House removals in Devon, from the first box to the last.

Most of the house removals we do in Devon fall into one of three shapes. There is the in-town move — an Exeter terrace to a semi in St Thomas, a Plymouth flat to a house in Plympton — where the distance is nothing and the difficulty is all parking and stairs. There is the cross-county move, where you are going from the north coast to the south and the drive is the bulk of the day. And there is the leaving move, where Devon is the start and the rest of the country is the finish.

They need different planning, so we do not quote them the same way.

What is actually included

A survey first, by video for most jobs. Then, on the day: protection down on floors and bannisters at both ends, furniture dismantled where it needs to be, everything wrapped and blanketed before it goes near a doorway, loaded in an order that makes the unload sensible, driven, and put back where you want it rather than stacked in the hall.

• Full pack, part pack, or you pack and we handle the furniture
• Wardrobe cartons so hanging clothes travel on the hanger
• Dismantle and reassemble of beds, wardrobes and table legs
• Glass, mirrors, pictures and TVs boxed properly, not blanket-wrapped and hoped over
• Boxes labelled by room so the unload is not a guessing game
• Storage if the chain moves and you need somewhere for the gap

Devon properties are their own problem

You do not have to do this job here very long before access becomes the first thing you ask about. A thatched cottage outside Honiton with a doorway built for shorter people. A Victorian villa in Exmouth where the stairs turn twice. A farmhouse up a lane that has not been widened since it was a cart track, where a full-size lorry would take the hedge with it. A Torquay flat with forty steps down from the road and no lift.

None of that is unusual and none of it is a reason we cannot move you. It just decides the vehicle, the crew size and the running order — which is exactly why we want to see it before the morning rather than on it. Where the big van cannot get close we shuttle with a smaller one. It adds time. It does not add drama.

New builds and estates

There is a lot of new building in Devon — the estates spreading east of Exeter, the developments around Newton Abbot and Cranbrook. Those moves are easier on access and harder on timing: handover slots slip, roads are half-finished, and site traffic management will happily put a skip lorry where your removal van needs to be. We ring ahead on new-build completions rather than assuming the drive is clear.

How the quote is worked out

Three things: how much is going, how far it is going, and what the load-in and load-out involve. Volume comes off the survey. Distance is the route, not the crow-fly. Access is stairs, lanes, parking, lifts and how far the carry is from the tailgate to the door. We put it in writing before you commit, and if we have got the volume wrong we say so rather than quietly adding it at the end.

If the move carries on past the county line, the long-distance page covers how those run. If it carries on past the Channel, start with moving to Europe. For a single room or one big item, man and van is usually the better fit.