Once the volume is known · C
Decide who packs it
This one has a real deadline rather than a preference attached to it. Materials are ordered against the decision and crew hours are booked against it, so a late answer changes what the service can be.
Left late, full packing quietly becomes whatever can be done in the time. We would rather say that than deliver it and use the same word.
The three depths
Why this is a scheduled decision
Because packing has a supply chain and a rota behind it. Cartons, paper, bubble and specialist boxes are ordered against a volume. Crew hours are booked for the days before the move, not the day of it.
Change the answer close to the date and the materials may not arrive in time and the crew hours may already be committed elsewhere. Nothing about that is unreasonable and all of it is invisible from outside.
The option we recommend most
Partial. We pack the fragile things — glass, china, pictures, lamps, anything unusual — and you pack the books, the clothes and the kitchen cupboards.
It costs a fraction of full packing and it puts professional packing exactly where the risk is. It is the most-booked depth here and the one we suggest before anybody asks for it.
What goes wrong in a self-packed carton
Three things, consistently. Too heavy, because it was filled with books to the top. Voids inside, so the contents move and the box crushes. And not filled to the lid, so the carton above collapses into it.
Four rules fix all three: fill to the top, keep it liftable, wrap fragile contents individually, leave no gaps. A carton packed that way travels very much like a professionally packed one.
Unpacking, which most people decline
The argument for it is not comfort. It is that unpacking with the crew still in the building means anything broken is found and recorded immediately, with somebody there to record it to.
A breakage discovered three weeks later in a box you opened alone is a harder conversation and a weaker claim.
Decide who packs it
Questions about decide who packs it
01 When do we have to decide?
Once the volume is known and well before the date. Materials are ordered against the decision and crew hours are booked against it.
02 What happens if we decide late?
Full packing becomes whatever can be done in the time available, which is not the same service. We will tell you that rather than deliver it under the same name.
03 Which depth do most people take?
Partial — us on the fragile things, you on the books and clothes. It is the best value on this page and the one we recommend before being asked.
04 Are self-packed cartons covered?
For loss or damage arising from our handling, yes. Not for damage attributable to the packing itself, which is the standard position across the trade.
05 What is export-standard packing?
Packing built for goods that will be handled repeatedly by people who did not pack them — heavier board, fuller cartons, more internal protection and durable labelling.
06 Do you take the empty cartons away?
Where we have unpacked, yes. Otherwise ask and we will arrange a collection rather than leave you with a hallway of flat cardboard.
Which decision are you at?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and how firm the dates are. Those three start the schedule and everything else follows from them.