Edinburgh Removals for Homes, Offices & Storage
Covering the Whole City and Out Into the Lothians
Choosing between removal companies in Edinburgh is difficult because most of them describe themselves in much the same terms. What follows sets out what we actually do and how the price is arrived at, so it can be compared against anyone else.
What Edinburgh Customers Say Afterwards
What Should You Ask Any Removal Company Before Booking?
| Question to ask | Why it matters | Our answer |
|---|---|---|
| Will somebody look at both properties? | A figure from a room count moves on the day | Yes, both ends, before any price |
| Is the price fixed or an hourly rate? | Hourly transfers all timing risk to you | Fixed and confirmed in writing |
| Who carries out the work? | Subcontracting means nobody owns a problem | Our own crews at both addresses |
| Who arranges parking permission? | Most of central Edinburgh needs it | Arranged by us at both addresses |
| What is excluded from the quote? | Exclusions decide the final invoice | Set out before anything is agreed |
| What happens if a date changes? | Terms differ considerably between firms | Governed by our published Terms |
The second and third rows are where the largest differences between removal companies sit, and neither is visible from a website. An hourly rate looks cheaper on the telephone and moves the risk of a slow day onto the customer, and a subcontracted crew means the firm you spoke to is not the firm at your door.
What Makes a Quotation Firm Rather Than an Estimate?
A survey takes under an hour and establishes three things a description cannot. How much there actually is, once lofts and cupboards are open rather than remembered. What the route out looks like, including the turn on a common stair and the distance from the door to where a vehicle can legally stand. And what the destination will accept, which households describe far less accurately than the home they are leaving.
From those, the crew size, the vehicle and the hours can be set to the job instead of to an average. That is what allows a figure to be issued in writing and to stay put, and it is also why a firm quoting over the telephone in two minutes can be cheaper than everyone else and still cost more by the end of the day.
Where something is genuinely uncertain, such as how much a household will clear before moving, that is priced honestly with the uncertainty named rather than buried. A quotation that pretends to know something nobody knows yet is not firmer than one that says so plainly.
What an Edinburgh Removal Company Should Charge
A Price Given Without Looking Is a Guess With a Number On It
Furniture, boxed belongings and anything needing particular care are counted at the survey, and the settled figure attaches to that count.
A price given without looking is a guess with a number on it
Quotations in this city move more often than in most, and the reason is structural rather than dishonest. Access here varies enormously within a short distance, from a suburban house with a driveway to a top floor flat up a common stair with controlled parking and no space within a hundred metres. A figure produced without seeing which of those applies cannot be reliable.
The consequence lands on the customer as an adjustment on the day, at the point where there is no practical alternative and the vehicle is already loaded. That is the moment nobody wants to be negotiating, which is precisely why the survey happens first.
What we will not do is quote low to win the work and revise afterwards. Where a job is genuinely large, awkward or tightly timed, the figure says so at the outset and can be compared honestly against anyone else’s.
Division of responsibility
| Covered by the settled figure | Offered, costed at survey | Given to certified trades |
|---|---|---|
| Crew, vehicles and fuel | Packing carried out for you | Gas appliance disconnection |
| Both properties surveyed | Furniture dismantled and rebuilt | Plumbed appliance removal |
| Parking permission at both ends | Belongings held between dates | Fixed electrical work |
| Crates, marking and protection | Crates unpacked to the room plan | Items needing lifting equipment |
| Protection on common stairs | Additional hands for a long carry | Fine art and antiques handling |
| Empties collected afterwards | A further collection address | Licensed disposal of unwanted items |
The right hand column exceeds what our teams are certified to perform, so it goes to whoever holds that certification. The middle grouping is costed before any booking is made. Anything outside all three is priced once it is described.
Why the Same Team Handles Both Ends
Materials Supplied Before They Are Needed
The same firm handles the loading and the delivery rather than passing the job on, which matters most when something is awkward. Materials go out before they are needed so packing is finished ahead of the vehicle arriving rather than around it. Each carton is marked for the room it is going to at the far end, and empties are collected afterwards instead of being left in a common stair for somebody else to deal with.
Household Moves
Office Moving
Commercial Moving
Household Moves
Office Moving
Commercial Moving
Household Moves
Office Moving
Commercial Moving
What We Do Across the City
The New Town, Old Town, Leith, Morningside, Bruntsfield, Marchmont, Corstorphine, Portobello, Trinity and the outer suburbs, along with the surrounding Lothians. Everything is surveyed and priced the same way wherever the address sits, and a requirement not covered by the outlines beneath is planned around once described.
Working across the whole city rather than one part of it has a practical benefit that is easy to overlook. A move from a tenement flat in Marchmont to a house in Corstorphine involves two very different sets of problems, and a firm that only regularly handles one of them tends to plan well for that end and improvise at the other. Both ends are surveyed here for exactly that reason.
Flats, tenements, terraces and houses across the city, boxed and marked for the room each carton is bound for. Both properties surveyed, parking permission arranged at each, and the crew sized for the carry the street actually allows.
How an agreed date of entry shapes the preparation is covered on home removals in Edinburgh.
Shops, studios, practices and offices moved outside trading hours, with building access and permitted windows settled well in advance. Office relocations are set out in detail on office removals in Edinburgh.
Belongings collected, held for an agreed period and delivered into the new address. Common here where entry dates leave a gap of a few weeks. More at storage in Edinburgh.
Moves leaving the city or arriving from elsewhere in the country, kept with one crew from end to end. Anything outside these outlines is priced once described, and work that could not be carried out properly is raised at the time rather than accepted.
Details That Redraw a Plan
Four details bear on a plan more than anything else, whichever company ends up doing the work.
Raise anything that might complicate either address at the earliest opportunity, however ordinary it seems. People consistently leave out the single particular that reshapes a plan, whether a stair door that will not stay open, a bend too tight for a mattress to pass, or an item that reached an upper floor before a doorway was altered.
The single thing that separates a firm price from an estimate. It takes under an hour and it is what stops a figure moving on the morning.
Much of the central city does, and it takes days rather than hours to obtain. Arranged by us, but only if it is known early enough to arrange.
Common stairs, turns and head height decide which items pass whole and how many people the carry genuinely needs.
Month ends and the Festival period are the busiest. Where a date can move, the difference is worth knowing before it is fixed.
Worth Establishing Early
Edinburgh Removal Company FAQs
What should we ask a removal company before booking?
Six things settle it: whether somebody will look at both properties, whether the price is fixed or hourly, who actually carries out the work, who arranges parking permission, what is excluded, and what happens if a date changes. The answers separate firms far more reliably than the wording on a website.
Is your price fixed or charged by the hour?
Fixed, and confirmed in writing before anything is booked. An hourly rate looks cheaper when quoted and moves the risk of a slow day onto the customer, which is a poor arrangement on a move where the difficulties are largely outside your control.
Do you use your own crews?
Yes, at both ends of the job. Where work is subcontracted the firm you spoke to is not the firm at your door, and if something goes wrong nobody quite owns it. The team that surveyed the property is the team that carries out the move.
Why does the survey matter so much here?
Because access across this city varies enormously within a short distance. A suburban house with a driveway and a top floor tenement flat with controlled parking are entirely different jobs, and a figure produced without knowing which applies cannot hold. The adjustment then lands on the day, when there is no practical alternative.
Do you arrange parking permission?
Yes, at both addresses where it is needed, and much of the central city needs it. The process takes days rather than hours, which is why an early conversation is worth considerably more than a fast quotation.
What does the quotation exclude?
Exclusions are set out before anything is agreed rather than discovered afterwards. Work requiring certification we do not hold, such as disconnecting gas or plumbed appliances and fixed electrical work, goes to the appropriate trade. Optional services are priced separately at the survey so the choice is yours.
What happens if our date changes?
Rescheduling and cancellation are governed by our published Terms and Conditions, with the charge depending on the notice given. It is worth asking any firm this question directly, since the position differs considerably between companies and is rarely displayed prominently.
Do you handle businesses as well as homes?
Both. Shops, studios and practices are moved outside trading hours with access settled in advance, and office relocations have their own page covering how building windows and technology responsibilities are handled.
Which parts of Edinburgh do you cover?
The whole city and the surrounding Lothians, from the New Town and Old Town through Leith, Morningside, Marchmont and Corstorphine to the outer suburbs. Moves running beyond the city keep the same crew at a price agreed beforehand.
None of this quite covers what we need.
Explaining what is actually involved returns a figure built around it rather than a standard rate. Several addresses, awkward items, an uncertain date or unusual access are all better raised in the first conversation than met on the morning.
Two Addresses to Begin
Have Your Edinburgh Move Priced
Send the address being left, the one being taken on, roughly how much there is, and the date or the month if the date is not yet settled. Both properties are surveyed, the parking position established at each, and one settled figure returned in writing for the whole job.