New couch won't come through the front door!

conorhal

Help!

I stupidly bought an expensive suite presuming that it would fit through the front door of my first floor duplex apartment. Now I have a nightmare on my hands.
There is a balcony at the back and I contacted a moving company to get a couple of guys an a hoist to lift the suite to the first floor balcony but they are looking for over 500 euro to lift some furnature 4 metres, which I think is silly money, especially since I'll have to pay 100 to get the balcony door taken out to bring the suite in and 80 euro to get the old one taken away.

Has anybody had experience with this kind of problem or can reccomend a mover that does this kind of job in D8?
I'm at my wits end with this!

Ms Doubtfire1

sorry - it' VERY hard not to laugh at this...can it not be taken apart (the suite I mean)

JoeySully

its not that expensive when you account for lift rental and insurance.
4m is quite a lift by hand and you dont want to damage it using straps and ropes.

have a look around locally for someone with a teleporter. Most building sites will have one. it will lift it up in no time but I guess you will have to synchronize them with the delivery or you will be sitting on you sofa outside for a while.

conorhal

Ms Doubtfire1 wrote: »

sorry - it' VERY hard not to laugh at this...can it not be taken apart (the suite I mean)

What is it they say? One mans misery is another mans entertainment!

Sadly no, blasted imported furnature with a recliner so it wasn't manufactured here and can't be taken apart. The only way it's coming into the house it through the balcony door ...on the first floor. One firm reccomended to me will do it with a sort of cherrypicker hoist, but at an extortionate price, so I'm wondering if anybody has had to do something similar and got the job done for less then the cost of a new suite of furniture!

conorhal

JoeySully wrote: »

its not that expensive when you account for lift rental and insurance.
4m is quite a lift by hand and you dont want to damage it using straps and ropes.

have a look around locally for someone with a teleporter. Most building sites will have one. it will lift it up in no time but I guess you will have to synchronize them with the delivery or you will be sitting on you sofa outside for a while.

Oh I had a good scout around the area to see if anybody was doing some building work believe me!
THe synchronization of things is a total pox, you have delivery guys that can give you the option of 'morning or evening', a movers with the hoist that operate on the same basis, a window firm to take the doors off and the management company of the apartment block to organizse access with.
If I pull this off I'm starting my own logistics company!

Might be worth trying the Dublin favour exchange, ( if you are in Dublin, of course)

Someone may do it for you, for much less money.

http://www.dublinfavourexchange.ie/

SarahMollie

Have you checked with the sofa people if it can be delivered in parts and assembled once in your house? I also have a duplex and had a similar post purchase worry, but it turned out that it wasnt as big as I thought on arrival, as the feet of the soft werent put on until it was inside, and they were able to *shimmey* it around the door frames to get it through.

eurokev

conorhal wrote:

I stupidly bought an expensive suite presuming that it would fit through the front door of my first floor duplex apartment. Now I have a nightmare on my hands. There is a balcony at the back and I contacted a moving company to get a couple of guys an a hoist to lift the suite to the first floor balcony but they are looking for over 500 euro to lift some furnature 4 metres, which I think is silly money, especially since I'll have to pay 100 to get the balcony door taken out to bring the suite in and 80 euro to get the old one taken away.

500 for a couple of guys, and lift hire, is a very reasonable price. I can't imagine you'd find a much better price than that

Ms Doubtfire1

there's a page called tradesmen.ie - might be worth your while putting up a request there? I had a recliner couch once with a reclining seat on each end - heavy piece. It did fit through the front door with some twisting and pushing and shoving and scratched hands..but on the first floor?
It didn't by any chance say when you bought it that they would deliver and set up?

MarkR

Is the couch still with the furniture company? If it is, I would be seeing about getting a smaller suite that will fit from the same crowd. I doubt that would be an issue, and you get to save your 500.

Nermal

Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!

eireyiddo

Had exact same problem, 3 lads and it'll take about 15 minutes Max. Small bit of blue rope. 1 lad on d ground, 2 over on balcony, as the two up on balcony pull it up. Lad below just pulls it away Fri. The building. I'll get 2 buddies and do it for 250 if yer stuck. It's what's commonly referred to as a piece of piss

2nd option is to take pain of glass out out of a big window

Also make sure it will fit thru balcony door

Good luck

xabi

So you haven't tried getting in through the front door, how do you know it won't fit

eireyiddo

Good point, some people give up at a glance. Don't just go by what a measuring tape says. It's amazing what happens with stuff when ye wriggle it

eireyiddo

Good point, some people give up at a glance. Don't just go by what a measuring tape says. It's amazing what happens with stuff when ye wriggle it

gizmo81

We wiggled our sofa in, the wiggle out might not be so smooth

eireyiddo wrote: »

Good point, some people give up at a glance. Don't just go by what a measuring tape says. It's amazing what happens with stuff when ye wriggle it

Assetbacked

Maybe try to lubricate the couch and slide it in the door.

punisher5112

I had to get horrible couch out of our rental and into garage lump hammer was a life saver otherwise I have no idea how it got in as no matter what it would not budge.

Pivot as mentioned above pivot pivot PIVOT

eireyiddo

The shoes it sits on should be removed for any extra wriggling room

.......

This post has been deleted.

donegal.

Assetbacked wrote: »

Maybe try to lubricate the couch and slide it in the door.

you should start with smaller sofas , gradually working up to "the big one".

Cordell

Assetbacked wrote: »

Maybe try to lubricate the couch and slide it in the door.

Make sure you talk about if first and the door agrees. Then make it nice and relaxed, put some music on... you dont want the door to twitch and have the sofa in there forever.

That being said, I haven't seen to many recliner sofas, but all that I've seen had similar mechanisms that can be easily taken apart.

Bandana boy

I would try the front door again ,I find it is always easier going in the front door than the backdoor

Ms Doubtfire1

Cordell wrote: »

That being said, I haven't seen to many recliner sofas, but all that I've seen had similar mechanisms that can be easily taken apart.

It's usually the putting back together that the problem....

dbagman

conorhal wrote: »

What is it they say? One mans misery is another mans entertainment!

Sadly no, blasted imported furnature with a recliner so it wasn't manufactured here and can't be taken apart. The only way it's coming into the house it through the balcony door ...on the first floor. One firm reccomended to me will do it with a sort of cherrypicker hoist, but at an extortionate price, so I'm wondering if anybody has had to do something similar and got the job done for less then the cost of a new suite of furniture!

a cherrypicker is not designed to lift heavy weights. I assume you mean a scissorlift. even at that though im not sure the smaller ones will lift a recliner couch. them things are heavy! Scissor lifts and cherrypickers are only designed to lift 2 people max and some light enough materials/tools. And you will have to pay for the whole day rental at least id imagine. They wont drop it off for 15minutes, hence the price. Not to mention the cost of running a truck to transport it to your house and back again. 500 quid for 2 men,a truck and a days rental on one of them machines is a steal.

_Brian

JoeySully wrote: »

its not that expensive when you account for lift rental and insurance.
4m is quite a lift by hand and you dont want to damage it using straps and ropes.

have a look around locally for someone with a teleporter. Most building sites will have one. it will lift it up in no time but I guess you will have to synchronize them with the delivery or you will be sitting on you sofa outside for a while.

I had a guy doing some work at my house recently with a lift on the back of a truck, he said hos insurance is ?10,000 a year to cover for public liability and road insurance, that would cover three named individuals in his employment.

tigerboon

Had a neighbour who thought he had this problem a couple of months ago. Try rotating it so that the top of the back of the couch and the front of the arm rests are to one side of the doorway and the bottom of the back of the couch is to the other. Watch the fingers when squeezing through . Doors are normally a standard width and I'd imagine furniture is designed to go through them

glaswegian

tigerboon wrote: »

Had a neighbour who thought he had this problem a couple of months ago. Try rotating it so that the top of the back of the couch and the front of the arm rests are to one side of the doorway and the bottom of the back of the couch is to the other. Watch the fingers when squeezing through . Doors are normally a standard width and I'd imagine furniture is designed to go through them

you could also take the door off to give another couple of inches swinging room.

RustyNut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLDS2-Pa65A

4ensic15

A friend of mine drove a high roof van with the couch on top under the balcony. The couch was yanked in with a clothes line bought for the purpose. Easy.

Allah snackbar

eurokev wrote: »

500 for a couple of guys, and lift hire, is a very reasonable price. I can't imagine you'd find a much better price than that

Here we go again , boom time , I'm sorry but that's bullin money for 2 men and a hoist , it's people that are willing to pay this price that put the price up for everyone else , 500 for a couple of hours work , give me a break , have a look around op and put the word out you'll get someone to do it in an hour who has the gear to lift it for cash