Beds are bought far more often in January than at any other point in the year, and the delivery slot offered is frequently three weeks away when you wanted it on Saturday. Collecting a new mattress yourself solves that, and it is a genuinely easy job provided you know which kind of mattress you have bought. Arranging van hire in Warrington for a bed is simple, but the difference between a rolled mattress and a traditional sprung one changes the vehicle entirely.
Rolled and Sprung Mattresses Are Different Loads
A vacuum rolled foam mattress arrives as a compact cylinder, typically not much larger than a suitcase, and will go in almost anything. A traditional pocket sprung or divan mattress does not compress at all and arrives at its full size, which for a king means a rigid slab roughly two metres by one and a half. That will not bend, should not be folded and cannot be squeezed. People book a small van on the assumption that all mattresses roll these days and discover at the shop that theirs does not. Confirm which you have before you decide on a vehicle, because the answer determines everything else. Retailers do not always volunteer this, and the product listing is not always clear, so ask the question directly when you place the order rather than hoping.
Choosing the Van for a Full Size Mattress
An uncompressed double or king mattress needs a load space it can lie reasonably flat in, along with the bed frame, slats and headboard, which together take up more room than customers expect. For most domestic bed collections the short wheelbase low roof van is enough and has the advantage of being easy to park outside a house, but a king size sprung mattress plus a frame is worth discussing with us rather than assuming. If the mattress is rolled, almost anything in the fleet will do and you should choose on the basis of the frame instead.
Keeping a Mattress Clean in Transit
A mattress is a large fabric surface that picks up everything it touches, and it is going straight into a bedroom. Keep the plastic wrapping on until the mattress is in the room, and if the shop has removed it, ask for a bag. Sweep the van floor before you load rather than trusting it to be spotless, and avoid resting the mattress against anything with a sharp edge. Standing a sprung mattress on its long edge for a short journey is generally acceptable, but leaving it stood up for hours is not, since the springs and fillings are designed to work flat.
Getting a Bed Up a Staircase
The moment that defeats people is the stairs. A king mattress is heavy, unwieldy and effectively impossible to steer through a turn in a stairwell without a second person. A sprung mattress will flex a little but a memory foam one is stiffer than you expect. Take the bedroom door off its hinges if the landing is tight, and if you are working around the older housing stock in the middle of town, measure the turn at the top of the stairs before collection day. Frames come apart easily, so bring an allen key and dismantle rather than forcing anything through a doorway.
Booking and What to Bring on the Day
Our depot sits on Tilley Street at the main entrance to Cockhedge Shopping Centre beside Asda, open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 4pm and closed on Sunday, with free secure parking on site for your own car. Bring your photocard licence and a DVLA check code generated on the DVLA website beforehand. No deposit is required on most of our vehicles and no credit card is needed. Customers collecting from the retail units and coming back out towards Grappenhall van hire bookings find a weekday morning far calmer than a Saturday, when the same car parks fill quickly. If you want to know more about how we work as an independent depot, our about us page covers it.
Taking the Old Bed Away at the Same Time
If a new bed is arriving, an old one is leaving, and that is worth planning into the same hire rather than dealing with separately. Mattresses cannot go in a household bin and most tips have specific arrangements for them, often with a charge and sometimes with a separate area, so check what your local site expects before you turn up with one strapped in the back. Some retailers will take the old mattress away when they deliver, but that is not an option when you are collecting yourself. Dismantling the old frame the evening before the new one arrives makes the whole day far easier, since two beds in one bedroom is an unworkable amount of furniture. Load the old mattress last on the outward trip so it comes off first at the tip, then you have a clean empty van for the new one on the way back rather than carrying a new mattress in a space the old one has just occupied.
Tell us the mattress size and whether it is rolled, and we will match a van to it in about a minute. Call the depot on 01925 396 222 and we will book you in for the day the shop can have it ready.
