Renovation Removals: Moving Out While the Builders Move In

Some renovations you can live around. A bedroom repainted, a bathroom refitted in a week: you shuffle furniture into the hall and put up with the dust. Then there are the projects that take the house apart. A full rewire. An extension knocking through the back of the kitchen. Floors coming up in three rooms at once. For those, the smart move is treating it as exactly that: a move. Renovation removals work the same way as any other house move, with one difference. A few months later, the whole thing runs in reverse, back into a new and improved home.

Britannia Lanes has been moving households across Cornwall, Devon and Somerset for more than 50 years. Here is how the bigger renovation moves work, and how to plan yours so the moving back in is as orderly as the moving out.

When a renovation should mean moving out

There is a threshold where living around the work stops making sense. You usually know you have crossed it when one of these is true:

• The trades need whole rooms empty, not cleared to the middle and sheeted over.
• The work runs across more than one floor at the same time.
• Floors are coming up, walls are coming down, or the ceiling is opening.
• The project will run for months, not weeks.
• You are moving out yourself while it happens.

Empty rooms can completely transform your building project. Trades work faster when nothing is in their way, nothing needs shifting twice, and nobody is working around your grandmother’s heirloom dresser. Beyond convenience, it’s also about keeping your belongings in the best condition. Dust travels further than anyone expects, and it is not just ordinary dust: plaster and brick dust works its way into upholstery, mattresses and anything with a mechanism. As a result, getting your belongings out of the dust and out of the argument removes one whole category of decisions from the project.

Why your renovation move needs a removals crew

Most people plan the renovation in detail and leave the moving to the week before the builders start. That’s when the question arrives: how does a three-seat sofa get down a hallway that is already full of scaffold boards?

Getting a full house of furniture out of a South West property is its own trade. Granite doorways cut for another century. Cottage staircases that turn twice between floors. Lanes a 7.5-tonne truck will not fit down, which is the kind of thing our crews know before they set off, not when they arrive.

This is what a removal crew is for. Your furniture is wrapped and loaded by people who do it every working day. What would take you a fortnight of car trips, a crew handles as one planned job: with care on the way out, and again on the way back.

The return leg matters as much. You will be moving back into a house with new floors, fresh plaster and paint that has been on the walls for a fortnight. That is not the moment for dragging a sofa through the hall yourself.

How a renovation move works

The process is the same one we run for local moves across Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, with a return leg added.

1. Arrange a removal survey to get your quote. You can get an instant guide price online, walk a surveyor through your home by video, or book a traditional home visit. The surveyor needs to see what is moving, what is staying with the builders, and how the access works at your property. Tell them it is a renovation move, so both legs are planned from the start.
2. Decide how much packing help you want. Our packing services cover the full house or the rooms you would rather not face. For a renovation, packing matters more than usual: boxes need to be labelled for the house as it will be, not the house as it is.
3. Moving-out day. The crew wraps and loads everything on the list, and your rooms are handed over to the builders empty. Move Protect cover is available: ask about it when you arrange your removal survey and quote.
4. While the work happens. Your belongings sit wherever you have arranged for them to go, and the builders get an empty house. Whether you’re looking for a local self-storage facility or if you’re storing with a trusted loved one, we make the moving process easier than ever.
5. Moving back in. When the builder confirms the finish, you book the return. The crew brings everything home and puts it into the rooms it now belongs in, going by your labels rather than their guesswork.

Britannia Lanes is a third generation, family owned and operated removals company, and a member of the British Association of Removers and SSA UK. Renovation moves get the same crews and the same standards as any other move we carry out.

How to choose the right time to move

Moving out is easy to date: it needs to happen before the trades arrive, with a day or two of breathing room rather than the same morning. Book it as soon as your builder confirms a start date, and earlier still in the busy season. Friday’s during Summer are the most popular, so the earlier you book the better.

The return leg is the one people get wrong. Build schedules move, and a return move booked off an optimistic finish date usually gets rebooked. Wait for the builder to confirm the end of the work, then set the date.

Not every project needs the whole house out, either. If the work is confined to one floor, the surveyor can plan around clearing those rooms alone. Simply tell us what areas you’re planning to move when you arrange your removal survey and quote, and the job gets scoped to match.

Making the move back in easier

Moving out tends to get all the attention. However, the return move is where a little planning pays off, since you’re unpacking into a different house from the one you left. Here are a few tips for packing your home for a renovation before the work begins:

1. Label for the new layout. If the study is becoming the second bedroom, the boxes from it should say “bedroom 2”. Write it for the person carrying the box in eight months, because that person will not remember the old house.
2. Hold back a survival kit. Kettle, paperwork, chargers, school uniforms, the tools the builders will inevitably ask you for. Anything you will need during the works stays with you.
3. Photograph what gets dismantled. Beds, wardrobes, anything with fittings. Bag the fixings and tape the bag to the largest piece.
4. Use the clear-out moment. A renovation is the natural point to decide what is not coming back. Furniture that will not suit the new kitchen does more good at a charity shop, and the return move gets lighter for it.
5. Book the return for after the clean, not the handover. Builders finish, then snagging happens, then the builders’ clean. Furniture arriving the day the trades leave tends to arrive into dust. A few days’ grace makes the homecoming feel like one.

Planning a renovation in the South West?

Ready to start your dream home renovation near Cornwall, Devon or Somerset? We’re here to help! By your side through both the move-out and move back in, our friendly local team makes moving your precious goods as easy as ever. Arrange a removal survey to get your quote today to get started.