Guides
Booking a lift and loading dock
In a lift building, the move runs at the lift's pace, and the lift runs on a booking. Ten minutes of admin a week ahead is worth more than an extra pair of hands on the day. Here is the playbook.
What to ask for, exactly
Email your building manager or strata (the by-laws usually require notice anyway) and ask four things:
- A lift booking for a set window on moving day, ideally the morning. Ask whether your building uses a dedicated goods lift or switches a passenger lift to service mode.
- The protective curtains or blankets hung in the lift for your window. Most buildings have them; they only help if someone hangs them.
- Loading dock or visitor bay access: where the truck should stand, for how long, and whether a key, fob or intercom code is needed to hold the dock door open.
- The clearance height of the basement or dock entry, in metres, off the signage at the entry. This one number decides which truck our partner removalist sends.
Why the clearance number matters
Plenty of buildings along the Burns Bay Road corridor and in Lane Cove North put their loading bay under the block. A truck that cannot enter the basement is not a crisis, but it is a different plan: the carry runs from the street or the visitor bays instead, and the crew is sized for the longer walk. Knowing the number a week out means the right plan arrives with the truck; discovering it on the morning costs an hour of improvising.
Walk-ups: the other half of the playbook
Older Lane Cove blocks skip the lift and give you stairs. There is nothing to book, but two pieces of preparation matter more: count the flights and tell us the floor, and measure the tightest turn on the staircase against your largest pieces. A sofa that will not make the turn is far better discovered with a tape measure than at shoulder height between floors.
On the day
- Confirm the lift window the day before; bookings drift in busy buildings.
- Prop your apartment door and stage boxes inside it; the lift shuttle works best fed from a staging spot.
- Keep the dock contact's number handy in case the door needs unlocking again after lunch.
Tell us the building's answers in your enquiry and the plan writes itself. If you have not booked yet, say so; the removalist will tell you exactly what to ask for.
The next step
Tell us about both doors
Five minutes of form beats a week of phone tag. Two addresses, the size of the place, the access story at each end: from that our partner removalist sizes the crew, names the hourly rate and rings you back with the day already sketched.