Local · Long-haul · Storage in transit
Cobalt Garden is a crewed moving company for houses, flats and small studios. Every job begins with a survey, ends with a signed inventory, and runs to a schedule you can read before the van arrives.
Furniture blanket-wrapped and edge-taped before it leaves the room.
Fixed written quotes after the survey — hours, crew and materials itemised.
Weekday, Saturday and early-evening loads, booked to a two-hour window.
01 — Four move lanes
Crew size, van size and survey depth change with the lane. Pick the closest match and the quote form will ask only what that lane needs.
Full-day load with a room-by-room placement plan.
Planned around lifts, stair widths and loading windows.
One wardrobe, a studio kiln, a sofa that will not turn the corner.
Loaded once, held in sealed crates, delivered when keys land.
02 — The schedule
This is the plan we work to on a standard three-bedroom house move. Your survey notes replace the generic timings with yours, in writing, before you confirm.
A mover walks the rooms — or the video call — and records volume, awkward items, access and parking. You get the itemised quote and a draft running order the same week.
Cartons, tape, labels, wardrobe boxes and mirror cartons arrive flat-packed with a one-page labelling guide. Unused materials are collected, not charged.
On part-pack and full-pack jobs the crew packs kitchen, glass and wardrobes. On self-pack we confirm your box count and label every room door to match the new address.
Runners down on carpet and timber, banisters padded, door frames capped. A walkthrough sets the order of rooms and confirms what stays behind.
The inventory is read back to you and signed. The van is strapped in tiers so nothing shifts, and the seal number goes on your copy.
Boxes go to the room on the label, beds are rebuilt, and wardrobes are rehung before the crew leaves. Flatpack fixings come back taped to their own frame.
Flatten the cartons and we collect them on a booked morning — included on part-pack and full-pack moves, a small flat fee on self-pack.
Completion dates slip. If yours moves, we re-plan the same crew at no extra charge where the diary allows.
03 — Handling notes
The fastest way to judge a mover is to ask how they carry the difficult things. Here is our standing method for the items that cause most of the damage claims in this trade.
Double-walled mirror cartons with foam corners, carried flat, loaded last against a bulkhead.
Hanging rails travel in the van. Clothes stay on their hangers — no folding, no ironing at the other end.
Dismantled by the crew, fixings bagged and taped to their own frame, rebuilt in the right room.
Corrugated sleeves under 1 metre, a built timber crate above it, marked for upright carry only.
Skates and a four-person lift on a route measured at survey, with door leaves removed if the gap is tight.
Open trays, never sealed cartons. Last on, first off, and watered the night before rather than the morning of.
Original boxes where you kept them, otherwise a foam-lined crate cut to the case.
Hand tools bundled and capped, fuel drained, mowers and bikes strapped upright at the tail.
04 — Choose your level
The move itself is the same crew and the same care at every level. What changes is how much of the packing you keep, and that is usually the biggest lever on the final figure.
You box the contents over a fortnight. We handle furniture, appliances and everything that needs tools.
We take the slow rooms — kitchen, glassware, wardrobes, bookshelves — and you keep the simple cupboards.
Nothing for you to box. The crew packs the day before, moves on the day, and unpacks to flat surfaces after.
Each level is quoted per move rather than per box, because volume, floor level and parking change the figure far more than the carton count does. The survey gives you one number with the hours, crew and materials shown separately.
05 — Field notes
Almost every late finish traces back to something we could have measured. These are the access questions the survey always asks, so you can think about them now.
We measure the tightest turn, not the widest. A half-landing with a low ceiling decides whether a wardrobe travels whole or in halves.
Many buildings cap the lift to one booked window. Tell us the window at survey and the running order is built backwards from it.
Anything beyond roughly thirty paces from tailgate to door adds crew time. Where a permit or suspension is needed, we tell you which one and when to apply.
If the large van cannot reach the door, we plan a shuttle load with a smaller vehicle rather than discovering it on the morning.
Runners and board protection go down first on timber, tile and shared hallways, and come up before the crew leaves.
Collecting from storage or a second property on the same day is normal — it just needs to be in the plan, not a phone call at noon.
06 — Before you book
By volume, access and hours — not by room count alone. The survey records cubic metres, awkward items, floor levels and parking, then the quote shows crew hours, vehicle, materials and any storage separately so you can see what each part costs.
Hanging clothes can stay put — they transfer to rails in the van. Drawers should be emptied of anything heavy or breakable, but soft contents such as linen and knitwear can usually travel in place if the unit is sound.
Fuels, gas bottles, paint, aerosols, fireworks and anything corrosive stay with you. We also decline loaded firearms cabinets and live aquariums. Pets travel with their owners; we will happily plan the load around their crate going last.
Tell us as soon as you know. Where the diary allows we re-plan the same crew for the new date at no extra charge, and if you need storage in between, the load goes into sealed crates with its own inventory.
Yes. Flatten them and we collect on a booked morning within ten days. Collection is included on part-pack and full-pack moves and carries a small flat fee on self-pack.
We disconnect and drain washing machines and dishwashers, and we isolate plumbed fridges where there is an accessible valve. Gas appliances and hard-wired cookers need a qualified engineer — we will flag that at survey so it is booked before the day.
Two to three weeks is comfortable for a weekday load and four for a Friday or month-end. We keep a small number of short-notice slots each week for chains that complete unexpectedly, so it is always worth asking.
07 — Lead with the survey
Send the outline below and we will come back with survey times that suit you. The quote follows the walkthrough, in writing, with nothing added afterwards.