2 First and second floor, one flat
The upper maisonette
Shares The front door, the hall, the main stair
The classic Ealing address, and the one that defeats furniture. Two staircases between the street and your bedroom, and the first one belongs to everybody.
What this position in the house does to a move
A maisonette move has two stair problems, not one. The communal stair from the shared hall up to your front door was built as a domestic staircase for a single family, with a half-landing and a turn — and it now serves as the access route for two or three households.
Above your own front door there is usually a second, narrower internal stair, and in Ealing that one frequently has a further turn at the top where the original servants’ flight was.
The measurement that matters is the diagonal through the communal half-landing turn. It is almost always tighter than the front door, and it is what decides which pieces come apart.
Our part
What we bring to this one
- 1 Both staircases measured at the tightest point, and the failures identified before packing
- 2 Full protection on the communal hall, stair, banister and newel — it is not your paintwork to damage
- 3 Dismantling and reassembly, with fixings bagged and labelled to the item
- 4 A window hoist arranged where a piece genuinely will not pass, subject to the freeholder’s agreement
Moving to or from the upper maisonette?
Tell us both addresses and which flat you are. If you can, photograph the communal stair from below and from the landing above — that is what decides the day.