Getting a Quote From a Mover

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happy-family-laying-on-boxes

The Homeowner/Tenant’s Own “Ballpark Estimate”

Even before the homeowner or tenant talks to the Mover, he or she will try will probably in their own mind try to come up with a ballpark figure on how much it might cost. $300, $500, $1000, $2000, $10,000, what is it? The Homeowner or tenant can start by comparing the
upcoming move to the last one. Here are some simple steps to do that:

i) Do you have the invoice or Bill of Lading which shows how much you paid for the last move? Does it show how many hours were billed and how many men were on the crew, or was it a flat rate?

ii) How long ago was your last move? The average person moves once every five years. If it was five years ago, it is unlikely you can accurately remember details like how many hours it took and how many men were on the crew.

iii) How is the load different this time? Usually expressed as what additional things do you have now that you did not have the last time? The load also might be different in that you or your friends or family moved some of the stuff last time. Five months ago we moved a young attorney from Grant Park to Virginia Highlands (both in the Atlanta area). Then she herself took over boxes to the new place the whole week before the three-man moving crew showed up to move the furniture. Two weeks ago we moved her again. When she was considering a ballpark estimate for this move, the 4.75 hours it took the crew last time was—impressed on her mind. But this time the crew would be moving all the boxes and up to a third-floor apartment. The previous move it was ground floor to ground floor. The result is this move took 7.50 hours instead of 4.75.

1) Getting an Estimate From The Mover

A) On phone
B) Via Email
C) Through physical on-site survey

An Estimate Over The Phone:

Needs be fairly detailed:

a) What is the Access like at the Origin
b) What kind of dwelling is the Origin? Apartment First Floor? Three-Level House? Storage-Unit?
c) What needs to be moved? List all the furniture you can think of. If you’re talking on a cell phone or cordless phone, it helps if you can walk from room to room describing all the furniture as you go.
d) Estimate the number of boxes
e) What needs to be disassembled?
f) What is the Transit like (from Origin to Destination) in miles, time to drive in a car—a moving truck will be slower—will there be traffic?
g) What is the Access like at the Destination
h) What kind of dwelling is at the Destination
i) What needs to be reassembled? Usually it is the same as the items disassembled, but not always. For instance, beds and tables taken apart at the Origin, may just be stored in the basement at the destination.

Via Email

Email takes more work on the part of the homeowner/tenant. She has to type the list rather than just speak it, but writing it tends to make it more accurate. And there is no dispute what was spoken—there’s the list in black and white. An email inventory list from the homeowner can then be followed by an email reply quote by the Mover. So an email channel is opened, and this can be very helpful to both sides. Many of our best customers are corporate types for who it is often easier to email than to phone. They might feel more comfortable asking small, piddly questions through email than over the phone—questions like, “Can they leave the clothes in the drawers?” If I am the Mover, then in my reply email I can easily link to my Blog posting that talks about that very thing.

Estimate By On-Site Survey

By far the best way to do an estimate.

A survey is where you go out in person and list all the inventory items and assess the size of the move.

If I’m the Mover, I’ll walk through the prospect’s house with this sheet called a “Cube Sheet.” It is a list of all the major furniture items types and their average cubic feet. If an item is not on the list—say it’s a big entertainment center—I can measure it. In inches you multiply the height by the width by the depth and then divide that by 1728 and you get the cubic feet.

You add up all the cubic feet for all the furniture items and boxes and you get the total cubic feet. The average cubic foot of household goods weighs 7 lbs so you multiply the cubic feet by 7 to get pounds. If there are 1500 cubic feet of household goods, then they weigh about 10,500 lbs. Many Movers, including this one, will often quote a flat rate for the move just based on the pounds. Movers have this term called “hundred-weight.” “Hundred Weight” is the total poundage divided by 100. If you have 10,500 lbs. Divide that by 100 and you have 105. That becomes the hundred weight. Now you can multiply it by a hundred weight factor. So a mover might charge a rate of 13.5. 105 * 13.5 = $1417.50. This is coming up with a price by just going from lbs of furniture to flat price for the move. You’re not concerned with the particulars of how many trucks and men you will need to do the move. To figure that out you apply the next number which is “the number of lbs each man will be able to move per hour. This number will fluctuate, and a lot of the “quote” expertise in doing a moving estimate comes in choosing this number. It’s almost always between 400 and 750 lbs per man per hour. If you have a really sharp three-man crew doing a cookie-cutter move of a 2-bedroom apartment, ground floor to ground floor, then they can move at the top rate—750 lbs per man per hour.

Personally, I really like doing surveys and quotes. For me, going from a move survey to a move quote is the single neatest application of numbers to solving a problem that I’ve ever experienced. When I say “neatest,” what I mean is here you have a ton of stuff to be moved—several tons probably. You apply some numbers, ratios, and simple formulas and “WaLa,” here’s your plan and the cost for the move. It’s a little engineering project.

Access Issues on a Residential Move

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The size, complexity, time length, and cost of a move can be broken down into the following three variables:

1) The Load
2) Access Issues
A) Access at the Origin
B) Access at the Destination
3) The Transit (from Origin to Destination)

In this posting we will discuss the second variable, “Access Issues.” How easy is it to get to the furniture at the Origin and how easy is it to deliver it at the Destination?

So for any move, there are access issues to contend with at both the Origin location and the Destination location. For both the Origin and Destination, the estimator needs to look at:

moving-truck-parked-11

1) Truck Parking

A) Will the truck park on the street or in the driveway?

steep-driveway-1

B) If on the driveway, is it flat, circular, declined, inclined, or too steep for the truck?
C) If on the street, is it a small side street or a busy boulevard? Just try parking on Clairmont Rd. (busy street in Atlanta). Moving trucks get $150 parking tickets when they park on busy streets in downtown Atlanta to do high-rise moves.

D) Is there a Loading Dock? If so, then the items will come out of the truck quickly, but there is probably a long walk to the residential unit and there are probably elevators involved. The movers will need 12 to 30 of the 4-wheel dollies in order to efficiently roll the items being moved.

E) Is there a parking structure? If so, the truck is most likely too tall for the entrance and will have to park outside the parking structure. There will most likely be a long walk to the elevator, and again, the mover will need 12 to 30 of the 4-wheel dollies.

big-canoe-2 big-canoe-3 big-canoe-4

F) In extreme cases, the roads themselves leading up to the house may be impassable by the Moving truck. There are mountain towns like “Big Canoe” in Georgia where many of the town’s roads are impassable by tractor trailers. In Big Canoe, there are places where even standard 24’ box-trucks need to be in either 2nd gear—if a standard transmission—or the lowest gear if an automatic transmission. Once you get to the mailbox, there may be a steep winding driveway which now requires a still smaller vehicle—like a 14’ shuttle truck or even a van—the size of an electrician’s van.

2) The Walk From the Truck to the House

A) How many feet, or how many car-lengths—of a standard-size sedan like a Camry?
B) Is the walk level, up, or down?
C) Over what type of terrain? If asphalt or concrete, then four-wheel dollies and handtrucks can roll smoothly over it. But if the walk is through a yard, If it is through grass, or dirt, or gravel then rolling a four-wheel dolly or handtruck may be impossible.

3) Are there Stairs or an Elevator?

A) If stairs? What kind, and how many? Up or down?
i) Stairs can be hardwood, in which case you cannot set heavy furniture like armoires on the stairs or else they will scratch
ii) Stairs can have new white carpets which will streak if handtrucks are rolled on them
iii) Stairs can be narrow and have switch-back turns which are difficult to navigate with large furniture like sofas and armoires.
iv) Staircases may have low overheads, especially in low townhouses, where a Queen-sized box spring will not fit up the stairs.

B) If there is an elevator, what are its limitations?
i) Is it a freight elevator which you can reserve and dedicate for your move?

ii) What are the allowable hours for using it during a move? (For Office Moves in Class A buildings, you usually have to move after 5:00pm or 6:00pm during the week or during the weekend) Residential moves can have time restrictions too. We did a move recently into the “Campbell Stone” retirement building in Sandy Springs, GA, and they do not allow moves to be occurring between 11:30am and 1:30pm

4) Going into the House, Condo, Loft, or Apartment

A) Front Door: Double or Single-Door? Narrow or Wide Door? “Straight-Shot” in or is there a tight right-angle turn to get in the door. Once you get inside the door, is the staircase in the way?
B) What is the Floor Like Going in the Door?
i) Real hardwood? Light or Dark? Light shows the scratches more and is more difficult to touch-up or repair?
ii) laminate? Less sensitive, and easier to repair, but dents more easily.
iii) Carpet? Light or Dark? How new? How easily does it tear?
C) Doorways Inside: Are they narrow? Will the refrigerator’s door need to be taken off in order to get through the doorway, or will the refrigerator have to be put on a four-wheel dolly, and then one-door opened and maneuvered through the doorway with the door open?
D) How Many Levels? One level, two, three, or four?
E) How many rooms are there? and how big is the house (how many square feet?) The size of the house will greatly effect the amount of time it takes to do a move, and this is independent of the total pounds on the load. For a load of 7200 lbs of household goods, a crew may be able to move it at a rate of 700 lbs per man per hour when it comes out of a first floor, two-bedroom apartment. When the same load comes out of a 6 bedroom, 8000 square foot house, the crew may only be able to move it at a rate of 425 lbs per man per hour!

STORAGE — “Climate-Control” or “Non Climate-Control?”

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Climate-Controlled Storage Building

Climate-Controlled Storage Building

 

 

 

           Versus        

Non-Climate-Controlled Storage with External Door

Non-Climate-Controlled Storage with External Door

 

 

With apologies to “Public Storage” and other climate-control storage companies—“Climate-Control Storage” is mostly a marketing gimmick and a very Non-Green one at that (think of how much energy they are using cooling and heating all those storage units.  It is a shame to spend all that energy cooling inanimate objects.  The furniture is not going to complain about the heat—I assure you.)  The fact is: in the far majority of cases, non-climate controlled storage works just fine.  You may have heard of furniture sustaining damage in non-climate controlled storage, and that is invariably because WATER GOT INTO THE STORAGE UNIT!  Especially when water got into the unit, and then SHRINK WRAP HELD THE WATER IN PLACE.  This creates mildew and over time it is damaging to both upholstery and wood furniture.  IF IT IS RAINING ON THE DAY FURNITURE IS PUT INTO STORAGE, THEN NO SHRINK WRAP SHOULD BE PUT DIRECTLY ON THE FURNITURE!  The furniture can be padded first and then shrink wrap can be wrapped over the pads to hold them in place.

As more evidence against climate-controlled storage, think of this:  When the sofa is made in the factory, is the factory climate-controlled?  No.  When the sofa is driven in the truck to “Havertys,”  is the truck climate-controlled?  No.  When the sofa is stored in Haverty’s warehouse, is the warehouse climate-controlled?  No.  It is only when the sofa gets to Haverty’s showroom that it becomes climate-controlled.  When it is sold it is then transported once again in a non-climate controlled truck.

It is true that the units in a climate-controlled building are down the hall away from the outside door, thus protecting against water entry.  But it is also true that non-climate-controlled units at their door—slope up into the unit, thus preventing the inflow of water.  And I can assure you, the warehouses of the major Van Lines—United, Mayflower etc. are not climate-controlled.

Wood furniture, upholstery:  as long as there is no water present—stores fine in non-climate-controlled storage units.  Mattresses and box springs also do fine as long as they are dry and have a pad or blanket to rest on, but I think it is worth it to put them into mattress boxes—they just stay clean that way, and off the concrete floor.

Now I wouldn’t store the “Mona Lisa” in non-climate controlled storage.  Nor would I store the original US Constitution in non-climate controlled storage.  Probably I also wouldn’t store a 16th Century French Sofa in non-climate controlled storage.  Climate-controlled storage sometimes costs twice as much as regular storage.  If a furniture piece or artwork belongs in an art museum, then go with the expensive climate-control.  Otherwise save your money . . . and the electricity.

Preparing for Your Move Item By Item – THE REFRIGERATOR

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moving-refrigerator-drawing

 

 

1) NEEDS TO BE EMPTIED:   

A) Refrigerators are heavy enough even while empty

B) Messy things happen when full refrigerators are tilted during moving.  Items will melt and leak out.  One time, workers moved a refrigerator with Vanilla Ice Cream inside.  By the time, the refrigerator was being unloaded, the ice cream was melting.  The customer likes the smell of Vanilla Ice Cream, but not on her new rug.

C) If the truck breaks down and is idle for hours or days, then the items in the refrigerator will melt and leak throughout the truck—potentially contaminating the whole load.

EMPTY THE REFRIGERATOR

refrigerator-water-line

 

2)  The Water Line:  if the Refrigerator has an ice-maker, then it has a water line attached to it at the bottom of the refrigerator back.  The water line needs to be turned off.  If the house is relatively new, then you will probably be lucky and the turnoff valve may be right there at the wall.  If the house is older, then it could be Hunt and Seek for the turnoff valve—often down below the house hopefully in a basement, or worse—in a crawl space.  Follow the water line from the refrigerator and see where it goes.  It may just go under the sink, but it will probably go through the floor to whatever is below.  If it is a crawl space, then you may need a flashlight, your dirty clothes, and the will to climb through the dark and muck.  When you find the T-valve, turn it so it is crosswise to the water line.  This should turn it off, but IMPORTANT: also tighten the bolt immediately above!  Many have failed to do this and even with the T-valve turned—water has dripped into the house, and those drips add up!

For more technical information about refrigerators,  see the link under “Vendors’ in the column to the right to “The Fridge Doctor.”

A New Moving Hazard

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garden-hose-on-spindle

I experienced a new “moving hazard” today, but it is something a California-and-Atlanta-boy–I was born in California and lived there until age 31, and have been living in Atlanta ever since– would run into.   The customer wanted us to move his garden hose.  No big deal–just as long as you make sure there is no water leaking!  The hose was on a spindle and I turned it this way and that.  I shook it up and down;  I shook it sideways–no water leaking!  I left it on the ground so I could look it for awhile–no water leaking!  So I put it in the load, on top of a fully padded armoire.

Three hours later, while doing the unloading at the destination, I NOTICE WATER LEAKING OUT OF THE HOSE!  What gives?!  Where did the water come from?  Then I remembered that it was 18 degrees when we started the job this morning, and now its 39 degrees.  This morning there was no water leaking out of the hose, because it was FROZEN!  Only someone who only does a few moving jobs per year in freezing temperatures, would make that blunder.  I still kept the hose away from any mattresses or upholstery,  so only a relatively small amount of water dribbled down the pads.

The “Hard” and “Soft Factors” of a Move

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After I survey your client’s home, or office to be moved, I Design a Move for them based on what I call the “Hard Factors” and the “Soft Factors.” Hard Factors are quantitative and involve the inanimate realities such as the furniture, boxes, crates and access issues at the origin and destination.

From these raw variables I determine the number of total man-hours required, and what will be the best mix of trucks and Moving Equipment. The “Soft Factors” are human factors: I have general questions such as: What is the customer like? Emotional Type “A” or Type“B”? How did they find out about us? What is their experience with Movers? What are their expectations from the Movers? And then more specifically: Is the scheduled move contingent on a Closing or Closings? Are they more worried about their money, their furniture, their time, having to do tedious physical work themselves, or something else?

Based on the hard and soft factors for your client’s specific case, I design the most efficient and ultimately satisfying move for them.

“For My Residential Move, Can I leave the drawers full ?”

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The short answer is it is best to empty the “large” pieces like dressers, chest of drawers, armoires, wardrobes, buffets, china cabinets, and desks.

The items that have to be moved have to be moved some way by someone. The question is what is the most efficient and cost-effective way. There are large bedroom pieces which physically cannot tolerate being moved full. “High-boys,” for example are in danger of having their legs snapped if moved full. Others can only be moved full with the assistance of special equipment like a refrigerator hand-truck. Often this is fine if it is a ranch house with old carpet floors. But in a multi-level house with hardwood floors—now you have to worry about damaging the floors.

Many Movers will say as a marketing ploy to “just leave everything full,” but when they need to, they will take the drawers out anyway.

For the drawers you do leave full, remember to go through them and check for valuables like currency, watches, jewelry, and firearms. You would be amazed how many people do not do this even after being reminded to. Many people have more loose valuable items like these than they can keep track of, and simply forget they are being kept in back of a drawer.

One time we were carrying a dresser down the stairs; a drawer opened up; a pistol fell out and to the ground and went off !!! Fortunately it was just a “starter pistol,” but we didn’t know that when we heard the gun fire.

Since the Movers may remove drawers and move them separately, think about the contents of the drawers and whether you want them being waved in the breeze. You probably won’t mind if the contents are pants and sweaters, but how about underwear and other bedroom items? Discrete, professional Movers will concentrate on their task at hand, and have seen everything anyway, but it is something to keep in mind.

In another situation, a long dresser may be not be all that heavy, but in order to get out of the bedroom it has to be stood up on end. When this happens, if the drawers are full–many loose items will be thrown against the side of the drawers (now pointing down), and the structure of the dresser will be tested. A quality dresser will hold together, but a press-board dresser may fall apart right then.

The conclusion: empty the drawers of the large pieces. The move will go faster if all the drawers are empty, but then that means extra work box-packing—whoever does it. A good compromise is to just leave “full” the “medium” and “small” pieces.

Moving to High-Rises Like “Plaza Towers”

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We will be moving a repeat customer next week to the 20th floor of the “Plaza Towers” on Peachtree Road.  This building is incidentally across the street from the “Park Place” high-rise which is where Elton John is reputed to have a penthouse (see picture below)

Our customer is only moving a one-bedroom apartment, so she initially felt a two-man moving crew would suffice. I explained that High-Rise moves add an extra layer of complexity and risk.

If you just have a two-man crew, then there is not an extra man to watch the furniture in the truck or left outside the elevator. Once we had a dresser stolen that was left outside an elevator of an upper floor of another High-Rise in town. During an unload to a High-Rise: With a three-man crew, one man can push items from the truck to the elevator. The other two men can take the items up the elevator into the destination unit.

A FEW THINGS TO REMEMBER ABOUT HIGH-RISE MOVES:

1) Talk to the Building Management about the details of reserving the freight elevator.

2) Will the Movers have exclusive use of the elevator during that time period? If they don’t, the move will take much longer.

3) Will the Movers have a key to the elevator, or will it otherwise be “locked” for them, or will they have to wrestle with trying to hold the door open as they move items in and out of the elevator?

4) A High-Rise residential move is similar to an Office Move in that additional four-wheel dollies are required. Make sure the Movers have between 10 and 20 four-wheel dollies on the move. The more furniture which can be loaded onto dollies, and rolled into and out of the truck, and then into and out of the elevator and into the destination unit, the faster the move will be.

Make Sure the Movers Have Between 10 and 20 of These

Make Sure the Movers Have Between 10 and 20 of These

The Physical Strain of Packing and Moving Boxes

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I bet these boxes are empty!

I bet these boxes are empty!

WHAT AN UNREALISTIC ADVERTISING SHOT.   If these boxes were full, she would have to be holding them from the bottom, and this girl could probably not carry both at once!

 

 

Yesterday I booked a job for a couple about 65 years old who are moving close-by.  They want to move all the boxes themselves.
I reminded them of the physical strain involved in packing and in moving boxes:
First you have to get the items off the shelf.  You have to get down on your hands and knees for the low shelves, and on a stool for the high shelves.
Once they are wrapped, you need to place them in the box.
Once the box is packed and closed up, you have to get it out of the way.  You have to carry it somewhere and probably stack it on top of other boxes, bending down or stretching up to do it.
Then you have to get the stack of boxes to your car–either carrying each box or rolling the stack on a handtruck if you have one.
Then you have to place it in the car, and even with SUV’s some bending over is required.  Remember box-packers cost less than the orthopedic surgeon.

Box-Packing Primer

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USE THESE BOXES

"Large or Linen Box" (4.5 cubic ft.)

"Large or Linen Box" (4.5 cubic ft.)

"Book Box" (1.5 cubic ft.)

"Book Box" (1.5 cubic ft.)

"Medium Box" (3.0 cubic ft.)

"Medium Box" (3.0 cubic ft.)

"Extra Large Box" (6.0 cubic ft.)

"Extra Large Box" (6.0 cubic ft.)

"Dish Pack Box" (5.1 cubic ft.)
"Picture Box"

"Picture Box"

“Dish Pack Box” (5.1 cubic ft.)
"Wardrobe Box"

"Wardrobe Box"

NOT THESE BOXES

You may think it is worthwhile to pick up old grocery or liquor store boxes, but it’s not. Grocery boxes are designed for seperating food in the truck and warehouse. Moving boxes are much heavier-duty and designed for protection of your home items and for ease of handling by you and the Movers.

If you are box-packing a whole house properly, you will most likely use all of the seven moving box types above, plus the paper pads. Like there are many different kitchen tools, each box is sized and designed for a specific purpose.

“Book Box:” (1.5 cubic feet): Heavier items, but not fragile kitchen items.

  • Living Room: Books, CDs, Albums (if you have those old things), small lamp shades
  • Office: Files, heavier items, small lamp shades
  • Kitchen: Bottles and cans

“Medium Box” (3.0 cubic feet):

  • Living Room: Stereo and TV components
  • Kitchen: Small Appliances: Coffee Maker, Cuisinart, Electric Can Opener
  • Bath: Toiletries in cabinet under sink and in shower, medium lamp shades
  • Office: Electronic components
  • Bedroom: Child’s small toys, games, medium lamp shades

“Large or Linen Box” (4.5 cubic feet):

  • Living Room: Very large lamp shades
  • Bath: Towels
  • Bedroom: Linens, Sheets, Folded Clothes, Shoes
  • Dining Room: Table Clothes and Soft Items from Buffet

“Extra Large” (6.0 cubic feet): Certain boxy-shaped items are too tall for the 4.5 cubic foot box, but not fragile items meant for the Dishpack box (Big computer monitors, other large fragile items that need to be boxed)

“Picture Box:” They come in one piece, 2 piece, and 4-piece sizes. The 4 piece sizes are more flexible and expandable. Used for expensive fragile mirrors and paintings and pictures. Usually you will want to wrap the mirror or picture with a paper pad before inserting it into the picture box.(Just use one picture per box)

Tape Along the Open Seams to Strengthen the Box

Tape Along the Open Seams to Strengthen the Box

“Dish Pack Box” (5.1 cubic feet) (its walls are double-thick):

  • Kitchen: Pots and Pans, Fragile Dishes and Glass Items (pack the heavier items on the bottom, and pack successively lighter but fragile items as you go higher in the box). Pack dishes and china on their EDGE, NOT FLAT IN THE BOX! This is a very common error. And use plenty of newsprint, and use bubble wrap for extra-fragile pieces.
  • Living Room: Vases, Fragile Knick Knacks; Fragile lamp bases (make sure the top of the lamps bases (name?) are not jammed in there. They bend and are easily damaged. If the lamps are too tall for the dishpack box, use a a taller box—even a wardrobe box if that’s the next taller size you have.

“Wardrobe” (14.0 cubic feet): Hanging clothes, items too tall for any other box—tall lamps
“Mirror/Picture Boxes” (approx. 3.0 cubic feet):