We are hopefully moving home soon.

Does anyone have a rough idea how much it costs to hire a removal firm? We are only moving about 1 1/2 mile up the road.

I phoned three companies up. The distance you travel does not really make a difference. We got prices ranging from £35 per hour to £41 per hour (you get two men for this).

You could hire a van (Transit or similar) for under £100 for a few days and move your stuff yourself and get the mates round to help and reward them with a drink down the pub afterwards!

Try Enterprise rent a car in Sheffield.

Yeah I thought that the distance travelled wouldn't make much difference.

Roughly how many hours did you have to pay for?

Beware that some companies have a "minimum number of hours" charge, say 3 hours, so even if they are done after an hour they will charge you for 3.

Originally posted by chri5
You could hire a van (Transit or similar) for under £100 for a few days and move your stuff yourself and get the mates round to help and reward them with a drink down the pub afterwards!

Try Enterprise rent a car in Sheffield.

We hired a van last time and moved ourselves. However we were first time buyers at that point and didn't have the pressure of clearing the house and moving into the new house in one day. Also it is normal to complete on a Friday, so I can't really expect a load of mates to take the day off work to help us move.

Originally posted by Dug
We hired a van last time and moved ourselves. However we were first time buyers at that point and didn't have the pressure of clearing the house and moving into the new house in one day. Also it is normal to complete on a Friday, so I can't really expect a load of mates to take the day off work to help us move.

3 years ago we moved house, with just my mam, dad and I, using a transit van. It took us about 5 hours, and we weren't moving from a small house... as we were moving our stuff out of one room, the people moving in were filling it up :thumbsup:

Originally posted by Dug
Yeah I thought that the distance travelled wouldn't make much difference.

Roughly how many hours did you have to pay for?

Most compnaies will want a minimum of 3 hours. On how much you pay depends on the move, but take into account the people in the other house.

Ours turned up at 0825 and had emptied out house by 0945. (Great i thought).
As the house we were moving into were still emptying (and not to have two man vehicles outside) we sat and waited until 1100 (we were moving 600yards we we kept walking up to check progress). We then drove to new address and they finished at 1245. But they locked up the house and went as the money had not gone through (we handed our keys over at 0945 regardless :rant: ).

We sat around for another two hours until a call came through. We then had to wait another 30 mins for the keys to arrive. It took 45 mins to get everything in with several of us helping. Therefore we paid 8 hours! The actual removal and furnishing took 2 hours,, so we paid 6 hours sitting time. (obvioulsy not removals companies fault though)

I found the forum good for warning me off companies such as Acorn. We didn't trust this "Ooooh £40/hour about 6 hours" malarkey and asked firms to come and give us fixed quotes. they do this for free. They look at the amount of stuff you have and give you a fixed price to move it. We are in a 3 bed terrace and our quotes ranged from £350-£400. This is more than the £240 6 hour quote, but you know, I'd rather know than get stung. See the thread where the guy was quoted 6 hours and it took them 11 hours - thats £440, much more expensive than my highest quote.

Oh and if you're interested, we chose to go with Greens. I will let you know how they did 13 days from now:thumbsup:

If you use a good company ( phone around and book early - Friday's are busy) expect to pay about £300-400. Very expensive but it was worth it. Ours like Ouzetunes spent 5 hrs sat outside our house whilst we waited for monies to move into accounts and we could have the keys.

Also remember to give them a tip. Apparently it is expected!

Originally posted by samc
If you use a good company ( phone around and book early - Friday's are busy) expect to pay about £300-400. Very expensive but it was worth it. Ours like Ouzetunes spent 5 hrs sat outside our house whilst we waited for monies to move into accounts and we could have the keys.

Also remember to give them a tip. Apparently it is expected!

Any guidelines on how much to tip please?

I'll be going through this in about three weeks as my last move wasn't with a proper removals company.

Originally posted by Jozafeen
Any guidelines on how much to tip please?

I'll be going through this in about three weeks as my last move wasn't with a proper removals company.

If they do a good job a tenner per man is a nice tip.

- I know cos I've worked as a removal man!