You tried doing it yourself · 1
You hired a van
The commonest first attempt and an entirely reasonable one. What goes wrong is almost never the driving — it is that a hire van holds a fraction of what the booking page implies, and the discovery arrives with the van already outside.
Ring anyway. Half a house is a normal booking and nobody here will find it funny.
What we do from here
Why the van is smaller than it looked
Because van capacity is quoted in cubic metres and houses are experienced in rooms. A van that sounds generous holds roughly a third of an ordinary three-bedroom house, and considerably less once nothing is stacked tightly.
Nobody measures a house before hiring a van, and there is no reason they would. The hire company quotes a size; it is not their job to tell you what a loft holds.
Where it usually stops
Two places. The first is the second trip, when the arithmetic becomes obvious and the day starts looking long. The second is a wardrobe on a staircase with a turn in it, which stops the attempt immediately rather than gradually.
If you are at the second one, the thing that beat you is the thing a removals crew does every day with a different technique and a different pair of straps. It is not a strength problem.
What to tell us on the phone
Roughly what is still in the house, whether there are stairs at either end, and when the van has to go back. Those three settle almost everything and take a minute.
Photographs help enormously here because there is no time for a visit — a picture of each room still to go, and one of the staircase, gives us the volume and the difficulty together.
And when we will say you do not need us
If what is left is genuinely three boxes and a lamp, a second trip in the van you already have is cheaper than anything we can offer, and we will say so.
It costs us a booking and saves you a figure you did not need to pay. That is not generosity; it is just the honest answer to the question you asked.
You hired a van
Questions about you hired a van
- 01
Is it too late to ring?
Almost never. A van on the drive and half a house still in it is an ordinary starting point for us and it needs no apology.
- 02
How much of a house does a hire van hold?
Roughly a third of an ordinary three-bedroom house, and less once things are not stacked tightly. That is the arithmetic that catches everybody.
- 03
Can you come the same day?
Sometimes, and we will tell you straight away rather than taking details first. Where we cannot, you need to know quickly so you can keep ringing.
- 04
What should we send you?
A photograph of each room still to go and one of the staircase. That gives us the volume and the difficulty in one message.
- 05
Will you take the awkward things only?
Yes — the wardrobe, the sofa, the bed and the appliances is a completely normal booking and frequently a short day.
- 06
What about the hire van itself?
That is between you and the hire company, though a call before the return time is worth more than one after it. We can work around it sitting on the drive.
Where are you up to?
Both addresses, roughly what is left, and how much time there is. If you are partway through something already, say so — that is the useful part rather than the embarrassing one.