How Local Movers Calculate Costs

Packing up your home and moving into a new place often marks new beginnings and can be a very exciting time. Unfortunately, moving can be an incredibly stressful activity as well.

Many people don’t realize all of the little details and costs that go into moving until they start. Then, thing can quickly go from excitement over a new home to stress about all the unexpected expenses that keep cropping up when you’re trying to leave your old house.

Hiring movers is one way to reduce your stress and help your move go quickly and smoothly. Instead of trying to organize your friends, family, and neighbors into a workforce and truck brigade to get your stuff from one place to the next, you can simply hire a moving company to handle all of that for you.

Movers cost money, though, so to help you avoid the surprise of one more unexpected cost, here are a few ways local movers calculate moving costs so you can get a good idea of how much to set aside for your movers before the bill comes due:

Size of the House

How much stuff you’re moving will be the biggest determining factor when it comes to moving costs. Bigger houses will require more workers to get everything taken care of in a timely manner. Most movers are paid by the hour and the number of movers assigned to a job often depends on the number of rooms in your house or apartment.

Obviously, prices will change depending on where you live and the average cost of local movers.

Weight

Another way moving costs are calculated is often by weight. This is due to the fact that heavier loads require more gasoline to move from one place to the other, put more wear and tear on the moving vehicles, and can require more workers to safely load and unload everything.

Specialty items that are exceptionally heavy, or are both heavy and delicate such as deluxe safes and pianos, will cost you even more. This is because they require extra manpower and skill to move, and – in the case of delicate objects like pianos – may need extra padding and special transportation measures to get them safely to their destination.

The Extras

Speaking of packing materials, whether or not the movers provide their own boxes, tape, and moving pads will also affect your cost. It’s often less expensive if you buy these things yourself and provide them if your movers are also packing your belongings.

Which brings up another point: anything besides loading, transporting, and unloading your belongings will probably be counted as extras. This includes packing and unpacking, and sometimes even carrying items like a refrigerator into the house and placing them where they need to go. If there are staircases involved, that will cost extra. Disassembling or reassembling furniture also counts as an extra service and will be charged accordingly.

When you Move

The time of year and even day of the week that you decide to move can also have a huge impact on your final bill. Movers charge more in peak season, which is usually the summer months and occasionally into the spring and fall. Additionally, moving on the weekend will probably cost you more than it would if you hired movers during the week.

It all comes down to supply and demand when trying to hire movers Rockville MD. If there are a lot of people trying to book their services, movers will charge you more. If work is slow, you can probably get a better deal. It may be worth trying to plan your move for the off season or taking time off work to move during the week.