The sofa won't fit through the door: what to measure first

The sofa got into the old flat, so it will get out again. Almost everyone thinks this way, and it does not hold up well: maybe it arrived in pieces, or over the balcony, or before the new handrail went in. And even if it gets out, the new home has a different door, a different staircase, a different lift. If it does not fit, you find out on the second-floor landing, with two people under the weight and the sofa stuck sideways.

You avoid it with a tape measure and a sheet of paper, a week before. All the work is in two lists of numbers: the sofa's and the route's.

The sofa's measurements, including the diagonal one

The first three are obvious: length, depth and height, taken at the points that stick out most. Usually that means the arms and the top of the back, not the seat.

The fourth is the one people forget, and it is the diagonal depth. Lay something straight, like a broom handle or a batten, from the top of the back to the front edge of the arm. Then measure the shortest distance between that straight edge and the bottom back corner of the sofa. If the door is wider than this number but narrower than the full depth, the sofa can go through tipped back. If it is narrower than this too, it will not go through in one piece.

Before you write the numbers down, check what comes off. If the feet unscrew, you gain their height. The cushions come off. Some backs unhook, some arms unscrew from underneath, and a modular sofa splits into its sections: in that case you measure the largest section, not the whole sofa. How to take the rest of the furniture apart is covered in the article on taking it apart and putting it back together. Here you only need to know which parts come off, and to measure again without them.

The route, one tight spot at a time

The route needs measuring twice, out of the old home and into the new one, and you measure it from where the sofa is now to where it will stand. These are the points to measure.

• Doors. What counts is the clear opening, the free space between the two door stops on the frame, not the width of the door itself. Even fully open, the door takes up part of the gap with its thickness: lifting it off its hinges gives you that space back.
• Corners in the hallway. Here the sofa's length matters, not its depth. A hallway it goes straight down may not let it turn into the next room.
• Stairs. Measure the width between the wall and the handrail, the width of the landing where the flight turns, and the headroom under the flight above. The landing is a corner just like the ones in the hallway, and there too the length decides.
• The lift. Width and height of the door, then width, depth and height of the car. Inside the car a sofa stands on end, so its length is compared with the inside height. Before you count on it, check what your building says about the lift and furniture: the questions to ask are in the article on building rules.

For corners, numbers alone are not enough. Fold a bedsheet to the length and depth of the sofa, and have two people carry it flat, holding the corners, through the spot where the hallway or the stairs turn. In one minute you learn what you would otherwise find out on moving day with the sofa in your arms.

When the numbers don't work

If the sofa will not fit even in pieces, there are three ways forward, and it pays to pick one now.

The first is the window or the balcony. It is done with a vehicle-mounted ladder lift or a furniture hoist, and it is not a job for friends: this is where you call a removal company. The vehicle has to stand in the street under the window, and parking permits take time that you need to count when you choose the day.

The second is to leave it, sell it or give it away, and buy another one for the new home. In that case you already have the route measurements, and they apply to the new sofa as well: take them to the shop.

The third is a sofa that comes apart further than that, with help from an upholsterer. It only works on some models, and you ask them first rather than finding out afterwards.

The day it goes through

The route you measured has to stay that wide on the day as well. The risk is the line of things ready by the door, the one you set up the evening before to load the van in order: put it along a wall, out of the sofa's way. A Cangubox stacks even when closed and loaded, so the line becomes a few tall columns against the wall, each standing on the base of a single crate, 60 × 40 cm. The way stays clear, and the stacks go out on the Dolly after the sofa.

The order helps in the van too: heavy furniture goes in first, against the cab. So the sofa leaves early, while everyone's arms are still fresh and the hallway is still empty.

Three things to do this week: the sofa's four measurements on a sheet of paper, the tight spots in both homes next to them, and the bedsheet test where the route turns. If a number does not work, you still have time to choose your way forward.