Moving Heavy Furniture: Safes, Pool Tables and the Weights That Hurt

Moving heavy furniture is where a DIY move turns into an injury, and it is also where a professional move turns into an argument about the quote. Both problems have the same cause: nobody weighed up the heavy items before the day.

What the HSE actually says about heavy lifting

The Health and Safety Executive's leaflet on manual handling at work gives guideline weights for lifting and lowering. They are written for employers, but they are the best published yardstick for anyone carrying furniture. For a load held close to the body at waist height, the figure is 25kg for men and 16kg for women. At shoulder height or knuckle height it falls to 20kg and 13kg, and at floor level to 10kg and 7kg. With the load held away from the body, every figure roughly halves.

The HSE is clear that these are not safe limits. They describe the zone where the risk is low enough that most people do not need a more detailed assessment. Twisting, carrying on stairs, a load that is hard to grip, or handling as a team all push a task outside that zone.

Put that next to real furniture. A solid oak chest of drawers, a sofa bed, a cast iron bath or a fridge freezer are all well beyond a single person's guideline figure, and most are awkward to grip as well. Two people help, but a team lift is exactly the case the HSE flags as needing more thought rather than less.

The HSE's lifting technique, in short

The HSE's good handling technique comes down to a handful of habits: plan the lift and the route before you pick anything up, keep the load close to your waist, stand with feet apart and one leg forward, get a firm hold, bend slightly at the back, hips and knees rather than stooping or squatting fully, avoid twisting or leaning sideways, keep your head up, move smoothly without snatching, and put the load down before adjusting its position. Its last point is the one people ignore: do not lift more than you can easily manage.

Item by item: what needs what

Safes

A domestic safe is dense for its size and often bolted to the floor or wall. Many removal firms treat safes as a survey item and will want to know the make, the dimensions and the approximate weight before they quote, because a heavy safe may need a stair climber, floor protection and extra crew. Some will not move very heavy safes at all and refer you to a specialist safe mover. Our list of what removal companies won't move covers the wider picture.

Slate pool and snooker tables

A slate-bed table should be dismantled, not carried whole. The playing bed is usually slate in one or three pieces, and each piece can weigh more than an adult. Moving it intact risks cracking the slate and injuring whoever is carrying it. Reassembly then needs re-levelling and often re-clothing. This is specialist work: book a pool table fitter for the dismantle and rebuild, and tell your remover so they can load the pieces flat and padded.

Pianos

Uprights and grands are their own category, with specialist movers, piano boards and stair techniques. We cover the costs and the process on how to move a piano.

American fridge freezers and range cookers

The problem here is often width rather than weight. Measure the doorways and the turn in the hall before moving day, because an American-style fridge freezer may need its doors taken off to get through a standard internal door. Transport fridges upright where you can, and check the manufacturer's manual for how long to leave it standing before switching back on. A range cooker needs its gas or electrical connection handled by a qualified person, not by the removal crew.

Wardrobes, beds and solid wood

Flat-pack furniture should be taken apart; it was not designed to be carried assembled and can rack and split. Solid wardrobes and dressers are lighter with the drawers and doors out, and much easier to grip. Keep the fixings in labelled bags taped to the furniture.

Equipment that changes the job

• Furniture dollies and a sack truck take the weight off your back for level runs.
• Lifting straps keep a load closer to the body, which is the single factor the HSE figures reward most.
• Sliders and floor protection for pushing heavy items across hard floors without lifting at all.
• A stair climber for safes and appliances on stairs; this is professional kit and usually the reason a firm quotes extra.

Getting it into the quote

Heavy items are where a fixed quote is most likely to change on the day. List them when you ask for prices: what it is, approximate size and weight, which floor it is on, and anything about the access such as narrow stairs, a spiral staircase or a long carry from the parking spot. A home survey or video survey catches the rest. Our pages on getting a removal quote and questions to ask a removal company set out what to cover.

Check the insurance position too. Many removal policies limit cover for items above a certain value or for items that were not declared, and a firm may exclude damage caused while dismantling something it was not asked to dismantle. Removals insurance explained goes through the common exclusions.

DIY or not?

For a move with one or two heavy items and plenty of help, a man and van with a tail lift can be enough. For a safe, a slate table, a piano or anything that has to go up or down stairs, pay for people who do it every day. The saving from doing it yourself disappears quickly if the item is damaged, and a back injury costs far more than the extra hour on the invoice. Our comparison of man and van versus a removal company and our Sussex removal costs will help you price both options, and there is more on planning a move on the Move Sussex homepage.

Frequently Asked Questions

How heavy is too heavy to lift when moving house?

The HSE's guideline for a load held close to the body at waist height is about 25kg for men and 16kg for women, and much less at floor or shoulder height or with the load held away from you. These are not safe limits, but anything above them needs a lifting aid, a better method or professional help.

Will removal companies move a safe?

Many will, but usually only after a survey, because they need the make, size and weight to plan the crew and equipment. Very heavy safes are often referred to specialist safe movers. Always declare a safe when you ask for a quote.

Can you move a slate pool table in one piece?

It should not be moved in one piece. The slate bed is usually one or three pieces, each very heavy, and carrying the table assembled risks cracking the slate. Book a pool table fitter to dismantle, then re-level and re-cloth it at the new house.

How do I get an American fridge freezer through a doorway?

Measure first. Many need their doors removed to pass through a standard internal door. Move it upright where possible and follow the manufacturer's advice on how long to leave it standing before switching it back on.

Does removal insurance cover heavy items?

Only if they were declared and fall within the policy's limits. Many policies cap cover for high-value items or exclude undeclared ones, so list heavy and valuable items in writing before the move.

Sources

• HSE: Manual handling at work (INDG143), for the guideline weights by lifting height
• HSE: good handling technique, for the lifting technique steps

Checked on 11 September 2026. The HSE figures are guidelines for assessing risk, not safe limits; if in doubt, get a survey from your remover.