How it works

If you are in the process of moving to a new apartment or sprucing your place up by adding some new items it is likely you’ll need furniture transportation. Regardless of whether it’s your old furniture on removal or brand new furniture, furniture transportation is always a challenge. Of course it depends on what kind of furniture needs transportation – shelves or bedside tables might be transported in your car, however a bookcase or a dinner table could become an issue. If you have a van at your disposal, you can transport the furniture yourself, however if you don’t, you’ll need assistance from a hauler. In search for a reliable solution that will also be affordable, consider trying a transport marketplace, for example Clicktrans.

Preparing furniture for transportation

When you plan to transport your furniture, there are a couple of steps you ought to follow, while securing them for shipment. First of all, don’t forget to remove all the contents from the furniture – even if the items inside are few. Some jolts as well as shocks are almost impossible to avoid on the road and every extra item moving uncontrollably inside your furniture might damage it. Not to mention that empty furniture will be lighter and therefore easier to load.

Disassemble every part that you can – if your furniture may be dismantled without damage and shipped in parts, it will be the safest way to ship it. A bed in parts is also more simple to fit in a van. The main downside of shipping furniture in pieces is that the disassembling can be time-consuming, as unskilfully disassembled furniture can be hard or even impossible to put back together after transportation. Other than that – you must be extra cautious when shipping tiny pieces (screws etc.). It’s best to transport them together, for example in a Ziploc bag.

Some types of furniture (for example antiques) mustn’t be disassembled and have to be shipped in one piece. How to ship them securely? Chance that you will find a cardboard suitable to fit a dinner table is rather small, but there are other ways to secure it for the time of transportation. While preparing furniture for the time of transportation bubble wrap will be essential. Enclose all the delicate places and all the corners with bubble wrap to prevent your cargo from breaking in case some other load bumps into it during shipment. If you cannot acquire bubble foil, you can try using cardboard to protect the corners.

If your furniture has some particularly delicate elements (like containing glass or delicate fabrics) you ought to be especially careful while transporting it. If it’s possible, you should transport them independently, enclosed in protective layers of cloth or bubble foil (every glass element should be shipped that way). If it’s a part of furniture that cannot be disassembled, enclose it in additional layers of bubble foil. And remember to mention to the transport provider that he will be shipping fragile load.

As was mentioned above, usually you will require assistance with shipping furniture. When choosing a hauler it’s convenient to determine if he offers assistance with loading as well as unloading. Don’t forget to specify from which floor they should be taken and to which floor they should be moved – as well as if there is an elevator the haulers can use.  

If your furniture is of great value (even if it’s just sentimental) you should choose a transport provider that can provide a carrier liability insurance. Hiring him will likely cost more, but in case anything happens to your load during shipment, you will have right to compensation.

Cost of furniture shipment

Because furniture is a quite diverse section, a price of furniture shipment can vary considerably. When estimating the cost of shipment you have to take into consideration the route length, type of job (domestic or international), size and weight of the cargo, if the cargo is fragile and so on. A good way to cut the cost of furniture transportation is to hire a transport provider who will take your furniture as a partial load – this way you can pay considerably less for the transportation, keeping high quality of the service.