What a 3-Bedroom House Move in London Costs

A 3-bedroom house is the move where the price stops being a van and a couple of hours. There is more to carry than in any flat, there are usually bunk beds, wardrobes and a dining table to take apart, and there is the loft, the garage and the shed, which most people forget until the crew asks. In London there is also the street: a lorry needs more kerb than a van, and it has to reach a house that may sit on a narrow residential road.

This guide keeps one house the same and works out what it costs to move it, line by line. It uses the vehicle, crew and hours our quote form suggests for a 3-bedroom house, prices the move at 5, 15 and 50 miles, and then looks at the choices that change the bill most: three movers or four, one lorry or two smaller vehicles, packing or not, and how much furniture to take apart. Every AFS figure is computed from our published rate card, with the same arithmetic as the quote form. For other sizes of home, what house removals cost in London has the whole range, and our house removals in London page has the service itself.

Every removal on our rate card is three numbers: an hourly rate for the vehicle and the crew, the hours the job takes, and a charge for each road mile between the two addresses. For a 3-bedroom house our quote form suggests the 7.5 Tonne Lorry, which holds up to 1,300 cubic feet, with 3 movers. That costs £180 an hour, with a 3 hours minimum and £2.40 a mile.

The hours are the loading time, the drive and the unloading time. For the 7.5 Tonne Lorry, the loading is 4 hours and the unloading 4 hours, 8 hours of carrying in all. The clock starts when the team arrives at your collection address, so the drive to your door is not counted. The total is rounded up to the next half hour and never charged below the minimum, which on a 3-bed never applies, because the carrying alone is far longer.

The vehicle is a suggestion, not a rule. Our quote form picks the vehicle by the volume of what is moving. A typical 3-bedroom house fits the 7.5 Tonne Lorry's 1,300 cubic feet. A sparsely furnished one may fit the 5.5 Tonne Lorry at 1,000 cubic feet. A full one, with a packed loft and a garage, may need the next size up. The hours follow the vehicle, so a bigger vehicle brings more loading time with it, and a smaller one less.

Here is one typical 3-bedroom house, ground floor at both ends, on a weekday, moved to three example distances: a neighbouring borough, the other side of London, and out to the commuter belt. The distances are round road miles chosen as examples, not measured routes.

Going from 5 to 15 miles adds £24, and all of it is mileage: the hours charged stay at 8 hr 30 min, because the extra driving still fits inside the same half hour. At 50 miles the drive is 1 hr 15 min, the job is charged 9 hr 30 min, and the move comes to £1,830. The mileage is 1% of the price at 5 miles and 7% at 50.

Compare that with a smaller home. A 1-bedroom flat is 4 hours of carrying; a 3-bedroom house is 8 hours. On a 3-bed, every half hour charged is worth £90, so anything that saves time at the doors saves more than any shorter route. What a 1-bedroom flat move costs follows one flat out to 200 miles if you want to see the distance side in more detail.

On our rate card, 4 hours at each end: 4 hours to load and 4 hours to unload. Our hours are set by vehicle, because the vehicle follows the volume, and the volume is what takes time to carry. That is a working day before the van has moved, which shapes how a 3-bed day runs.

A 5-mile 3-bed move is charged 8 hr 30 min. With a morning start, the loading takes the morning, the drive is short, and the unloading takes the afternoon. At 50 miles the charged time is 9 hr 30 min, and at 100 miles it is 10 hours, for £2,040. That is a long day for a crew.

There is also a legal limit. GOV.UK's guidance on drivers' hours says that under the Great Britain domestic rules for goods vehicles, a driver may drive for at most 10 hours and be on duty for at most 11 hours in any working day. A 3-bed move with a long drive gets close to the duty side of that, which is why the start time is agreed in advance and why some long moves are planned over two days. How long a London house move takes explains when a move becomes a two-day job and how that works.

Three things decide whether a 3-bed day runs to plan:

• Keys at the new house. The unloading cannot start until the door opens. Waiting time is charged per crew member per hour, so on a crew of three or four a late key release adds up quickly
• Everything packed and sealed. Packing on the day turns a full day into an overrun. A 3-bed has more cupboards than people remember
• Parking at both ends. Every metre between the lorry and the front door is walked many hundreds of times on a 3-bed

Our quote form suggests 3 movers for a 3-bedroom house. You can ask for more, and if you give the form a volume instead of a bedroom count, it uses the 7.5 Tonne Lorry's own default, which is 4 movers. On the 7.5 Tonne Lorry, 4 movers cost £210 an hour against £180 for 3 movers: £30 more for every hour charged, including the drive.

The table shows the same house with 3 movers and with 4 movers if both took the same time, and how much sooner the bigger crew would have to finish to cost no more. The break-even hours are rounded down to the half hour, as a quote would charge them. The last column is that saving as a share of the 8 hours of carrying, the only part of the day an extra mover can shorten.

On a 5-mile move, 4 movers must save 1 hr 30 min of carrying to break even, 19% of it. At 50 miles the extra mover is also paid for 1 hr 15 min in the cab, and must save 1 hr 30 min, 19% of the carrying.

When does a fourth mover earn that back? When the work can genuinely be split. On a 3-bed it often can be, more than on a flat: two people can take the heavy furniture while two keep the boxes moving. It helps most when:

• The walk from the lorry is long. A lorry that cannot stop outside means every item is carried further, and that is where extra hands save the most time
• There is a lot of heavy furniture. Wardrobes, a sofa, a fridge freezer or a dining table need two people each, and with only three movers the third waits
• The day is tight. A late key release or an early end at the other house leaves less time to unload
• The move is short. On a 5-mile move the extra mover is paid for very little driving

On a long, easy move with good parking, three is usually the better price. The honest answer depends on your two front doors, which is why the quote asks about them. The Luton van guide works through the same crew question for a smaller vehicle.

A 1,300 cubic foot house can travel in one 7.5 Tonne Lorry, or in smaller vehicles: two Luton Box Vans side by side, or one smaller vehicle making two trips. Our earlier records include 3-bedroom moves booked with two Luton vans, so it is a real choice. Here is what each costs on our rate card.

The table rests on one stated assumption: the same house takes the same 8 hours of carrying in every option, because the same things are carried. Two vehicles travelling together each drive the route once. One vehicle making two trips drives it three times: out loaded, back empty, and out again. The figure in brackets is the hours charged. These are illustrations of the rate card arithmetic, not quotes, and they assume every option holds the whole house.

Two Luton Box Vans side by side cost more than one lorry at every distance here: £1,718 against £1,542 at 5 miles. They put four people on the job instead of three, and two drivers and two vehicles on the road. They make sense when the street cannot take a lorry, or when the house needs four people anyway, not to save money.

One Luton Box Van making two trips with three movers is the cheapest line on paper for a short move: £1,197 at 5 miles, against £1,542 for one lorry trip. By 50 miles the gap has closed (£1,830 against £1,830), and on our rate card one lorry trip is the cheapest option from about 50 miles. The 5.5 Tonne Lorry making two trips sits between the two at £1,470 on a 5-mile move.

Before choosing two trips for the saving, check what the table assumes:

• The whole house fits in two loads. Two Luton Box Van loads hold 1,400 cubic feet. If the loft and garage push the volume over that, a third trip wipes out the saving
• The new house is open from the start. The first load has to be unloaded before the second is collected, so the keys must be released early in the day
• The van can stop at both doors, twice. On a London street, losing the space between trips costs carrying time
• The carrying takes no longer. Splitting a house into two loads means two rounds of loading and securing. Our table gives that no extra time, which flatters the two-trip lines

The safe reading is this: on a short move with keys released early and parking sorted at both ends, a smaller vehicle making two trips can cost less. On any longer move, or when the volume is close to the limit, one 7.5 Tonne Lorry trip is the better plan. Send a room-by-room list and we will tell you which one your house needs.

If you are thinking of hiring a lorry and doing it yourself, check the licence first. GOV.UK says a category B car licence for a test passed on or after 1 January 1997 covers vehicles up to 3,500kg maximum authorised mass, and that category C1 is needed for vehicles between 3,500 and 7,500kg.

Yes, and the London rules that people hear about mostly apply to much heavier vehicles. Two are worth knowing because they come up when neighbours see a lorry outside:

• The HGV Safety Permit. TfL requires a safety permit, under the Direct Vision Standard, for heavy goods vehicles over 12 tonnes gross vehicle weight operating in Greater London. A 7.5 tonne lorry is below that
• The London Lorry Control Scheme. London Councils says the scheme controls heavy goods vehicles over 18 tonnes maximum gross weight, restricting them from residential roads at certain times. A 7.5 tonne lorry is well below that too

What matters more on moving day is space. A lorry is longer than a Luton van and needs room to stop and to open the back. On a narrow street with parked cars on both sides, that can mean a parking suspension, a longer walk, or a smaller vehicle. Tell us what the street is like at both ends, and send a photo if you can; it is the best way to get the vehicle right first time.

A suspension is applied for and paid for by you, directly to the council, and we plan the vehicle and crew around the bays you book. Some councils make it cheaper for a house move. Camden, when we checked its page, listed: £66.66 admin + £79.63 per space for 1 day. Moving home: first-day space charge waived for up to 3 spaces. Tower Hamlets listed: £200 service charge + £90 per bay per day. Moving house: no bay charge for up to 2 bays for 1 day. Our parking suspension finder has the rules for 31 councils, and parking suspensions for moving day explains how to apply.

Two road lines can appear on a 3-bed quote. If either address is inside the Congestion Charge zone during charging hours, the charge is added as its own line: TfL charges £18 a day when paid in advance or on the day, and £21 if paid by midnight of the third day after travel. Tolls on the route are added at cost. Our vehicles meet the ULEZ standard, so no ULEZ charge is ever added. London road charges on moving day has the detail.

Packing a 3-bedroom house is the biggest single extra most people consider. Our 3-bedroom package is £1,000: £650 for 3 packers / up to 6 hrs and £350 for the materials. That is 18 packer-hours of work, usually done the day before the move so the crew arrives to a house that is ready to load. Packing is only offered with a removal, never on its own.

The materials allowance in the 3-bedroom package is: 35 small / book boxes, 35 large double-wall boxes, 4 wardrobe boxes, 8 tape rolls, 40m bubble wrap, 500 sheets packing paper, 2 rolls stretch wrap, 3 mattress covers. That is 74 boxes in all, including 4 wardrobe boxes for hanging clothes.

Two notes from our packing price list matter for a house. First: quantities are standard allowances for normally furnished properties. Heavily furnished homes, lofts, garages, large kitchens, libraries, fragile collections or unusual contents may require extra materials and/or packing time. Second: specialist materials — TV cartons, picture and mirror cartons, specialist crates and additional protection — are not included and are quoted separately. If more packing time is needed on the day, it is £40 per packer per hour.

Is it worth it? It depends on your time, not just the money. A 3-bed is a lot of boxes, and the most common reason a moving day runs over is packing that is not finished. If you pack yourself, have everything sealed and labelled before the team arrives. If you want part of it done, the kitchen and anything fragile are usually where professional packing saves the most. Do removal companies supply boxes? covers what to use if you pack yourself.

Every house is different, so here is a stated assumption, not a rule: a king-size bed and a 3-door wardrobe in the main bedroom, a standard bed and a 2-door wardrobe in each of the other two bedrooms, and a dining table. That is 7 items. The prices are from our dismantling price list, which has a £90 minimum booking. Dismantling is only offered with a removal.

Taking the whole set apart and rebuilding it at the new house is £720. Taking it apart only, and rebuilding it yourself, is £395. If you want only the beds done, so everyone can sleep in a made bed on the first night, the three beds taken apart and rebuilt come to £290.

Some wardrobes cost more and need photographs first. An IKEA PAX — 2–3 sections is £180 taken apart and rebuilt, and sliding, mirrored and fitted wardrobes are priced after photos or a survey. A wardrobe that is fixed to the wall or built in may not come apart cleanly at all. Do removal companies dismantle furniture? has the full price list and what dismantling does not cover.

A few things you can do yourself to cut this line: take apart flat-pack furniture you put together, keep the screws in a labelled bag taped to the item, and tell us which items will not be rebuilt because they are going. Whatever is left is priced in the quote, item by item.

On a flat move, almost everything is in sight. On a 3-bedroom house move, a large part of the load is often out of sight: in the loft, the garage, the shed, under the stairs, and in the garden. It is the most common reason a house turns out bigger than its bedroom count.

We do not publish a typical volume for a loft or a garage, because there is no such thing. One loft holds a few suitcases; another holds twenty years of boxes. What we ask is simple: list them, the same way you list the rooms.

• The loft. Roughly how many boxes, and anything large: Christmas decorations, a cot, suitcases, old furniture. Say whether there is a fixed ladder and boarding, because that decides how quickly things come down
• The garage. Bikes, tools, a lawnmower, garden furniture, a chest freezer, shelving. Say whether the shelving is fixed
• The shed. Garden tools, pots, a barbecue. Say what is going and what is staying with the house
• The garden. Tables and chairs, planters, play equipment. Large pots are heavy and slow to carry

This matters for the price in two ways. Volume decides the vehicle: if the loft and garage push the load past 1,300 cubic feet, the house needs a bigger vehicle, or a second trip, and the hours that come with it. And our packing package is a standard allowance: lofts, garages and unusual contents can need more materials and time, as the packing note above says.

One more thing: we do not do waste clearance. Anything you do not want to move needs to be sold, given away or taken to the tip by you before moving day, not left for the crew. Clearing out before the survey is also the cheapest way to cut a 3-bed quote, because every item you do not move is time you do not pay for. If some of it is going into storage instead, storage costs in London explains how we arrange it.

Put together, the three biggest lines on a 3-bedroom house move look like this. The chart uses the same house at the same three distances, with the 3-bedroom packing package and the 7-item furniture set taken apart and rebuilt.

On a 5-mile move, the whole bill is £3,262, and the move itself is 47% of it. At 50 miles it is £3,550. The packing and dismantling are the same at any distance, so they matter most on a short London move, where they can come close to the cost of the move itself.

Two more lines can apply. The day: weekday and Saturday daytime moves have no surcharge, but an evening adds 15% to the hourly rate and a Sunday or bank holiday 20%. On the 5-mile move that is £229.50 for an evening and £306 for a Sunday, because the surcharge applies to every hour charged. And the access: our examples assume ground floor at both ends. A house is normally entered at street level, but if yours is a maisonette or reached up a flight of steps, say so; how the removal stairs charge works explains that line, and how much a flat removal costs shows what floors do to a price.

These are real 3-bedroom moves from our booking records, anonymised to the area. Only one is in London; the rest are from the other areas we cover, but a house is a house, and the volumes and crews are the useful part. The prices are what customers booked at the time, under our earlier pricing, which charged a price for a time slot, so they are not today's rates. The miles are straight-line distances between the postcode areas, not road miles. The last column is the vehicle today's volume bands would suggest for the upper volume recorded.

Three things stand out. First, the volumes vary widely: from 700 to 1,500 cubic feet for houses with the same bedroom count, and 3 of the recorded volumes are above the 7.5 Tonne Lorry's 1,300. Second, 3 of these moves were booked with two vans, or with two vans as the alternative to a lorry, which is the trade-off in the vehicle table above. Third, the bookings that recorded a time ran from a few hours to most of a working day, in line with the 8 hours of carrying on today's rate card.

The lesson is the same as for the loft: count the house, not the bedrooms. The bedroom count is a starting point for an estimate. The inventory is what makes it a quote.

Every figure above is an estimate for a typical 3-bedroom house. Your written quote is built from your own move. These are the things that move it, and what to check when you compare one quote with another:

• The volume. A full house with a loft and garage can need a bigger vehicle, and a sparse one a smaller one. The hours follow the vehicle
• The road distance. £2.40 a mile on the 7.5 Tonne Lorry, from your collection to your delivery
• The crew. 3 movers is the suggestion; 4 movers adds £30 an hour for every hour charged
• The parking and the walk. How close the lorry can stop at each house, and whether a suspension is needed
• The day. Evenings add 15% and Sundays and bank holidays 20% to the hourly rate
• The extras. Packing, dismantling, the Congestion Charge and any tolls, each as its own line
• Waiting. £40 per crew member per hour, for example while keys are released. With 3 movers, that is £120 an hour

Whatever the size of the house, every move with us includes:

• Goods in Transit cover. Included on every move, not sold as an add-on.
• Public Liability cover. In place on every job, at home or at work.
• Our own crew. Every mover is employed by AFS. We never pass your move to a subcontractor.
• One named coordinator. Your single point of contact, from the quote to the last box.

If your move is out of London rather than within it, moving out of London covers the London end of a long move.

Start from our house removals in London page, which covers 3-bedroom houses and every other size with the same rate card. Send photos of anything large, and of the street outside if it is narrow. The quote shows every line in this guide for your own house, and the London house removals team can tell you which vehicle and crew suit it.