A caller has a pod, a garden room, a machine or a shed to get into a back garden, and there is a fence in the way. The question is always the same. Can you lift it over.
Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. What we cannot do is answer it without knowing three things, and none of them is the fence.
The three things that decide it
Where the lorry can stand. This is the big one. The boom works from the chassis, so the lorry has to get to a spot near enough to the drop point and have room to put its legs out sideways once it is there. On a wide road with a driveway you can park across, that is usually straightforward. On a narrow terraced street with cars both sides, it often is not.
What is between the lorry and the drop. The fence itself is rarely the problem. A garage, a conservatory, a bay window or the house itself is a different matter, because the load has to travel over it and come down the other side. Over a fence and a flower bed is one job. Over a fence, a lean to, a greenhouse and a washing line is another.
What is overhead. Cables to the house, a street light, phone lines, a big tree at the front. The boom has to come up before it can go out, and anything above the working area limits it straight away. Overhead cables are the single most common reason we say no.
What we will ask you
We will ask where the item has to finish up and what is in the way of it. We will ask what the front of the property looks like and whether the road is wide enough for a full size lorry to stop without blocking it. We will ask about cables. We will ask what the ground is at the standing position.
Photographs answer most of this in one go. One from the middle of the road facing the house, one from the drop point facing back towards the road, and one straight up if there is anything above. Send those over and we can usually tell you yes or no the same day.
Where the lorry cannot get close enough, lifting from further back is sometimes the answer, and our long reach HIAB page covers that side of the work. It is not a way around every obstacle, but it is why the answer is not automatically no just because you cannot park outside the gate.
When the answer is no
Sometimes it is no, and we will tell you so on the phone rather than come out and tell you in person. The usual reasons are cables that cannot be worked under, a standing position that does not exist, or something in the flight path that would have to be dismantled first.
When that happens it is often worth asking whether the item can go in a different way. Through a gate in pieces, round the back from a neighbouring access, or in before the fence goes up if the garden is being done anyway. We cannot make that decision for you, but we can tell you what would make it possible.
Email us at info@manchesterhiabshire.co.uk with a photograph or two and we will give you a straight answer.
Need a lorry? Ask for a quote or email us and tell us what needs moving.
