FAQ

Questions, answered plainly

Grouped by when they tend to come up. If yours is not here, ask.

Before the move

How far ahead should we speak?: For a large house or a prime-central address, weeks rather than days. Building permissions, square committees and lift bookings all run to their own timetables, and those timetables are usually the binding constraint rather than our availability.
What does a survey involve?: A walk through every floor, including the parts that get forgotten, and a conversation about sequence — what leaves first and what has to stay usable longest. It produces a plan, not just a number.
Do you charge for it?: No.
Can you quote without seeing the property?: Not for this kind of work, no. The volume in a six-floor house and the constraints on a prime-central street are both things that have to be seen.

How do you protect gilt frames?: They are carried by the frame’s structure, never the canvas or the glass, and wrapped so that nothing bears on the gesso. Glazed works are taped against shatter travel. Where a frame is fragile enough to warrant it, a crate is built around it.
What about a longcase clock?: The movement and pendulum are immobilised or removed before transit by whoever normally services it. We coordinate with your horologist rather than attempting it, because a clock dismantled in the wrong order is a repair bill.
Why is period furniture handled differently?: Old glue blocks and loose tenons fail under lifting loads that modern furniture shrugs off. Pieces are carried from their structural points rather than their arms, tops or stretchers.
Do you record condition beforehand?: For anything of value, yes — photographs and written notes of existing marks, losses and repairs, before anything is touched. It protects both sides and it is the only way to be clear afterwards.

Who arranges building permission?: We do. Notifying the managing agent or porter, booking the service lift, supplying evidence of public liability cover. What we need from you is the confirmed date early enough for those to be processed.
What if the building and the street disagree?: It is common in the centre — porter-managed blocks often restrict moves to the middle of the day, which is exactly when a red route is enforced. Finding the window where both permit work is most of the planning, and occasionally the honest answer is that a different date is needed.
Can you work outside normal hours?: Where the building permits it, yes. Many central residential buildings prohibit evening and Sunday moves entirely, and that is their rule rather than ours.
What happens if a square refuses permission?: Then we cannot work from the square, and we plan a standing point outside it with a longer carry. We will not proceed in breach of a building’s or a square’s conditions of access.

Next step

Ask it. We would rather answer it now than have it surface on the day.