What people ask before booking a date

It crumbles rather than bruises. Modern plasterboard takes a dent that can be filled and repainted; lime on lath loses a patch, and making good means matching a material and a texture as well as a colour. So every external corner gets a guard before anything moves.

Full-width runners go down before anything comes in, and nothing wheeled goes on bare boards. The damage on old floors is nearly always grit carried in underfoot rather than the furniture, so the runners are as much about the boots as the wardrobe.

Tell us at survey and we will take the door off its hinges for the duration, or board it where it cannot come off. Crown and early plate glass cannot be matched by modern float, and it is the one material in these houses where the damage is permanent.

Both get measured. A timber-framed house frequently has a lower clear height at a doorway than anywhere else in the room, and an uneven floor changes what a tall piece can be tilted through. Two numbers at survey settles most of it.

Yes, and the mirrors, and anything hanging in a stairwell. Not because we would not, but because you know which fixings are sound and we do not, and a hook pulling out of old plaster takes a patch with it.

No. What follows is how we work in practice around listed fabric. For anything you are genuinely unsure about, the conservation officer at the district council is the right person to ask and they are used to the question.

Sometimes not. Fixtures can form part of a listed building, and removing panelled cupboards, built-in joinery, an overmantel or original ironmongery can need consent. Where there is doubt we leave it in place and tell you why rather than unscrew it.

Never into old fabric. Our protection is free-standing or taped to itself, and low-tack materials go only on sound modern surfaces. If a method needs a fixing, we use a different method.

Frequently yes, and it is worth asking in advance rather than deciding on the day. Siting one against a listed elevation, or on a path or lawn within the curtilage, is a question best resolved before a machine is on site.

Our cover deals with it, and on old fabric we will use a specialist to make good rather than a general repair. Tell us at once — the booking contract sets out the claims process and the time limits.

Only if nobody thinks about it. A loaded vehicle rutts loose gravel and can sink where the base is thin. We look at the drive at survey, work out where the vehicle stands, and shuttle from a firmer point where we have to.

Not if we have looked first. Boards go down where a wheel has to cross grass, and where the ground is soft we will simply carry further rather than drive on it.

Measure the clear gap between them and send us the number. It is the commonest reason a full-size vehicle cannot reach a house in this district, and it is much better known in advance than discovered by a driver.

Several of the Darent valley lanes have them. Tell us and we will route around it or use a smaller vehicle — it is precisely the kind of local detail a survey exists to catch.

For a limited time and with planning. Frontages are narrow and the street is busy for most of the day, so the approach and the standing point are settled before the date rather than on it.

Not at all, and most of what we move is exactly that. What changes is that we spend the time on volume and access rather than on protection, and the quotation reflects the work actually required.

The loft, the garage and the shed, in that order. Access is usually easy on these houses, which is precisely why the volume is the thing nobody checks.

Yes — protection is standard everywhere. The difference is the depth of it: an engineered floor and a modern staircase do not need what an oak board and a Georgian handrail need.

As standard, anywhere. Anything that will not come out whole is taken apart here and put back together there.

The measured volume, the access at both ends, how much packing you want, whether anything is held, and how much protection the fabric requires. That last item is why two houses of identical size in this district can quote differently.

No, and on this stock a phone estimate is close to meaningless. A call cannot see a lime wall, a gravel drive, a low door head or a stair with a slender rail.

Veneered, inlaid and unsealed timber cares about the conditions it is held in rather than just the fact of being held. Tell us what is in the load and we will be straight about what the arrangement can and cannot offer.

As long as the gap runs. Everything is inventoried at collection and the storage agreement sets out access and the notice we need to bring it back out.

Both, from Sevenoaks. On a load of old furniture the packing standard rises with the distance, and that matters more than the mileage does.