What people ask before they book

Anything built before about 1900, and in practice anything with low door heads, a winder or a very narrow staircase, uneven floors, or listed status. The label matters less than those four features, and we ask about them directly at survey.

Yes, and with more protection than an ordinary job. Lime plaster marks easily, exposed beams sit at head height, and original floors do not forgive dragging. Tell us at enquiry that a property is listed so the protection and the crew are planned for it.

Not in itself — the thatch is above us. What matters is everything underneath: the door head height, the stair geometry, and whether there is anywhere firm for a vehicle to stand. Those are what the survey looks at.

Generally straightforward inside, with less to move than the floor area suggests because so much is fitted. The complications are outside: narrow estate roads, parking courts, and a management company whose permission is worth having before the day rather than after.

Both, and usually the hardest constraint from each — the old staircase and the new estate road. It is very common across Hampshire and it is not a problem, but it is worth saying so at enquiry.

They genuinely do. Ponies, cattle, pigs and donkeys roam freely across unfenced roads and have right of way, and they do not move for a lorry. Forest runs are driven slowly and the timings allow for it rather than pretending otherwise.

We look at width and surface. Where a full-size vehicle can go down, it does. Where it cannot, or where the ground is soft after rain, we shuttle with something smaller. Both are normal; the point is deciding before the day rather than on it.

With a plan. A loaded vehicle on a soft verge is a recovery problem that turns a morning into a day, so in the Forest and on the marsh edges we look at the surface as well as the width and sometimes bring a smaller vehicle by choice.

Yes — the Test and Itchen valleys, the villages around Winchester and Petersfield, and out towards the Meon. Same constraints as the Forest in miniature: narrow lanes, gateways sized for a cart, and no pavement to stand on.

Both. Southampton runs from Victorian inner suburbs to waterside flats with lift bookings. Portsea Island is one of the most densely built places in the country, and there the question is almost always where the vehicle can legally stop.

For parking, yes, measurably. The terraced streets have almost no spare kerb through the day. It is entirely workable and it needs planning rather than optimism, including a suspension where the street allows one.

We move plenty of them, and the pattern is distinctive: a date set by a posting rather than a chain, often at short notice, and frequently with a gap before the next accommodation is confirmed. We plan holding into those jobs by default.

Yes. North Hampshire is mostly modern estate housing and the access is generally good. The planning factors are estate road widths and management company rules rather than anything about the properties.

Send the form with both addresses, roughly what is going, and — most usefully — the age of the property and what the approach looks like. We come back with the questions that raises, then arrange a survey. The written quote follows the survey.

Free either way. Video is fine for a flat or a modern house. For anything period, listed, thatched or down a track we would much rather come and look, because those are exactly the jobs a screen cannot assess.

At least the kitchen and anything glass, wherever you live. In a period property we would add pictures and mirrors, because getting them down a winder staircase intact is a packing problem before it is a carrying one.

For as long as the gap runs. The terms, including notice for redelivery, are in your booking contract in writing. Hampshire produces plenty of these gaps — posting dates, long country chains, and renovations on older houses that always run on.

Yes — offices in the two cities and Winchester, and units on the industrial estates around Basingstoke, Eastleigh and Havant. Commercial work is scheduled around a lease and a building rather than a household.