Washington, DC Movers for Apartments, Rowhouses and Small Moves

The District’s housing stock decides your move

DC is a rowhouse city with a growing high-rise edge. A Columbia Heights or Petworth rowhouse usually means a stoop, a narrow front door and a staircase with a landing turn that a queen box spring will argue with. An English basement adds a below-grade entrance and often a low ceiling at the stair head. Converted rowhouse condos in Shaw, Bloomingdale and Capitol Hill can have beautiful original staircases that are genuinely too tight for a sofa, which is why we ask for the sofa’s dimensions before the date rather than on the day. Newer buildings in NoMa, Navy Yard and the Wharf are the opposite problem: easy interiors, but a reserved freight elevator and a garage with a posted height limit that a cargo van fits and a box truck does not.

Parking is the thing to sort out first

Most residential blocks in the District are zoned residential permit parking, so there is frequently nowhere legal for a moving vehicle to sit for three hours in front of your door. The District’s transportation department has a process for temporary no-parking signage for moves — look up the current requirements, fees and lead time before you set a date, because the lead time is the part that catches people out. If your building has a loading dock or an alley entrance, that is almost always the better option, and if it does, tell us: an alley-side load in Capitol Hill can be quicker than a street-side load two blocks away.

Timing around a District weekday

Weekday evenings are our normal window, and they work well in DC for rowhouses and street-level units where nobody is enforcing building move hours. Elevator buildings are a different matter — many restrict moves to business hours and will not staff the dock after five. Ask your property manager three questions early: what hours moves are allowed, whether the freight elevator has to be reserved, and what documentation they require from a moving company.

Neighborhoods we work in

Not an exhaustive list — if your neighborhood is not named, ask.

Columbia HeightsPetworthShawBloomingdaleLeDroit ParkNoMaH Street NECapitol HillNavy YardSouthwest WaterfrontAdams MorganMount PleasantDupont CircleLogan CircleU StreetBrooklandBrightwoodTakoma DCGeorgetownGlover ParkAnacostiaCongress Heights

Common property types here

• Rowhouses and converted rowhouse condos
• English-basement apartments
• Pre-war walk-up apartment buildings
• New high-rise apartments with freight elevators
• Garden-style apartment complexes
• Small single-family homes

Access, parking and loading

• Residential permit parking on most side streets — plan the vehicle position before move day
• Stoops and narrow front doors on rowhouses
• Staircase landings with tight turns in converted houses
• Below-grade entrances for English basements
• Reserved freight elevators and posted move hours in newer buildings
• Garage clearance limits — a cargo van fits where a box truck does not
• Alley access at the rear of many rowhouse blocks