The things people actually ask

Because it decides the stair, the front door, which parts you share and who you have to ask. A ground-floor flat and a top-floor flat in the same Ealing villa are genuinely different jobs.

It is also the question most firms do not ask. "Two-bed flat, W5" tells them the volume and nothing about how it gets to the street.

Often, and where it will not we say so at survey rather than finding out with it wedged on a half-landing that three other households need to use.

The measurement that matters is the diagonal through the half-landing turn, not the stair width. A later handrail — added to many Ealing conversions for building-regulations reasons — narrows that turn considerably.

We are, and we protect it as standard: floor, walls, banister, newel and every flight we pass through. It is not your paintwork, which makes damage there a dispute with neighbours rather than a snag with us.

That is also why we would rather over-protect than explain afterwards.

It is a very Ealing problem and an entirely normal one. What we check is the gate width at both ends and any downpipe, meter box or window sill projecting into the passage — a piece that clears the gate can still meet the drainpipe halfway along.

Usually nobody officially, which is the whole difficulty. An unmanaged conversion has no rulebook, so nothing is forbidden and nothing is arranged either.

In practice what replaces it is knocking on doors in good time. We do that as part of the job — explaining to the other flats what is happening and when, so nobody is surprised by a hall full of boxes.

For an ordinary move, no. For anything that touches the structure — a hoist bracketed to the building, or a window removed to get a piece out — yes, and it is worth establishing early rather than discovering it on the day.

On a share-of-freehold house that means asking the other flats, which is a conversation rather than an application.

Most of central Ealing is in a controlled parking zone, so a removal vehicle needs a bay formally suspended rather than hopefully empty. We apply to the council at both ends where both are controlled.

The notice period is the real constraint. Tell us your likely date as soon as you have one, even an uncertain one.

Yes, and we will too. It is the single most useful thing anyone does before a conversion move — bikes and buggies moved out of the hall the evening before prevents more problems than any amount of planning.

It also means nobody comes home to find their bin relocated without explanation.

All of it — Ealing Broadway, West Ealing, Northfields, Pitshanger, South Ealing, Hanwell, Acton, Perivale, Greenford, Northolt, Southall and the streets between — plus moves in and out of the borough to anywhere in the UK.

The conversion stock is densest around Ealing Broadway, Northfields and Pitshanger, but there are split villas all over the borough.

Yes. A great many of our moves are Ealing flats going out to Berkshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire and further.

The Ealing end is still the difficult end, which is the part we are set up for.

Yes, and they are a pleasure precisely because nobody else is involved. The catch is volume: a villa run as one household has a cellar, a loft, eaves storage and usually a garage, and those get under-counted.

As soon as you have a likely date. The parking suspension notice period is usually the constraint rather than our diary, and knocking on neighbours’ doors works better with room to spare.

A provisional booking that moves is entirely normal.

We read everything that comes in and reply by email once we have been through it, normally within a working day or two.

If you already have a date agreed, say so and we will treat it as urgent.

Yes. Goods in transit and public liability cover are in place, and the level applying to your move is set out in writing with your quote.

Public liability matters more than usual on a conversion, because so much of the route is communal property rather than yours.