This is for anyone in the Hudson Valley with a gun safe that has to move, whether it is going with the rest of the house or on its own. It covers what we ask before the day, what sets the size of the crew, what the crew brings, and how the job is priced.
Why weight is the first question
A gun safe is among the heaviest things in any home. It is also dense. A sofa is big and awkward, but most of its size is air. A safe packs its weight into a small footprint, so there is nothing light to grab and no way to lift it a little at a time. It is all or nothing on every move it makes.
That is why the first thing we ask is what you have. The make and model is best, because the weight usually follows from it. If you do not know the model, a rough weight from the paperwork or the store helps. If neither is to hand, a photo of the safe with the door open and a tape measure across the front tells us a lot.
Weight decides two things: how many people are on the job, and which equipment comes off the truck. As our specialty item page puts it, a heavy gun safe needs a different crew than a standard bedroom set. We would rather ask a few plain questions up front than send the wrong crew and have people standing around, or not enough people to do it carefully.
Access: the path matters as much as the safe
A safe on a level floor with a short, wide path to the driveway is one job. The same safe in a basement, or up a flight of stairs, is a very different one. So after the weight, we want to know about the route it takes.
- Which floor it is on now, and which floor it is going to.
- How many steps there are at either end, inside and out, including porch steps and a stoop.
- Whether a staircase turns at a landing, and how much headroom there is at the top.
- The width of the narrowest doorway on the path.
- What the floors are: hardwood, tile, carpet, or a finished basement.
- How close the truck can park, and whether the ground between is paved, gravel or lawn.
- Whether the safe is bolted to the floor or the wall.
Houses around here throw up all of these. A basement safe in an older house in Kingston may come up a narrow stair with a turn. A place on a hill outside Woodstock may have a long gravel drive between the door and the truck. A newer house in Catskill may be a straight run on one level. Each one is planned differently, and the plan is made before anyone touches the safe.
What the crew brings
Heavy items are not a job to improvise. The crew comes with furniture dollies, heavy duty straps, stair climbers, floor protection and moving blankets, and uses what the weight and the path call for.
Floor protection goes down along the path before the safe moves. A heavy, narrow load puts a lot of pressure on a small patch of floor, and that is how hardwood gets dented and tile gets cracked.
Blankets go around the safe so its corners and finish do not touch door frames or walls on the way out, and so the door frames and walls do not touch it.
Straps hold the safe to the dolly or stair climber so it moves as one piece. A stair climber takes the safe up or down one step at a time under control, instead of people carrying the full weight by hand.
Then it goes slowly. Speed is not the goal with a safe. Every step, threshold and turn is taken deliberately, and the safe is set down where it is going to live, so it does not have to be shifted again.
How a safe move is priced
There are two cases, and they work differently.
The safe on its own. If the safe is the only thing moving, it is a single item. Single items are priced on their own, agreed up front, and not held to the three-hour minimum that applies to hourly moves. You tell us the safe, where it is, where it is going and what is in the way, and you get one price before the day.
The safe as part of a full move. If the safe goes with the rest of the house, it is part of the hourly local move. Our rates are published: 2 movers at $200 an hour, 3 movers at $280, 4 movers at $350, with a three-hour minimum and the same rate with or without a truck. The crew size is set by the heaviest thing on the job, so a safe in the basement can mean a bigger crew than the rest of the house would need.
If the safe is the only heavy item and you are moving everything else yourself, you may not need a full move at all. A single-item price for the safe, or labor-only help for loading your own rental truck, can serve you better than booking a crew by the hour for the whole day.
What helps before moving day
- Empty the safe completely. Contents add weight and shift around inside while it tilts.
- Find the combination or key and keep it with you, not inside a packed box.
- Close and lock the door so it cannot swing open while the safe is tipped.
- Tell us if it is bolted down, so the time to free it is part of the plan.
- Clear rugs, furniture and anything fragile from the path at both ends.
- Decide exactly where it goes in the new place, down to the wall.
A photo of the safe, a photo of any stairs, and the make and model say more than a long description, and they let us size the crew right the first time.
If the safe is the only thing you need moved, choose "One item" and then "Gun safe" on the estimator, describe the path, and we will come back with a price.