Small moves
Man and van in Plymouth and the rest of Devon.
Not every move needs a removal lorry and a four-person crew. A flat, a single room, a part load, a sofa that will not go in the car — that is a van, a couple of us, and an hour or two of doing it properly.
More of our man and van work starts in Plymouth than anywhere else in Devon, and the reason is the housing. It is a city of flats, conversions and shared houses, with a big student population, a constant naval turnover and a rental market where people move often and do not own much. Those moves do not need a lorry. They need someone who turns up, carries, and does not scrape the stairwell.
The same service runs across the county — Exeter, Torquay, Paignton, Newton Abbot, Barnstaple — but Plymouth is where most of the calls come from.
What people actually use it for
- A one or two-bed flat, start to finish
- A single room out of a shared house at the end of a tenancy
- Student moves — halls to house, house to house, home for the summer
- One large awkward item: a sofa, a wardrobe, an American fridge, a workshop bench
- Marketplace and furniture-shop collections, including trade counters
- Part loads sharing a van with another job on the same run
- Taking the last of it when the main removal has already gone
Plymouth specifics we plan around
The Hoe and the streets behind it are largely Victorian conversions — handsome, tall, and full of half-landings with a tight turn where a three-seater has to go vertical or not at all. The city-centre blocks have lifts that are fine until one is out of service. Mutley and Greenbank are student territory with permit parking and no loading bay worth the name. Devonport and Stoke have terraces where the only place to stop is the road itself. Out at Plympton and Plymstock it opens up and gets easy.
None of that is a complaint. It is just why we ask which floor, whether there is a lift, and where we are allowed to put the van — before the day, not on it.
Where it stops being a man-and-van job
We will tell you if you have outgrown it. A three-bed house with a loft and a garage is a house removal, and trying to do it in van-loads costs more in time than doing it properly once. Anything leaving the county for good is usually better as a long-distance move, because a small van doing Plymouth to Manchester and back is a poor use of everybody's day. We would rather point you at the right service than take the booking and watch it go wrong.
Booking one
Send the two addresses, the floor at each end, the biggest item, and roughly how much there is. That is enough for a written figure. If it is genuinely hard to describe, take four photos on your phone and send those instead — it is faster than a paragraph and more accurate.
Man and van questions
Is it one man or two?
Depends what is going. A few boxes and a desk is a one-man job. A sofa bed down three flights in a Plymouth conversion is not, and sending one person would just mean it does not get done. Tell us what the heaviest item is and which floor it lives on.
Do you do student moves?
Constantly, in Plymouth especially. Halls to a shared house, house to house at the end of a tenancy, or a car-load that turned out to be three car-loads. September and June are the crushes — book earlier than feels necessary.
Can you collect from a shop or a warehouse?
Yes. Furniture shop collections, marketplace pickups, a pallet from a trade counter. If it needs a signature or a specific collection window, tell us on the form so we build it into the run rather than turning up outside their hours.
Will you help carry, or is it driver-only?
We carry. That is the point of the service. What we will not do is take a piano down an external stone staircase with two people and a prayer — some items need proper kit and we will say so rather than risk your things and our backs.
Is a part load cheaper than a full van?
It is priced on what it actually takes — the space used, the time, the distance and the access. We will not put a figure on it here, but you get the number in writing once we know what is going and where from.
Get a small move quoted
Two addresses, the floor at each end, and what the heaviest thing is. That is usually enough for us to price it.