Charge for moving heavy furniture?

[Paul Demers]

I am new to the business, and am still working out my price schedule. I am thinking about charging $9.00 each to move heavy furniture such as beds, dressers, chest of draws, empty china cabinets, and so forth. I would vacuum the dust off the back of the moved furniture as part of the service. What do you folks think or charge.

I will not move pianos, grand father clocks, computers, televisions, dressers with attacched mirrors, and the like.

Background: I charge between $50 to $60 per room, 220 sq.ft. limit. As most folks, I move light furniture for no additional charge, such as chairs, sofas, coffee and end tables. I discount about 20 percent for empty rooms. I work alone 4 days a week, and have a helper 2 days a week. I would schedule jobs with heavy furniture moving on days with helper, of course.

I believe in this cleaning for health idea, so I think all bedroom furniture should be moved when cleaning. The thought of cleaning the traffic lanes only and leaving all that dust under the beds and under and behind dressers bothers me. On the other hand, I feel I need to charge for the service, and need to find the right price to charge.

 

[Mikey P]

Do any of your well known competitors offer it for free?

 

[Paul Demers]

SS says they will move any piece that can be safely moved by two people for no additional charge. I am not sure about Chem Dry.

 

[Brian R]

If you do square footage pricing you should only charge for the areas that you clean.
therefore if you move furniture, the area gets added to the invoice..it's not much but it's better than "free"...and people don't want to be charged extra unless they are cleaning extra...so it works out.

It really helps the other direction as well. If you tell everyone this, then the people where you are going around the furniture will think they are getting a better deal.

Emptys? Not so much.

Then you just give a special price for emptys.
I usually tell the emptys
"We measure only the rooms and stairs in the home...not the baths, closets or halls...but we clean whatever carpet is in the house.
Then THEY think they are getting a better deal.

Not really tricking anyone but it helps with making a little extra money to pay for back surgery.

 

[ACE]

I would start offer 2 or 3 different service levels. My standard service includes furniture moving. I am now offering a basic service that does not include furniture moving, pre-vac or grooming. Ignore Brian. If your pricing by the Square, you should ALWAYS measure wall to wall.

 

[Paul Demers]

If you do square footage pricing you should only charge for the areas that you clean.
therefore if you move furniture, the area gets added to the invoice..it's not much but it's better than "free"...and people don't want to be charged extra unless they are cleaning extra...so it works out.

It really helps the other direction as well. If you tell everyone this, then the people where you are going around the furniture will think they are getting a better deal.

Emptys? Not so much.

All my competitors charge by the room around here, so I figure that's what most folks expect.

 

[Brian R]

I would start offer 2 or 3 different service levels. My standard service includes furniture moving. I am now offering a basic service that does not include furniture moving, pre-vac or grooming. Ignore Brian. If your pricing by the Square, you should ALWAYS measure wall to wall.

Well yea! You just don't tell them that. :wink:
J/K

 

[Paul Demers]

I would start offer 2 or 3 different service levels. My standard service includes furniture moving. I am now offering a basic service that does not include furniture moving, pre-vac or grooming. Ignore Brian. If your pricing by the Square, you should ALWAYS measure wall to wall.

I had considered having a "Basic" package that did not include vacuuming and furniture moving, but decided against it for several reasons. And I do give a discount for empty rooms, so if the custy has so much space available in other parts of house to empty a room.... that is an option they have.

I could charge an additional charge per room that custy wants heavy furniture moves, say $21.00. But I figure a per piece cost would be fairer to my customers.

 

[Desk Jockey]

The majority of the customers we service want everything moved. Many times it just doesn't need it, but they have it in their mind it does.

We will move everything that is save to move, no piano's entertainment center, appliances.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

You do air duct cleaning?

 

[Tony Dees]

Not to be a smart ass, I've really have already had my hernia surgery. Moving every item will get old the first time the mirror falls off the dresser or you break the Tiffiniy Lamp.

Shoot the room measurement wall to wall, deduct for the furniture, and clean the cleanable sqft. I tell them that we don't move items in the bed rooms, have as much as you can up and off the floor.

I aggree though, tell them you charge EXTRA to move the furniture and you won't do much of it.

 

[GeneMiller]

People hate to be nickle and dimed to death. Look at how pissed everybody got when the airlines added another fee. Set yourself apart from your competitors and move everthing that can be moved safely. I think that it should already be in the price. You'll get luck on some jobs and they will tell you not to move the furniture but since you don't charge extra for it you make a little more. We go in to the room and move everything away from the wall and usually, I say usually just vacuum because sometimes there is a stain that has to be addressed. We then put everything back and do the rest of the room. To each his own, but I would rather stand out. I'll have a bed pulled from the wall and I will call the customer in just to show them the dust or a pair of glasses whatever. The idea is they see you moving the bed and they usually say wow the last guy didn't do that.
Well mam we believe in being through. Cheaper then advertising.

Gene

 

[steve frasier]

most heavy items are worth it to move them if you happen to break something

lady wants her bed moved but she took everything out from under the bed and put it on top of the bed, as we were discussing why we really didn't want to move the bed it happened to collapse from the weight

or the bedroom isn't big enough to move the bed around to clean under it even if you had a flat wand, some things just ain't worth $9

a couple of weeks a go I was cleaning for repeat customer and wanted to go the extra mile, she wasn't home and said just go around everything

I tried to move the tv and a caster fell out of it and I about dumped the TV, no fun trying to catch a 27" tv off the TV stand