Service
Fine furniture,
antiques and specialist pieces
The part of a move where the standard method stops being enough. Handling decided per item at survey, materials chosen to suit the surface, and cases or crates where blankets will not do.
A removals crew moving an ordinary household does one thing well: it protects against rubbing and knocking. Blankets, straps, corner protection. For most furniture that is exactly right and anything more is theatre.
It stops being right the moment a surface is polished French, a top is stone, a joint is pegged, or a frame is gilded. Those fail differently — to pressure, to vibration, to humidity, to being lifted from the wrong point — and none of that is prevented by another blanket.
Handling classes, decided at survey
Every item that needs more than the standard treatment is identified and given a handling class before the move is priced. In practice that means a walk round with somebody who knows what they are looking at, and a short list attached to the quote naming the pieces and what each one is getting.
- Soft-wrapped — the standard: blanket, strap, corner protection
- Tissue then wrapped — acid-free tissue directly against polished, painted or gilt surfaces before anything else touches them
- Cased — framed work, mirrors and glazed doors into purpose-made picture cases
- Crated — stone and glass tops, sculpture, and anything where a built box is the only honest answer
- Specialist — where the right decision is to bring in somebody who does only that, and we will say so
What we see most
Veneer and marquetry
The risk is not impact, it is pressure and moisture. Veneer lifts. So these pieces travel tissued, wrapped, and loaded where nothing bears on a face.
Marble, stone and glass tops
Always separated from the base and always travelling on edge, never flat, and crated where the size warrants it. A stone top carried flat will break at the first pothole regardless of how much blanket is around it.
Mirrors and framed work
Glazed pieces taped, corner-protected and cased. Large mirrors get a built case as a matter of course. Nothing framed travels loose against anything.
Long-case clocks
Hood, movement, pendulum and weights separated and packed individually; the case moved upright and strapped. Reassembled at the other end only if you want us to — many people prefer their own clock person to do it.
Older joinery
Wedged, pegged and dry joints come apart only where the maker intended them to. Where a piece will not come apart and will not pass a staircase, the answer is a different route or a window, not force.
Declaring value
Goods in transit cover applies, but items of unusual value have to be declared before the move for the right arrangement to be in place. This is the single most important thing to raise at survey, and we will confirm in writing what applies before you book rather than leaving you to find out in a claim.
Storage for valuable pieces
Where a piece needs to be held between properties it goes into containerised store, wrapped as it would be for transit and inventoried individually rather than as part of a room. See packing and storage.
Arranging it
Tell us both addresses and, as far as you can, what the significant pieces are — photographs help enormously here. We will survey, set the handling classes, and quote in writing. This work sits inside a full house removal more often than not, and travels the same way on a European move.
Handling detail
Fine furniture questions
What counts as fine furniture?
Anything where value or fragility puts it beyond blanket-and-strap: veneer and marquetry, marble and stone tops, gilt, long-case clocks, large mirrors, framed work, cabinets with glazed doors, and older furniture with wedged or pegged joints.
Do you dismantle antiques?
Only where the piece was designed to come apart — a knock-down bed, a table with removable leaves, a clock with a separable hood. Forcing a joint that was never meant to open is how a good piece becomes a repaired one. If it will not come apart, the route has to change instead.
When do you crate?
Stone and glass tops, large mirrors, sculpture, and paintings of real value. A built case takes the impact a blanket cannot. We identify those at survey and tell you which and why, and you decide.
What materials do you use?
Acid-free tissue directly against polished, gilt and painted surfaces; soft wrap over that; corner and edge protection; purpose-made picture cartons or cases for framed work; and built crates where the survey calls for one.
Is it covered differently?
Items of unusual value need declaring before the move so the right cover is arranged and confirmed in writing. Undeclared valuables sit differently in any policy, and we would rather tell you that at survey than at a claim.
Can you move a piano or a large clock?
Uprights and long-case clocks routinely, with the correct board, straps and crew. Grands and anything with an unusual approach we assess first, and we bring in a specialist rather than improvise where that is the right call.
Next step
Moving something that needs more care?
Send photographs of the significant pieces along with both addresses. We will set the handling class for each one at survey.