Up the shared stairs · F1
First-floor conversions in Putney
The most common flat in the postcode and the one where most Putney furniture gets stuck. A shared front door, a communal hall that belongs to everybody, one flight up, and a turn at the top that quietly sets a hard limit on everything you own.
If you remember one thing from this page: it is the turn, not the stair width.
What a first-floor move involves
Why the turn decides everything
A straight flight of stairs will take a remarkably long object, because the item can be tilted along the run. A flight with a quarter or half landing at the top will not, because at some point the item has to rotate within a fixed box of space.
The measurement that matters is the clear diagonal available in that box — from the inside corner of the landing to the opposite wall, allowing for the handrail and anything mounted on it. It is a two-minute measurement and it answers most of the questions people have about their own furniture.
Almost every Putney conversion has this turn. It is the defining feature of the housing stock and the single most useful thing we can measure at your survey.
What usually will not go
Three-seater sofas with fixed backs, in a great many cases. Tall wardrobes that were assembled in the room. Large corner units. Anything rigid and long that cannot lose a dimension by being taken apart.
What usually will: anything modular, anything with removable legs or arms, beds of any size once dismantled, and almost all storage furniture.
We tell you which category each of your marginal pieces falls into, and where something sits on the line we will say that too rather than sound more certain than we are.
The hall is not yours
A first-floor move happens almost entirely in shared space: the front door, the hall, the staircase and the landing. Everyone else in the building is affected by it, and the communal decoration is typically the freeholder's responsibility and the leaseholders' collective cost.
Runners go down as standard and the route is kept to one side. Marks on a communal staircase are the commonest post-move dispute in this kind of building and they are very largely preventable.
Tell the building first
A short note to the managing agent and the other flats a week ahead removes nearly all the friction from these jobs. It also means that if something does need discussing — a lift booking in a larger building, a restriction in the lease — you find out with time to do something about it.
First-floor conversions
Questions about first-floor conversions
01 How do I measure the turn myself?
Stand on the landing and measure the clear diagonal from the inside corner to the furthest opposite point, allowing for the handrail. Send us that number with the length of your longest rigid piece and we can usually tell you the answer straight away.
02 Will my three-seater sofa come down?
Sometimes, and it is the most common casualty. If the back or the arms come off it usually will. If it is a single rigid frame and your turn is tight, frequently not.
03 Can you take a window out?
Not in a conversion — that is the freeholder's fabric and not ours to alter. An external lift through a window opening is occasionally possible with permission, but it is a planned operation rather than a fallback.
04 Who pays if the communal wall is marked?
Typically the freeholder repairs and recharges the leaseholders, which is why it gets pursued. We protect the route as standard precisely to avoid the question.
05 Do I have to tell the other flats?
You do not have to. It makes the day considerably smoother if you do, because a hall blocked for an hour affects people who did not choose to move today.
Which floor, at both ends?
That and the two addresses. If you can also measure the clear diagonal at the turn in your staircase, we can usually answer the furniture question straight away.