yanH

We will be moving house locally within Sydney in the not too distant future. Does anyone have any removal companies that they would recommend (or maybe more to the point any to avoid )? We live in Wahroonga on the North Shore at the moment and will be moving in this area.

gedge

the best advice i've had is to look for someone as close to either your start or end address, the reason being is that they charge 'flag fall' rates meaning form the time they leave the depot to the time they return
if they're close by then they can't bung on an extra couple of hours for travelling time
here on the beaches i've used Shaw twice and not had much to grumble about... cheapest hourly rate i had quoted ($50ph about 2 years back) and reasonable service
i have come close to using Man and His Van but Shaw always beat their price

Big Galah

Right in Wahroonga (according to their stationery) there's Kurring-gai Removals, who are part of Moveforce.

There doesn't seem to be much on the net, but they're bound to be in your local Yellow Pages.

We used them to move from Chatswood to Berowra 18 months ago, and will be using them again in a couple of weeks to move within Berowra.

They can do the packing, or leave the boxes for you to pack yourselves (approx $750-1000 for them to do the packing), and offer insurance at $11 per $1,000 insured - up to you to decide what to insure, or if you want to do this separately. Be aware normal home contents insurance doesn't usually cover moving.

They provide boxes for clothing (with rails) separately, and may not have them until the day of delivery - i.e. you can't pack your clothes until then. They may want a refundable deposit for the boxes they do provide.

When we used them before they were at our door at the stated time and were pretty efficient - about 9am to 5pm for the whole arrive, load, drive, unload and put stuff like beds back together (if you have slat beds make sure you mark top/bottom correctly).

Dependent on how much stuff you have, of course, but very roughly I would say budget for 2,000 - 2,500 for your average house-to-house move in Sydney where you pack yourself (eek!), and inclusive of insurance. It costs about $400-$500 more on Saturdays, so weekday is definitely the one to go for with Kuring-gai.

You can call them for a quote, and while you're at it get one from SOS too and do a comparison.

This is the professional removals option and is a lot more expensive than the man with a van, but...when you've got lots of other things to sort out (new house, renovations, maybe go to work part of the day) and don't expect to move for a long time, it removes some of the stress.

Less stressful than waiting for matey with a van down the road who may or may not turn up anyway... (I've heard it happens).



Hope this helps,

Big.

gedge

holey moley! we've never paid more than about $600 for the actual moving
that's with doing all packing ourselves and helping with shifting boxes on the day

yanH

Thanks for the info I'll definitely check out Kurring-gai Removals. Just noticed that you live in Berowra. This is one of the areas that we are looking at moving to. How do you find the area? We've got four kids (13, 9, 8 and 3) and so are looking for somewhere that's pretty family oriented. Do you know what any of the schools are like?

Big Galah

Yep it sure is expensive, but circumstances right now mean it's better for us to get someone to do it. Also, when you look at buying a house, in the greater scheme of things it's just another expense that you factor in as a one-off.

Also, when you work as a contractor, there's the cost of taking a day off if you do it yourself.

That said, I don't want to do it again for a long time.

Berowra - yep, it's a nice family-oriented area, recently got a new Coles supermarket. Berowra Heights median price is a lot cheaper, but I can't really work out why (B - 527,000, BH - 475,000 according to Domain) as you wouldn't know you were going from one to the other (unless you ended up in Lonsdale Road and turned around immediately).

We little 'un hasn't started school yet, but there are 3 primary schools - Berowra Public, Wideview and St Bernards Catholic, all pretty good from what I've heard. The train takes the kids to secondary in Asquith, Hornsby and beyond and is pretty efficient. Most Wyong/Gosford/Newcastle trains also stop there so it's useful for getting fast trains to/from the city.

Cheers,

Big.

Jacque

Happy to recommend Baulkham Hills Removals Ph: 02 9624 7766

Never heard a complaint about them yet, and I've given their name to several people. Good luck with the move!