The short answer
A sofa out of the third floor of a tall-skinny is $126. The same sofa sitting in a Madison carport is $126. There is no stair charge, no walk-up fee, and no surcharge for the staircase turning twice.
What the stairs change is how long the visit takes and how many people come. That is our problem, not a line on your invoice.
What a tall-skinny actually is
If you moved here recently, the form is specific to this city. A single lot gets split under a horizontal property regime, two narrow three-story houses go up side by side, and they share one driveway running back between them.
You see them everywhere the teardown wave went: The Nations, Cleveland Park, Eastwood, Salemtown, Wedgewood-Houston, parts of Inglewood and the edges of Sylvan Park. The interior layout is almost standardised. Garage or entry on one, kitchen and living on two, bedrooms on three. Sometimes a rooftop deck above that.
Which means your furniture is two or three floors above the street and the only way down is the stair that runs up the middle of the house.
The five things that make these carries hard
- The turn. Almost every one of these staircases switches back at a landing. An eight-foot sofa has to be stood on end and pivoted in a space that was drawn for people, not furniture.
- The handrail. Installed after the furniture went in during construction. It takes three to four inches off the usable width for the entire run.
- The drywall corners. Squared-off, unprotected, and about 30 inches from the pivot point. This is where damage happens if a crew rushes.
- Two flights, not one. A bedroom set comes down from three, through two, and out. Twice the distance of a normal walk-up.
- The shared driveway. One strip of concrete for two households. Park a truck in it and the other unit is blocked until the job is finished.
What comes out of these houses
The item list is unusually consistent, because these houses were furnished the same way at the same time.
| Item | Flat price |
|---|---|
| Sofa / couch | $126 |
| Sectional (3-piece) | $185 |
| Queen mattress + box spring set | $143 |
| Bed frame (solid / upholstered / storage), twin to queen | $126 |
| Dresser (standard) | $126 |
| Washer/dryer combo (stacked) | $189 |
| TV (42" to 65") | $68 |
| Desk (standard) | $83 |
| Patio chair (each) | $30 |
The stacked laundry unit is the signature item. Nearly every tall-skinny has one, in a closet, on the second floor, at $189.
A worked third-floor job
Bedroom on three going out of a Cleveland Park unit before a tenant change.
Queen mattress and box spring set $143 + solid bed frame $126 + dresser $126 + nightstand $57 + TV between 42 and 65 inches $68 = $520.
Against the ladder, five-eighths of a truck is $513 and three-quarters is $587. So $513 is the lower number and that is the booking. Two flights of stairs did not enter into it.
The sectional problem
Ask anyone who has furnished one of these houses. The sectional went in during the first week, before the handrail, sometimes before the interior doors, and occasionally through a window opening that has since been glazed.
It comes out in pieces. A 2-piece sectional is $141 and a 3-piece is $185, and that price holds regardless of how many trips up and down the stair each section takes. If yours was assembled in place with bolts, leave the hardware where you can find it, because unbolting it in the room is much faster than trying to angle a joined section around the landing.
The driveway conversation
This is the most Nashville-specific piece of logistics in the whole job, and it is worth thirty seconds of planning.
The tandem driveway between two HPR units belongs to both of them, and there is usually no street parking to fall back on in Salemtown or the denser blocks of The Nations. Tell your neighbor what time the truck is coming. If they need to be out at 8, we come at 9.
If the unit is on a street where the truck genuinely cannot stage, we walk it further. There is no charge for a long carry.
Booking one
Say tall-skinny, say which floor, and say whether the driveway is shared. Those three facts let us bring the right crew size and the right time block.
Everything else is the published price list: per item if you can count it, or the truck ladder at $241 for a quarter through $732 for a full. Disposal included. No stair charge, ever, and nobody is going to look at your staircase and revise the number upward on the day.
Frequently asked questions
Do you charge more for three floors with no elevator?
No. There is no stair charge and no walk-up fee. A sofa out of a third-floor Nations tall-skinny is $126, identical to one already sitting on a driveway.
Can you actually get a sectional down that staircase?
Yes, in pieces, the same way it went up. A 2-piece is $141 and a 3-piece is $185. Leave the connecting hardware accessible if it was bolted together in the room.
Will you damage the drywall on the landing?
The squared corners at the switchback are the risk point in every one of these houses, which is why we pad them and send enough people rather than forcing a pivot.
The driveway is shared with the other unit. Is that a problem?
Not if we know. Tell us when you book and give us a window that works for both households, or we will stage on the street and carry further at no extra cost.
How much for a whole floor of a tall-skinny?
Usually a half truck at $431 or five-eighths at $513, depending on how furnished it is. Compare that against the item total and book the lower one.