attorneyatworkweekly London furniture installation

Moving furniture through London stairs, landings and lifts

The piece has to pass the smallest opening on the way to the room. In a London house that opening is often a half-landing, a turned stair, or a lift door, not the room itself.

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A narrow hallway with a wooden cabinet, a trunk and a doorway in the foreground

Step 1 · The door from the street

Start at the narrowest leaf, not the widest room

Measure the clear opening of the entrance door with the door itself open, including the thickness of the leaf if it does not fold flat. Then measure every internal door on the route the same way. A new fire door, or a door that only opens to ninety degrees because of a radiator, can be the stop for a sofa or a tall side panel.

Step 2 · The stair

Width, headroom and the turn

On a straight flight, record the width between handrails or strings, and the headroom to any bulkhead. On a stair with a turn — typical of a Victorian terrace — the landing is the puzzle. A long panel may pass the flight and fail when it has to pivot. Measure the landing depth and the ceiling height above it. Winders, where the treads narrow toward the newel, give less flat floor for that pivot than a half-landing does.

Take the measurements of the furniture from the leaflet or from the panels, including diagonal size if the piece can be tilted. A number for the room width does not answer the stair. The measuring note is for the room; this one is for the path.

Step 3 · The lift

Read the plate in the car

Mansion blocks and many conversions have a lift. The practical limits are the door opening, the depth of the car, and the rated load printed on the plate inside. Read that plate. Do not guess the load from the age of the building. If the item is in parts, the parts may pass when the assembled carcase would not. If a single panel is longer than the car depth and cannot be tilted because of the ceiling, the lift is not the route.

An open-riser wooden stair beside a sliding mirrored wardrobe in a bright hallway

Step 4 · If it does not pass

The planning question, not a service

When the narrowest point is smaller than the piece, the useful questions are whether the item comes apart, whether another stair or a different door exists, and whether the panels can be finished in the room rather than carried in complete. This publication does not arrange carrying, hoisting or access, and it does not suggest removing windows or banisters. Those are decisions for the people responsible for the building.

Bulky pieces are commonly moved by more than one person. The leaflet may say so. Protect banisters, walls and floors before the first turn; the floors note describes coverings. A wardrobe that survives the stair still has to suit the alcove, which is the wardrobe note.

Write down the piece as well as the building

A route measurement is only useful next to the size of what you are carrying. From the leaflet or the carton, note the longest side, the depth, and the diagonal if the panel can be tilted. A flat side is a different problem from a finished wardrobe with doors already hung. Corners, handles and a projecting cornice add to the rectangle on the drawing. If the item is still in parts, measure the longest part, not the finished width of the room it will occupy.

Walk-up flats above shops, and conversions with a stair that turns immediately inside the street door, often have their pinch point in the first three metres, not at the top landing. Stand in that turn with a tape before you assume the upper floor is the difficult part. If a banister rail reduces the clear width, record the width between the rails, not the width of the treads underneath them.

A short list to take to the stair

  1. Clear door widthsWith each door open as far as it will go.
  2. Stair widthBetween rails, at the narrowest going.
  3. Landing and headroomDepth of the turn, height above it.
  4. Lift plateDoor size, car depth, rated load as printed.

Photograph of the open stair: Alan Albegov, Pexels. Photograph of the narrow passage: Erika Ortiz, Pexels.

Reading a lift plate and a half-landing

Mansion blocks and later conversions often have a lift whose cabin is smaller than the landing outside it. The plate inside the car states a rated load in kilograms and sometimes a maximum number of people. It does not state that a wardrobe will fit. Measure the clear opening of the car door, the internal width, depth and height, and the diagonal if you are considering tilting a panel. Then measure the lobby the car opens onto. A panel that fits the car may not turn out of it.

Street door

Clear opening with the door held open, minus the handle if it projects into the opening.

Stair

Width between handrails, not between the strings. Headroom at the turn. Depth of the landing.

Flat door

The last opening, including a lobby door that opens onto the stair and steals the landing.

When the piece is still in parts

A flat-pack side panel has a length, a width and a thin edge. The thin edge is what lets it pass a tight turn if the leaflet allows the item to be carried unassembled. A finished wardrobe with doors hung is a different rectangle and often will not pass a London terrace stair even when the panels would have. Decide the state of the item before you compare it with the route. Corners of a panel need protection so they do not mark plaster; that is a handling point, not a service this site provides.

Common pinch points that a plan of the room never shows: a meter cupboard door on a half-landing, a banister newel that is thicker than the rail, a step that is narrower at the top than at the bottom, and a door that opens inward onto the only space where a turn could happen. Walk the route with the longest dimension in mind, from the pavement if the piece will cross it. Shared hallways in a block may have rules about moving large items at certain hours. Those rules live in the building’s own notices, not here.

If every measured opening is smaller than the assembled piece, the practical options are the ones the maker already allows: carry it in parts, choose a smaller item, or accept that this stair cannot take it. Removing windows, rails or door linings is a building alteration. This publication does not arrange it and does not describe how to do it.