Nurseries and pre-schools accumulate an extraordinary volume of things. Low tables and stacking chairs, soft play shapes, a mud kitchen, tuff trays, storage units, outdoor climbing frames and crate after crate of resources. Moving any of it means finding a vehicle for a weekend, because none of it can happen while children are on site. Booking van hire in Warrington for a Saturday covers most of these jobs, and day nursery van hire is mostly about bulk rather than weight.
Bulky, Light And Endlessly Numerous
The defining feature of nursery equipment is that it fills a load area long before it troubles a weight limit. Soft play blocks, storage tubs, book boxes and stacking furniture are light individually and enormous collectively, and the outdoor equipment is worse because a climbing frame or a playhouse comes apart into pieces that do not nest. That points towards a vehicle chosen for volume, and it means the useful preparation is counting and stacking rather than worrying about payload. It also means two smaller loads are frequently more realistic than one heroic one, particularly where a mud kitchen or a large frame has to be dismantled. The other constant is that everything must arrive clean and undamaged, because equipment for young children that has travelled on a dirty deck has to be cleaned again before it can be used.
Choosing For Volume And Standing Height
A long wheelbase high roof van is usually the right answer here, because the standing height lets you stack storage tubs and soft play safely to the roof and still walk in to steady the load, and the floor area takes a surprising quantity of stacking furniture. An enclosed body also keeps everything dry and clean, which matters more with nursery equipment than with almost anything else. Where the move is small, or where the setting is in a converted house on a narrow residential street with nowhere to put a long vehicle, the medium roof van and standing height loading approach is a sensible compromise that still lets you load without stooping.
Dismantling Outdoor Equipment Properly
Climbing frames, playhouses and large outdoor storage take longer to dismantle than anybody allows for, and the parts that go missing are the ones that cannot be replaced individually. Photograph each item before you start taking it apart, bag every set of fixings and label the bag with the item it belongs to, and keep those bags in the cab rather than in the load. Timber frames that have been standing outside for years will have swollen bolts and rotten sections, so budget time for the possibility that something has to be cut rather than unbolted. Anything with a ground anchor or a concreted foot needs a decision before the day rather than during it.
Protecting Equipment And Keeping It Clean
Put down a clean sheet or blanket before soft furnishings and mattresses go in, and keep anything that has been outdoors separate from anything that has been in a baby room. Sharp-cornered furniture should have its corners protected rather than being pressed against soft play, which tears easily and cannot be repaired invisibly. Stack chairs in their proper stacks and strap the stack rather than letting it lean. Resources in crates should have lids on, since a tipped crate of small parts is a genuine loss on a Saturday afternoon. Our advice on how to load a hire van safely applies directly to a load that is tall and light.
Working Around A Setting That Cannot Close
Very few settings can shut mid-week, so this work lands on a Saturday or in the holidays, both of which are fixed and short. We are open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 4pm and closed on Sunday, so a Saturday job means an early collection and a Monday return if the work runs on. Where a refurbishment or a room reorganisation spreads across a half-term week, one longer hire is far more practical than several day hires, 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 suits work planned around a school holiday.
Safeguarding, Insurance And Who Drives
Settings have obligations that other businesses do not, and they do not lapse because it is a Saturday. Check with your own insurer and your governing policies about who may drive and who may be on site during a move, particularly where volunteers or parents are helping. The person named on the hire must be the one collecting the vehicle, bringing a photocard licence and a DVLA check code rather than a credit card, and every van in our fleet of over seventy sits at or under three and a half tonnes gross vehicle weight and is driveable on a standard category B car licence. Settings around Urmston van hire and Thelwall van hire are an easy run from the depot.
Collecting Donated And Second-Hand Equipment
A great deal of nursery equipment arrives second hand, from a setting that is closing, a school clearing a store or a family passing on outgrown garden toys. Those collections are usually from a private address with no loading space and a vague description of what is actually there. Ask for photographs and rough dimensions before setting off, because a mud kitchen and a few crates has a habit of turning into a garage. Check condition before loading rather than after, particularly for anything with a fabric surface or a moving part, since equipment for young children has to meet a standard that a well-meaning donation does not always reach. Anything that will need cleaning or repairing before it goes into a room should be kept separate in the load so it does not end up unloaded straight into the setting.
Tell us roughly how many rooms’ worth of equipment is moving and whether outdoor items are involved, and we will work out whether that is one load or two. Call the depot on 01925 396 222 to arrange a weekend.
