Shifting out of Kolkata's old walk-up buildings, one landing at a time

Why old Kolkata houses need a different plan

A three-storey house off Maniktala or an old building near Kalighat was put up long before anyone thought about moving a double-door fridge. Staircases are steep and turn at tight landings, banisters are old wood or cast iron, and the lane outside may be wide enough for a rickshaw and not much else. Many of these houses have been divided among branches of a family over the years, so your portion on the second floor might be reached through a shared courtyard and a stair you don't fully control.

None of that makes the move impossible. It means the hours go into carrying rather than driving. A flat that loads in a couple of hours from a tower on EM Bypass can take most of a day from a walk-up, and it needs a bigger crew. We'd rather say that at the survey than have you find out while the truck waits on the main road.

What should you check on the staircase before moving day?

You don't need a tape measure for everything, but a few minutes of looking saves hours later. Walk the route your furniture will take and note these points for your move manager:

• The narrowest door on the way out, including the main door of the building
• The tightest landing, where a long piece has to turn
• Low beams, hanging wires or a meter box sticking out into the stairwell
• Loose steps, a shaky banister or a slippery patch near the courtyard tap
• The point where the lane meets a road wide enough for a tempo or truck
• Scooters, cycles or pot plants that neighbours keep on the stairs

At the survey we look at the same things and decide which pieces go down whole and which come apart. If a bed or sofa came in through a window or over the terrace years ago, tell us. Sometimes that's still the only way out, and it needs planning and extra hands on a dry day.

Taking heavy furniture apart

The usual suspects in these homes are heavy wooden almirahs, old palangs, dressing tables with big mirrors, marble-topped side tables and steel cupboards. Our crew takes apart whatever was designed to come apart, such as headboards and side rails, dining table legs, almirah doors, loose shelves and mirror frames. Screws and bolts go into a labelled bag taped to the piece they came from, so putting things back together doesn't turn into a hunt.

Some pieces shouldn't be forced. An old almirah whose joints have dried out can split if you try to pull it apart, so it goes down whole if the stair allows. A marble top always comes off and travels standing on its edge, never lying flat. Mirrors and glass shelves go into the Perfect Box or get their own padded wrap, and wooden furniture is covered with the Fabric Sheet before it gets anywhere near the stairwell wall.

Tell us about any piece that matters to the family, like a grandmother's dressing table or an old gramophone cabinet. It gets extra padding and goes down last, once the stair is clear and nobody is in a hurry.

Carrying down safely, landing by landing

Heavy pieces don't go down on one person's back. An almirah usually has two people below and one or two above, with carrying straps, and the team rests at each landing. The person at the bottom walks backwards and calls out the steps. Banister corners and the wall at each turn get padded, partly to protect your furniture and partly because the family downstairs will certainly notice a fresh scrape on a very old wall.

Small cartons come down first and wait in the courtyard or the ground-floor passage, which keeps the stair clear when the big pieces move. The fridge and washing machine usually follow the furniture. If the stair is shared, tell your neighbours the evening before. People are generally patient about it when they've been warned.

Loading when the truck can't reach your door

Around Burrabazar and in much of north Kolkata, a full-size truck won't fit into the lane. It waits on the nearest road where it's allowed to stand, and goods come out to it, by hand over a short distance or in a smaller tempo that goes back and forth over a longer one. Inside the truck, loading goes heavy-first, with furniture against the front wall and cartons packed firmly around it, so nothing shifts on the drive.

Two habits make this safer. One of our crew stays at the truck and ticks off each item against the inventory as it arrives. It also helps if someone from your family stands there, since the lane can be a few hundred metres long and your things are out of sight for that stretch. Goods vehicles face time restrictions on many city roads, so the truck's arrival is fixed around them, and the Kolkata packers and movers page explains how we plan for that.

Rain, storms and picking the right day

Old neighbourhoods drain slowly. During the monsoon a heavy shower can leave standing water in the lanes around College Street and Amherst Street for hours, and nobody should be carrying a wrapped sofa through that. April and May bring a different risk, the kalbaishakhi, a sudden storm that whips up wind and rain late in the day. In both seasons we pack in the morning, keep a tarpaulin at the truck and put mattresses and upholstered pieces in plastic before they leave the room.

Weekday mornings usually work best, before shops open and the lane fills with handcarts and scooters. Stay away from the Durga Puja and Kali Puja weeks, and ask around about weddings or local events in your para, since a shamiana across a lane can shut it for a day. If you're leaving the city altogether, the household shifting page explains how packing works for a longer move.

Moving into another old house? The same questions apply in reverse. Check the new staircase before you commit to bringing everything, and decide at the survey which pieces are better sold than carried up three floors all over again.