Reclamation yards across Cheshire and south Lancashire are full of things that will not go in a car and that the yard will not deliver. Cast iron radiators, York stone flags, reclaimed floorboards, oak beams, chimney pots, church pews and Victorian doors all get bought on a Saturday morning and then sit under a tarpaulin for a fortnight while somebody works out how to move them. Hiring a van is the answer, and van hire in Warrington puts you within easy reach of most of the region’s yards. Collecting reclaimed materials rewards a little planning before you set off.
Salvage Loads Behave Differently To Ordinary Loads
The defining feature of reclaimed material is that it is heavy for its size and rarely a convenient shape. A stack of York stone flags occupies a footprint smaller than a pallet and weighs a great deal more than most people expect. Cast iron radiators concentrate their weight into a narrow base that will happily punch through a flimsy surface. Reclaimed timber arrives full of old nails and often at lengths that no panel van will take without the doors staying open. Yards themselves are usually rough ground, frequently unsurfaced, with narrow lanes between stacks and a forklift working somewhere in the middle of it. None of that is a problem provided you turn up in the right vehicle with the right expectations, but arriving in a small van hoping to fit two tonnes of stone into it wastes everybody’s morning, including the yard’s.
Why An Open Deck Is Almost Always Right
For salvage work the flatbed dropside van is the vehicle that makes the job possible rather than merely easier. Yards load with forklifts, and a forklift cannot reach into the back of a panel van. It can put a pallet straight onto an open deck in one movement, which turns an hour of carrying into two minutes of driving. Dropping the sides also means you can load from whichever direction the yard’s access allows rather than needing to reverse into a specific spot. The open deck copes with mud, wet timber and stone dust in a way a carpeted load area does not, and long items can overhang safely where a closed body simply will not accept them. If what you are collecting genuinely needs to stay dry, take a decent tarpaulin and straps rather than switching to a panel van.
Understanding Weight Before You Buy
This is the point where salvage trips go wrong. Every vehicle we hire sits at or under three and a half tonnes gross vehicle weight, and that figure includes the van itself, the fuel, the driver and everyone else in the cab, not just the load. Dense materials reach that limit long before they fill the deck, which is counter-intuitive if you are used to moving furniture. Ask the yard what a given stack or pallet actually weighs rather than guessing from its size, and be willing to make two trips. Overloading is unsafe, illegal and hard on the vehicle, and an overloaded van handles differently in exactly the situation where you least want surprises. If in doubt, ring us before you go and describe what you are buying, and we will tell you honestly whether it is one trip or two.
Loading Awkward Shapes Onto A Deck
Build the load flat and low, with the heaviest items over the axles rather than at the very back, and keep everything below the height of the headboard where you can. Slabs and flags travel best laid flat and stacked, never on edge. Radiators should go on their backs rather than upright. Long timber wants to sit along the length of the deck with anything shorter packed alongside it rather than on top. Strap in more places than feels necessary, because a load of hard, smooth objects will shift far more readily than a load of boxes, and re-check the straps after the first few miles once everything has settled. Our advice on long load van hire applies directly to reclaimed beams and joists.
Getting In And Out Of The Yard
Ring ahead. Most yards are happy to help but they need to know roughly when you are arriving and what you are collecting, particularly if a forklift and an operator have to be free. Ask whether the ground is firm enough for a laden van in wet weather, because a good number of yards are hardcore rather than tarmac and a September downpour changes the answer. Ask whether they can load you or whether you are expected to do it yourself, since that determines how many people you bring. Trade suppliers around the industrial estates near Widnes van hire and Penketh van hire work the same way, and the same phone call saves the same wasted trip.
Planning The Day Around Our Hours
We are open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 4pm and closed on Sunday, and most salvage yards keep similar hours with an early Saturday finish. Collecting the van at eight gives you the whole of a Saturday morning at the yard and time to unload at the other end before we close. If the project runs across several weekends, taking the vehicle for a longer period usually beats repeating the hire, and short and long term hire are both available with no deposit required on most vehicles. Booking at least two weeks ahead brings a ten per cent advance booking discount on selected vehicles, which is set out on our van hire special offers page.
Bringing The Right Kit With You
A salvage trip goes far better when you arrive equipped. Heavy gloves are not optional, because reclaimed timber is full of old nails and cut stone has edges that will find a bare hand within the first ten minutes. A sack truck with pneumatic tyres will cross rough yard ground where a hard-wheeled one simply digs in. Take more ratchet straps than you think you need and at least one decent tarpaulin, along with some offcuts of ply or old carpet to lay on the deck under anything with sharp corners, which protects both the vehicle and the material. A tape measure settles arguments about whether something will actually fit before it is loaded rather than after. If you are collecting glazed items such as leaded lights or reclaimed windows, bring blankets and something rigid to stand them against, since a pane that survives two hundred years in a wall can be broken by a mile of unsecured travel.
Tell us what you are collecting, roughly what it weighs and what the ground at the yard is like, and we will match you to a vehicle that can actually do it in one run. Call the depot on 01925 396 222 before you commit to a purchase.
