Upholsterers, curtain makers and small furniture workshops occupy some of the least convenient premises in the region, usually because the rent is low and the access is bad. When one moves, the load is an unusual mix of extremely heavy machinery, extremely bulky fabric and a great many small tools that all matter. Arranging van hire in Warrington is straightforward enough. Moving an upholstery workshop is really about keeping the fabric clean while shifting the iron.
Two Completely Different Loads In One Move
The machinery side is dense and unforgiving. Industrial sewing machines sit on steel tables with a clutch motor bolted underneath, walking foot machines and heavy leather machines weigh a great deal for their size, and an older cast iron base is genuinely a two-person lift on its own. The fabric side is the opposite, being light, enormous and ruined by a single mark. Rolls of cloth, foam blocks, wadding, hides and part-finished frames fill a load area quickly and pick up dirt from anything they touch. Trying to move both together without thinking about it is how a workshop arrives with an oil mark across forty metres of upholstery fabric. The answer is to separate them properly, either into two loads or into two clearly divided areas of one.
Protecting Fabric And Foam In Transit
Put a clean sheet down before any fabric goes in and keep it away from the walls and the wheel arches. Rolls travel best lying flat and supported along their length rather than standing on end, since a roll on its end will crush its own edge and that damage runs the length of the piece. Keep anything with a nap or a pile wrapped rather than exposed. Foam is light and awkward and will happily fill the roof space above everything else, which is a good use of it provided it is strapped so it cannot work loose. Hides should be rolled rather than folded, because a crease in leather is permanent in a way that a crease in cloth is not.
Shifting Machines Without Damaging Them
Take machine heads off their tables where the design allows it, which turns one impossible lift into two manageable ones, and carry the head separately with the needle bar protected. Drain or secure any oil reservoir before it moves, because a machine laid over will empty itself into the load. Clutch motors are heavy, sit under the table and are easily damaged by a knock, so protect them rather than using the table as a handle. Tables and frames go in flat with blankets between them. Our advice on piano van hire and heavy awkward moves covers the lifting principles for anything dense and top heavy.
Choosing A Van For Bulk Rather Than Weight
Because the fabric dominates the volume and the machinery dominates the weight, the vehicle is usually chosen for the former. A short wheelbase medium roof van is often ideal for a small workshop, since the standing height lets you stack foam and rolls properly while the short body parks outside a unit on a tight industrial estate or a back street. Where there is a lot of cloth, or where long rolls are involved, a long wheelbase high roof van gives the floor length to lay rolls flat rather than at an angle, which is what keeps their edges square.
Access At Workshop Premises
Workshops of this kind are frequently upstairs in an old mill building, at the back of a yard behind another business, or in a converted outbuilding with a doorway built for people rather than machines. Measure the tightest point on the route before the day, find out whether there is a goods lift and whether it works, and establish who has the key to the loading door. Ask about parking, because a shared yard with one turning space is a different proposition when a vehicle has to sit in it for two hours. Units around Longford van hire and the older buildings towards Latchford van hire vary enormously in what they will take through the door.
Keeping The Order Book Moving
A workshop with commissions in progress cannot simply stop for a week. Finish or pause work at a sensible point rather than mid-job, and keep each customer’s project together with its fabric, its frame and its paperwork in one place so nothing is orphaned by the move. Part-finished frames should travel with their own materials rather than being separated. We are open Monday to Saturday from 8am to 4pm and closed on Sunday, and short and long term hire are both available with no deposit required on most vehicles, so taking the vehicle across several days is usually more practical than trying to do everything in one push.
Setting Up Again At The New Workshop
An industrial machine is not working simply because it is in the building. Tables need levelling on an uneven floor before the machine will sew properly, clutch motors need a socket that will take them and a belt that has not been twisted in transit, and anything with a servo or a positioner needs setting up again rather than plugged in and hoped for. Do the electrical side through someone qualified rather than running everything off one extension lead, which is a genuine fire risk in a workshop full of fabric and foam. Give the machines a clean and an oil after the move while they are accessible, since that is far easier before the benches are stacked with work. Set the cutting table up first, because until there is somewhere to lay cloth out flat nothing else in the workshop can start.
Tell us what the heaviest machine is and how much fabric is coming, and we will work out whether that is one load or two. Call the depot on 01925 396 222 before you set the date.
