Most local moves need 2 or 3 movers. A studio or one bedroom takes 2. A two bedroom apartment or townhouse takes 2 or 3. A three bedroom house takes 3. Four bedrooms or more takes 4. The bedroom count on your listing is only the starting point. What sets the crew is how much you own, the walk from your door to the truck, and the stairs in between.
| Home | Crew | Usual window | What blows it up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio or one bedroom | 2 movers | 2 to 4 hours | A full storage locker, or a walk-up |
| Two bedroom apartment or townhouse | 2 or 3 movers | 4 to 6 hours | Stairs, or a long walk to the truck |
| Three bedroom house | 3 movers | 6 to 8 hours | A packed garage nobody counted |
| Four bedrooms or more | 4 movers | 8 to 10 hours | Loose items still in open boxes |
Two is the floor and almost always enough. A packed one bedroom runs 3 to 4 hours with 2 movers. What breaks that window is the storage locker in the parkade nobody mentioned.
Everybody argues about this one, so here is the rule. Stay at 2 when it is one level, the elevator works, the truck parks close, and you are boxed. Go to 3 when any two of these are true: stairs at either end, a long carry, a second living room’s worth of furniture, or you are still taping boxes on move day. With 3, one person stages and wraps while two carry.
Three is the standard crew, usually 6 to 8 hours. A packed three bedroom townhome lands closer to 6 or 7. Two movers can do it, but the last hour of a long day is when things get dropped.
Four movers, roughly 8 to 10 hours. Three can do it, but it turns into a full day that spills past the daylight you planned for.
Your total is crew size multiplied by the hours the crew actually works. Two movers over a long day and three movers over a short one are not the same bill, and the bigger crew is often the smaller one.
Here is how we charge, in full. It is time-based. You are billed on the actual hours the crew works, in 30 minute increments after the minimum charge, with the whole breakdown shown to you before move day. We never quote a flat rate.
A third mover earns its place on stair carries, on a long walk from the truck where somebody is always heading back empty handed, and on a full 26 foot truck where one person stacks and straps. On a small studio with a working elevator, the third person waits, and waiting is billable.
So the crew we send is sized to your job, not to a price sheet. Same logic behind how our local moves in Surrey work: the truck loads faster with a third pair of hands, so the hours come down.
No, not for furniture. Two people is the floor, for the crew’s backs and for your doorframes. WorkSafeBC counts the weight of a load, its size and shape, and how far it is carried among the things that make a lift risky. All of it gets worse alone.
You have the truck or container and just need hands. Same logic, usually 2 or 3. Loading only runs shorter because the drive comes out of it. Stairs, carry distance and the heaviest item still set the number.
Crew size is partly a question of who is free. Bigger crews go first on weekends and at month end. We answer the phone 24/7, so you get a straight answer instead of a yes that collapses at 8 a.m.
Here you size the crew to the clock instead of the square footage. We read four registered BC strata bylaw sets and every one runs a different clock. One caps elevator lockout at three hours, moves only 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday. One splits the day into a 9 a.m. to noon block and a 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. block, booked 72 hours ahead. One runs 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. with no start after 5 p.m. One wants 5 days written notice and the elevator service key.
Read your own bylaws before you pick a crew size. A three hour block and a full two bedroom is a 3 mover job, even though that same suite is fine with 2 when no clock is running. That is daily life moving into Surrey City Centre.
Tell us five things and the estimate lands close. Room count. Heavy items. Stairs or elevator at both ends. How close the truck can park. Whether you will be packed by 8 a.m. Add your elevator window too, because that changes the crew first. The Canadian Association of Movers says to avoid any mover who will not look at the job before quoting, and that a real estimate lists the hours billed and the rate.
Two if it is one level, the elevator works, the truck parks close and you are packed. Three once stairs, a long carry or a heavy sectional show up. Three also finishes faster, because one person stages and wraps while two carry.
Yes, on most jobs. The gain is biggest where the carry is long or there are stairs, because nobody walks back empty handed. On a small studio with elevator access, the third person has nothing to do.
Still two. A sofa, a fridge or a bed frame is a two person carry however few of them there are. One person and a dolly is how walls and doorframes get damaged. Weight sets the floor, not the count.
Usually. Stairs are the most common reason we add a third. Each flight adds time to every trip, and on a narrow staircase two people end up in each other’s way. The third stages at the top instead.
Tell the crew lead early. The billing is time-based, so a job that runs long is billed on the hours actually worked, not on a guess made a week earlier. If the job is bigger than the booking, we send more hands.
Six years in Surrey, our own crews, no subcontractors. We size the crew with you and send the breakdown before move day.
Local Movers Ltd · 8567 164 St, Surrey, BC V4N 3K4 · (778) 242-2877 · Open Mon-Sun
