How do I find the tightest turn?

Walk down with your arms out. The point where both hands touch something is the turn, and that is where to put the tape.

Can you take doors off to get something out?

Internal doors, yes, routinely, and we rehang them. Communal and fire doors, no — they are not yours and in most buildings they are not permitted to be removed.

What about the window?

Occasionally the right answer, and it needs a surveyed lifting plan and the freeholder's agreement rather than an improvised decision on the day. We will raise it at survey if we think it is the only route.

Second floor rather than first — how much difference?

Less than people expect, because the turn is the constraint rather than the height. One more flight adds carrying; it does not usually change what can physically come out.

LVL 01–02

Levels 01–02

The walk-up, where the turn decides everything

More of this city lives one or two floors up a shared staircase than anywhere else, and on every one of those jobs the staircase is the work. Specifically one point on it: the turn, where the flight stops being straight and where nearly everything that goes wrong goes wrong.

Measure the diagonal at the turn with the handrail in place. Not the width of the flight.

What to measure in a walk-up

The diagonal at the turn Corner to corner across the half-landing at its narrowest.

The handrail How far it projects, because that comes off the diagonal.

Head height over the turn Which decides whether anything long can be tipped.

The flat door Its clear opening with the door open, not the frame size.

The stairwell Open or boxed in, because that decides the over-the-bannister route.

Your largest item Its longest rigid dimension, and whether it comes apart.

Why the turn and not the flight

A straight flight will take almost anything, because a long item can be angled along its length and the walls stay out of the way. A turn removes that freedom entirely: the item has to rotate within a fixed space while its own length is working against it.

The figure that governs that rotation is the clear diagonal across the landing, and it is the number almost nobody has. People measure the width of the stairs, which is not the constraint, and then wonder why the sofa stops halfway.

What happens when it will not go round

Three options, in order of preference. It comes apart — feet off a sofa, a bed frame dismantled, a wardrobe reduced to panels. It goes over the bannister, where the stairwell is open and the structure will take it. Or it does not leave, which is an answer we will give plainly rather than spend a morning proving.

Boxed-in modern stairwells remove the second option, which is why a 1990s conversion can be harder than a Victorian one despite looking far more generous.

Sofas, specifically

The three-seat sofa is the item that defines this storey. It is the largest rigid object in most flats, it rarely comes apart beyond removing the feet, and its diagonal is usually within a few centimetres of a Victorian half-landing.

If you send us one photograph and one measurement, make them the sofa and the turn. Between them they answer most of what we need to know about a walk-up.

The communal stairwell is not yours

Nothing can be left standing in it, not even briefly, because it is a fire escape route and in many buildings the freeholder is strict about it for good reason. That makes the carry continuous: everything that starts down the stairs has to finish the journey.

It also means the pace of the whole job is set by the narrowest point rather than by the crew, and that is worth knowing before you compare two quotes.

LVL 01–02

Questions about first and second floor, no lift

How do I find the tightest turn?: Walk down with your arms out. The point where both hands touch something is the turn, and that is where to put the tape.
Can you take doors off to get something out?: Internal doors, yes, routinely, and we rehang them. Communal and fire doors, no — they are not yours and in most buildings they are not permitted to be removed.
What about the window?: Occasionally the right answer, and it needs a surveyed lifting plan and the freeholder's agreement rather than an improvised decision on the day. We will raise it at survey if we think it is the only route.
Second floor rather than first — how much difference?: Less than people expect, because the turn is the constraint rather than the height. One more flight adds carrying; it does not usually change what can physically come out.

Send us one measurement

The clear diagonal across the tightest turn on your staircase, corner to corner, with the handrail in place. That single figure answers more questions about a London move than a room-by-room inventory does.

Get a price Ask about a staircase