Before we quote
A commercial quote without a yard survey is a guess
A commercial quote given without seeing the yard is a guess with a number attached to it. We survey both ends because the difference between a dock and a shutter, or between a yard you can turn in and one you cannot, changes the vehicle, the crew and the plan.
The six facts
- 01
Dock or shutter
A proper loading dock and a ground-level roller shutter need different vehicles and different equipment. Getting this wrong is the single most expensive assumption in a commercial quote.
- 02
Turning circle
Whether an articulated or a rigid vehicle can actually get into the yard, turn, and get out again. Several units on the CR4 estates can take the vehicle but not the manoeuvre.
- 03
Shared yard
Most estate units share their yard with their neighbours. Blocking it is not a minor inconvenience — it stops somebody else trading — so the standing position gets agreed rather than assumed.
- 04
Access hours
Estate gates, barriers and security arrangements govern when anybody can get in at all. Where a landlord or an estate manager controls that, it is arranged in advance, not negotiated at the gate.
- 05
Floor and mezzanine
What the slab will take, and what any mezzanine will take, which are very different numbers. Anything substantial going above ground level gets checked rather than hoped about.
- 06
The route inside
Clear internal height, roller-shutter width, fire doors, and whether the forklift route survives once the racking starts coming down. The inside is usually tighter than the outside.
Why it matters this much
A dock and a shutter are different jobs
A tail-lift vehicle at a proper loading dock is capability you paid for and cannot use. A dock-height trailer at a ground-level roller shutter is a vehicle that cannot unload at all. Those are not small errors — they are the day not happening.
The same applies to a yard that admits a vehicle but will not let it turn, or to a mezzanine that will not take the plant somebody promised it would. None of those facts can be established over the phone, which is why anybody quoting commercial work sight-unseen is putting a number on an assumption.
The survey takes very little of your time. It removes almost all of the risk from the price.
The estates we know
We work these regularly enough to know which units have a dock, which yards you can turn in, and which gates close when. That is most of why our quotes hold.
- Willow Lane Industrial Estate
- Bond Road
- Streatham Road
- Western Road
- Beddington Lane
- Mitcham Junction
- Morden Road corridor
- Goat Road
- Carshalton Road
Get a quote
Book a yard survey
Tell us where both units are and roughly what is moving. We will come and establish the six facts, and then the quote is arithmetic rather than guesswork.