Comments on: Calling all sofa and moving experts

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 21:44:45 +0000

You have to be very careful about movers—it’s just one of those businesses that lends itself to scammers (from overcharging, to theft, to plain incompetence). But a good mover is worth his weight in gold.

My wife and I moved into a two story condo after law school, and for the life of us we could not get our queen-sized boxsprings up the metal spiral staircase to the second floor bedrooms. We tried it a million different ways with as many as half a dozen people helping us, and even considered taking the upstairs windows out of their frames and hoisting the boxsprings up on a rope, but we finally ended up sawing the boxspring in half and screwing and gluing it all back together upstairs (we were broke and could not afford a new bed). Weeks later, talking to other people who lived in the complex, I sheepishly admitted what we had done, assuming someone was going to explain the trick to us and make us feel foolish for taking a saw to the boxsprings—but no. Turns out that it was quite impossible to get a queen-sized box springs up those stairs (all the condos had the same setup)—you could fit a smaller bed up there, and you could fit a king (because the boxsprings for a king comes in two pieces already), but not a queen. One guy had left his queen-sized bed in the downstairs living room for two years before finally getting rid of it. It was just one of those things. Needless to say, when we moved out I sawed the bed to pieces and left it in the alley.

By: matt weiner

matt weiner — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 18:34:12 +0000

An ill-intentioned moving company can really mess you up. I’m not the only person I know who has spent weeks in an empty apartment with his stuff in a warehouse somewhere while the moving company twiddles its thumbs. They weren’t even particularly trying to find someone to drive my things from point A to point B within the contractually obligated time—and since I didn’t experience any actual financial loss, only a waste of my time, I couldn’t file an effective damage report. My advice to anyone using movers is to get a contract that states that they will lose $X per day late, if possible.

By: Penta

Penta — Sat, 20 Aug 2005 19:47:23 +0000

Do any of em do dorms? (I hate dorm life…)

By: littleboy

littleboy — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 20:39:06 +0000

I found this a bit too late to be of any help, but still I find I must offer some moving advice.

I used to struggle with moves, fighting to get things through doorways, up stairs, etc. Being an engineer and all part of my job was figuring out how to get BIG things into little places (part of that stupid buildability crap they kept harping about) but moving furniture always posed quite a challenge.

That is, I had these problems moving until I cultivated the friendship of a fellow who frequented our neighborhood pub. Just your old basic, working class neighborhood tavern (no yuppie swill on tap there). This guy was a professional mover for a local company that specialized difficult moves (weekend moves of 40 stories of offices, safes, that kind of thing). I would pay him in beer (provided after the move) just to stand around and supervise. The number of beers was up to me, but I was pretty generous in order to ensure his future help. He helped a friend and I get a grand piano up two flights of stairs, one of which made two turns. Took the two of us, plus his supervision, less than a half an hour and we barely broke a sweat. Bought him twelve beers for that (about $15 at the time). Best beer ever bought.

So remember, find a “pro from dover”, bribe them with beer, and you will be done in half the time and one quarter the work. All for maybe twenty dollars.

By: kharris

kharris — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 19:08:56 +0000

Now that the sofa is in place, get a copy of “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” You may not like the book in its entirety, but the first chapter will sound familiar.

By: ringverse

ringverse — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 16:51:11 +0000

Believe it or not, a true sofa moving story:

Years ago we were trying to get a curved 4 seater upstairs in a friends house. Trying to manoeuvre it around the turn in the stairs, we dropped it, and it wedged itself irretrievably in place.

Crowbars, hammers and car jacks couldn’t shift it!
After a full days futile efforts, we ended up extracting it in several pieces, with a chainsaw…

I have treated sofa moving with a healthy degree of respect since then.

By: Cranky Observer

Cranky Observer — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 16:03:01 +0000

> According to Poor Richard, “Three removes is as
> bad as a fire.”

Funny, I have always heard that spoken “as GOOD as a fire”!

Cranky

By: Martin

Martin — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:40:57 +0000

According to Poor Richard, “Three removes is as bad as a fire.”

(A quick google search attributes this to a 1757 B. Franklin essay, “The Way to Wealth.” I haven’t taken the time to pin down the source further.)

By: Cranky Observer

Cranky Observer — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 14:29:03 +0000

Having lived in a succession of old apartments and houses in Chicago, once with my queen-sized bed stacked up in the living room for two years cause I couldn’t get it up the stairs, I can report this: true professional movers can get things places you can’t even begin to think about. In fact, when we moved from the bed-in-the-living room place I was forced to hire pros for the first time (due to aging back syndrome), and they got that bed up a stairway smaller than the one I couldn’t do. When I asked how they just laughed at me ;-(

Of course, it is a question of how much you are willing to pay. Good professional movers don’t come cheap, even by the hour. And creative solutions might involved disassembling the window and hiring a lift truck to get it up there, for example. But if it is important to you, bite the bullet and call a place that offers regular, antique, and piano moving services. They will have someone who can do it.

Cranky

By: harry b

harry b — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 13:55:53 +0000

hektor—no, you weren’t.

Eszter—this is one of those things which requires on-the-spot expertise. If he really cares enough about the couch he’ll hire a moving firm (not one of the cheap ones, either). Comparative avantage and all that…

By: Hektor Bim

Hektor Bim — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 13:21:15 +0000

Am I the only one who immediately thought of “Dirk Gently”?

By: dsquared

dsquared — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 13:19:02 +0000

give it a gentle nudge with a bloody big hammer.

By: jacob

jacob — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 13:01:13 +0000

My parents tell the story of a friend they knew in law school who after graduation traveled around the world, acquiring all sorts of irrreplaceable knick-knacks and other objects from far-flung places. He then returned to Cambridge to live for some period of time before moving. The night before his move, he packed up all his worldly possessions into a car (or maybe truck?)—the objects d’art from around the world as well as his everyday items. Of course, the car was stolen during the night.

For my entire childhood they told me this story, and I have therefore become terrified of packing up the truck/car the night before. I simply won’t do it.

By: Tim Worstall

Tim Worstall — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 12:38:52 +0000

Calling All Sofa Experts.

I saw this at Crooked Timber and thought Hang on, someone’s having a lark here. Apparently not, Jeremy Freese really does have a sofa that he can’t get into his new apartment. Now which one was it that this happened

By: alkali

alkali — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 12:19:10 +0000

Call an upholsterer—Melo & Sons in Somerville is a good one in that area—and they will quickly disassemble the couch, get it upstairs, and reassemble. It might be $150 but it is the only way to solve the problem.