MOVINGS
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Renting a van
If you have decided to move by yourself, here are the guidelines to choose the van
As you have already been told, if your new home is far away
(we can say further that 50 km)
it's not convenient to do the removal by yourself and renting a van.
Why? Let's try to reckon: renting a van for 3 days costs about 200
euros. If we need 6 trips and 12 hours of our time, we can say there
would be an additional cost of 200 euros. The total cost has reached
400 euros; the average cost of a removal is about 1200 euros, so we
have already spent a third of the total cost just for renting the van.
It remains the staff cost (you can ask your friends to give you a hand,
but you will have to pay them a dinner !), the hard work to climb the
stairs, the furniture to assemble/disassemble, the risk of damaging
something...
It's easy to understand that it would be better to entrust the removal
to a company.
If we decide to rent a van, we have to choose the right model.
The most important feature of the van
isn't the volume, but the maximum length. If we
choose a small van, we will have to do some more trips; but if we
choose a van too short, it may be impossible to transport some piece of
furniture. In this case,
we'd have to stop the furniture assembly till the transport was
completed.
It's necessary to gauge the longest piece of furniture (keep in mind
that you can disassemble most of the furniture) and to choose the van
depending on it. Usually the longest pieces are the basis and the tops
of
wardrobes.
You can find a quick instrument to gauge the volume of your
furniture at the following address:
volume
calculator for removals
(in Italian). This instrument, located in a web site belonging to our
group, allows to calculate the volume of the whole furniture. Your van
must have a capacity greater than this value because you
can't store the furniture perfectly, so you will lose some room. If you
haven't any experience about removals, increase the theoric volume 30%.
In order to have an idea about the number of trips you will need, keep
in mind that a very common van (without any special driving licence)
can transport 18-20 cubic meters (internal width 2 meters, internal
height 2-2.3 meters, internal length 4-4.5 meters). Calculate the
volume of the furniture with the calculator, increase it 30% (if you
aren't a skilled mover) and divide this value by the volume of the van;
you will find the number of trips
required.
Where to rent a van?
You can ask any renting company; compare the prices and the renting conditions, then choose the most convenient. Be careful with:
- maximum number of kilometres allowable (it would be better if unlimited)
- insurance against damages
- possible exemption for damages to the vehicle
- dimensions of the van suitable for your furniture
Think about renting a lift too, by reading the next section, or skip it and go directly to the section about kids and removals.