once you have a moving date

• Call your removal company and book them for your moving date and ask them what size lorry they will be using for your move.
• Unless you have a private drive way or you live in a quiet road, make sure you contact your local council to organise the parking for removal lorries in both ends.
• If you are going for owner packing ask your removal company for a free loan of boxes. We recommend you to purchase  high quality packing materials from us then follow our videos for a complete guide to household packing.
• Unless you have a private drive way or you live in a quiet road,  contact your local council to suspend parking bays in front of both addresses for the removal lorries.
• Call other companies you may be using for different purposes on the moving day and give them the date you are moving home, i.e cleaning companies, locksmith, carpet cleaning companies.
• Visit the post office and redirect your mail to the new address from the date you will be moving to your new home.
• Change your insurance companies and notify them about change of address. Home insurance, health insurance, car insurance etc…
• Contact your GP, your dentist, the vet and notify them about change of your address. Make sure you change the address on all medical records.
• Contact utility companies and give them the new address and the date you are moving in.
• Contact HMRC. Visit   www.hmrc.gov.uk for more information regarding phone numbers and offices.
• Send your driving licence and your car registration document to DVLA to change the address on them.
• Notify the Bank, building society and credit card companies.
• Notify the TV licencing office and transfer your TV licence to the new address. visit  www.tvlicensing.co.uk or call 0844 800 6722
• Use change of address cards to notify friends and family about your change of address.

One week before moving date

• Make arrangments for someone to look after the children on the moving day. The same applies to pets or perhaps it is a lot better to book them in a kennel.
• Round up all the keys to your home including those left with neighbours and relatives.
• Make a clear and simple floor plan for the new house and decide on which rooms belongs to which members of the family.

One day before the moving day

• Make sure you leave certain things where it can be accessed easily and specialy if the removal company is packing for you make sure these certain things are put away so they dont get packed by mistake! Wallets, purses, house keys and documents for the new owners/people who are moving in, one pair of shoes, some outdoor clothes for the day, and most importantly TEA & COFFEE and chocolate biscuits for the movers!!!!

1 – Are you a member of any of the trade associations? Yes! Pers Removals is a member of  The National Guild of Removers and Storers. This means we are ombudsman approved and we are annualy checked by the national guild to make sure we have adequate insurance cover for your goods, our vehicles are ligit and in good condition and we are financially sound.

2 - Are you an insured remover? Yes we certainly are. We can provide fully comprehensive insurance from £50,000 for your goods and both premises during the course of the move, and we also have £20,000,000 employees insurance to make sure you wont be liabiable in case they get insured while working in your premises.

3 - Is there any insurance excess for client? Unlike most removal companies our insurance cover has zero excess for our clients.

4 - What is the different between restricted and regular liability? Our Restricted Liability Insurance covers your goods for the value of £50 per item only Where as Our Regular Liability Insurance covers your goods for replacment valueor repair up to £50,000 with No Excess on either option.

5 - Do you use agency staff? We never use agency or temperary staff. Our guys are trained and have mostly been with the company for the past few years and some from the start.

6 - Do you disconnect the cookers or light fittings? Im afraid we are not qualified to deal with anything related to gas or electricity. This must be dealt with by a qualified technician and can be arranged upon your request in writting when you place your booking.

7 - Do you unplumb the washing machine? You can ask our guys to help you with unplumping the washing machine or replumping it back but pers removals do not accept any liability incase this cannot be done on the day as this sometimes requires some basic plumbing skills/tools and is not always a straight forward task for removers.

8 - Do you provide free boxes? Yes we do. You can have as many boxes as you need in advance completley free of charge.

9 - How do you transport my clothes? We use wardrobe boxes for all smart clothes, suites and dresses in your wardrobe. They come completley free of charge as long as you dont need to keep them.

10 - Do you arrange parking spaces for my move? We can certainly help with contacting the council and reserve parking spaces for the removal lorries providing you give us enough notice. This varies from 2 to 21 days in different boroughs and for different parking zones in each area. You need to request that in writting when you place a booking.

11 - Do you disassemble and re-assemble my furniture? Yes we do, we disassemble your furniture where necessary in order to move them out of the house and re-assmble them back in your new house. This is usualy included in our removal service at no extra charge.

12 - Why should i choose your packing service? Our packing service is offered at a very cheap rate just  to encourage our clients to leave this vital task for us. This will simply make things easier for us on the moving day. There are several other reasons you may want  us to do the packing. Saving time, and most important of all, your goods will only be insured if packed by us.

13 - Do you lable the boxes? We lable every single box packed by us. we also write down a brief inventory of what is in each box to help you unpack.

14 - Do you protect my furniture or do i have to do that? Even if you do the packing, we will still look after the larger items including TV and mattress. TV and antiques will be export packed, all the mattresses will be covered in single use mattress covers, padded heavy duty sofa covers will be used for your sofas and the rest of your furniture will be protetcted using transit blankets in our vehicles.

15 - I have a new carpet/floor laid in. Do you have anything to protetct the carpet/flooring? Yes. We recommend you opt for our floor protecion. This is a cling film we lay down on the floor/carpet and cover the entire flooring to make sure they are protected and untouched under our safety boots. The protetcion film is the only way of protecting the carpet that doesnt interfere with health and safety regulations. Our staff are not allowed to carry furniture walking on the builders sheets or unsecured flooring of any kind.

16 - How much notice do you need to move my house? Subject to availability we can move you with less than 48 hours notice. We have our own orange and navy fleet of removal vehicles and fully trained full time squad. We are ready for action at the last minute, although we usually get booked up two weeks in advance or 4 weeks in a busy period.

17 - I have a cheaper quote but i have more confidence in moving with you, can you match their quote? We compete on quality not on the price. Although we may be able to match your cheaper quote providing they are a GUILD or BAR member and in the same league as us.

18 - Do you collect the boxes after i finish unpacking? We always collect the boxes from you once you finished unpacking unless you moved further than 20 miles away from London. in which case we can always contact our friend removal companies in your area to collect our boxes and recycle them.