A large house changing regions is the biggest job on these pages: four movers, one full truck or two, and almost always two days. The price is written beforehand, and most surprises get settled on the phone.
Change the floor, the packing, the extras, or the date. The range follows.
What to know
Seven to ten hours of loading and unloading with four people, plus five to seven hours of road: it does not fit in one day. We usually load on day one, drive, and deliver on day two within an agreed window. If the house exceeds one truck, a second truck the same day is often simpler than a 250 km round trip.
At this size, we like to see the house, or walk through it on a video call: the garage, the shed, the finished basement, the furniture assembled in place. Full packing is counted in days and hundreds of boxes and deserves its own line. Sell or give things away before the date, not that morning: every piece that does not get on the truck shows on the range.
Questions
Q1
Should we plan on two days?
Almost always, yes: loading on the first day, delivery the next. With full packing, packing often happens the day before loading, so three days in total.
Q2
Does a second truck cost double?
No. It adds a crew and a truck on the same day, but one road and one plan. It is often cheaper than a round trip, and the quote compares both.
Q3
What about plants, the aquarium, and the wine?
Plants and the aquarium travel better in your car: the truck box is usually neither heated nor air-conditioned. Wine and valuables too. Tell us what stays so loading is planned around it.
Straightforward advice, written to be read at your pace.
Packing without losing track
Packing often takes longer than loading. If you do it yourself, start with the kitchen and with what breaks: dishes, lamps, mirrors, frames. Fill the empty space. A half-empty box gets crushed under the others. Write the room on two sides, not only on the top, because the top disappears in the stack. “Fragile” alone does not say whether the box belongs in the bedroom or the living room. If we pack, we use paper and pads, and the boxes carry the same kind of label.
Unpacking can be added to the quote, or left for the next day. Nothing requires every box to be opened that night. Open the essentials first: sheets, the coffee pot, one pot, toiletries. The rest can wait. What is not coming should not sit in a box “just in case”. A quote based on the whole house will be too high if half the furniture is staying with family. Decide before the truck, not while the ramp is already out.
Inside the truck
The order in the truck is not random. Heavy, flat pieces go against the walls, strapped, so nothing walks when the brakes come on. Mattresses often stay upright, away from furniture corners. Heavy boxes go low, light boxes go high. A piano or an armoire is not braced like a carton of books. If the drive crosses a bridge or lasts more than an hour, the straps matter more. We do not fill the floor at random just so it fits.
You can look before the doors close if you want to see that the bed and the sideboard are actually there. Then the truck rolls. On a local job, unloading often follows the same day. On a longer distance, the delivery window is said ahead of time. You do not have to guess where the boxes are. If the two addresses are not ready on the same day, holding the goods between those dates can be planned. The place and the length of time belong in the quote, not as a surprise at the dock.
Pad first, wrap second. The truck waits outside.
At the new address
At the new address, the same idea: a clear path, one person pointing to the rooms, and the building’s rules if there are any. We set furniture where you show us, not only inside the door. The bed goes against the wall you chose, and the sideboard too, as far as the room allows. Labelled boxes go to the room written on them. If a door is narrower than the piece, we say so before forcing it. Sometimes the feet have to come off, or the piece has to come in through another opening.
Plan a place to sit from the start, even a kitchen chair. The day is long for you as well. When the last room is empty in the old home and the new one has received what was on the list, we confirm it with you. If a box is missing, it is better to see that while the truck is still there. Keep the labels until the next day. They still help when you are looking for the lamp or the sheets.
Dates, July 1, and lead time
A few weeks of notice makes the day simpler, especially in summer. In Quebec, many leases change on July 1. That day, elevators are taken and the streets in apartment neighbourhoods are full. If your date can be a Tuesday in May or September, the same home moves more calmly. If the date is fixed in that busy week, call early and already have the elevator time. We say clearly whether the day is still open.
A weekday move is often smoother than a Saturday, because buildings and streets are less crowded. That is not always possible, and it is not a rule. Evenings can be discussed when the building allows them. In winter, in Quebec City as in Montreal, ice and snow add time on outdoor steps. Tell us if the entrance is a porch that has not been cleared. That is not a cosmetic detail. It is the path the sideboard has to take.
The pads go on one piece at a time.
What changes the price
There is no single rate on this site, because a studio and a suburban house do not need the same crew or the same time. The price follows the volume, the distance, the stairs, the elevator, the packing, and, if needed, holding the goods. A long carry from the street, a third floor with no elevator, or two buildings that each require a booking, make the day longer. One heavy item is still a real job: the price then follows the weight, the steps, and the distance, not the size of a whole house.
What does not change the price is a question asked beforehand. Call to ask if a date is open, or whether a piece will fit through a door. What changes it is a new fact on the morning. We would rather have a ten-minute call the week before than a discussion on the sidewalk. The accepted quote is the one that governs. If a page on the site and that text differ, the accepted text is the one that counts.
A small job or a full house
You do not need a full house to call. A few boxes, a bed, a washing machine, or a piano are welcome. The care does not shrink because the list is short. A condo may still require a certificate and an elevator time for a single piece. Tell us the name of the item, the floor it leaves, and the floor it goes to. A photo helps for an armoire or a piano whose width we do not know.
At the other end, a full house needs a calmer inventory: basement, garage, shed, balcony. Tools and paint are not handled like picture frames. If part of the contents is staying, say so. We do not empty a home for you, and we do not choose what is given away or thrown out. Family can take a piece before truck day. What stays behind does not go into the quote.
The handwriting names the room, not only “fragile”.
A short drive or a longer one
A local move is often done in a day: load, drive, unload. Kilometres do not say everything. Two elevators, a bridge, and a narrow street can take longer than a suburban drive with two driveways. Laval, Longueuil, the North Shore, and the island do not share the same timing even when the addresses look close on a map. We count that time in the quote instead of discovering it at rush hour.
A longer distance, for example between Montreal and Quebec City, adds road and a delivery window said in advance. Packing matters more there, because the boxes stay in motion longer. Our main work is in Quebec. For a trip that starts or ends outside the province, call. We say whether the date is possible. We do not promise a map of the whole country. We promise a clear answer.
What the quote actually looks at
A fair quote starts with two addresses, not a price given on the phone with no detail. We ask for the floor you are leaving, the floor you are going to, whether there is an elevator, and how many steps there are if there is not. A house with a basement is not the same volume as a small apartment. A piano, a built-in fridge, or a very heavy bed has to be named at the start, or the first number will not hold on truck day. Distance counts too, especially when a bridge sits between the two doors. Where the truck parks is part of the time: a driveway, a dock, or a street that needs a permit is not the same half hour.
The quote is written, and it is free. It says whether packing, unpacking, or holding goods between two dates is included. It books nothing until you accept it. If a floor was left out, or twenty boxes appear in the morning that were not in the story, the work changes and we say so before going on. The aim is not a surprise at the end. The aim is that the text you read stays the text of the day, as long as the home you described is the home we find.
The truck, at the door. The boxes wait on the sidewalk.
