Residential moving in Montreal, done by the people you meet at the door
A residential move is the one most people do only a handful of times in their life, and in Montreal it comes with problems that movers in other cities rarely see: third-floor walk-ups with exterior spiral staircases, borough parking permits, condo buildings that give you a two-hour elevator window, and a lease cycle that pushes a large share of the province’s moves into the last days of June and the first days of July.
Déménagement Simplex Moving is a residential moving company based in Verdun. The crew that arrives at your address is on our payroll and in our truck. We do not sell your booking to a subcontractor after you pay the deposit, and we do not staff jobs with day labour picked up that morning. That single decision shapes everything else on this page: the person who wraps your dresser is the same person who carries it down the stairs and sets it down in the right room at the other end.
This page covers every kind of household move we do — from a studio on the Plateau to a four-bedroom house in the West Island — and explains how we price them, how long they take and how to get ready. If you already know what you need, the two services with their own pages are local moving for most apartment, condo and house moves, and luxury and estate moving for large or high-value homes that need a dedicated move manager.
Apartments, plexes, condos and houses: what actually changes
The number of rooms is only half of the estimate. Access decides the other half: how far the truck can park from the door, how many floors there are without an elevator, how tight the staircase turns and whether a building manager controls when you are allowed to use the service elevator.
Apartments and plexes
Most Montreal apartments are in duplexes, triplexes and small walk-up buildings, often with an exterior staircase that curves on itself. These stairs are the reason a 3½ on the third floor can take twice as long as the same apartment at ground level. Our crews carry box springs and sofas up and down these staircases every week; when something will not make the turn, we say so before we try, and we remove doors or hoist through a balcony only when it is safe and you have agreed.
Condos and high-rise buildings
Downtown, Griffintown, Nuns’ Island, Brossard and Laval condo towers usually require an elevator reservation, padded elevator walls, a loading-dock time slot and a certificate of insurance naming the syndicate. We book the elevator with you, bring the padding, and send the certificate directly to the property manager a few days before the move so the concierge is not the one who stops the job.
Houses
Houses bring volume rather than stairs: basements, garages, sheds, patio furniture and the things nobody remembers until the truck is almost full. A house move usually needs a crew of four and a 34-foot truck, and sometimes two trucks. We do a video or in-person walkthrough for anything above three bedrooms so the estimate reflects the basement and the garage, not just the bedrooms.
What a residential move costs
Local residential moves are billed by the hour, from the moment the crew arrives at your door until the last item is placed at the new address, plus travel time: 1 hour at the same hourly rate for the drive from our yard and back. There is a minimum of 2 hours. There is no fuel surcharge, no stair fee and no weekend or holiday premium. Blankets, stretch wrap, straps, dollies, floor runners and the disassembly and reassembly of standard furniture are included.
| Home size | Crew and truck | Hourly rate | Typical time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio or 1½ | 2 movers, 22 ft truck | $120 / hr | 3–6 hours |
| 1 bedroom or 3½ | 2 movers, 22 ft truck | $120 / hr | 4–7 hours |
| 2–3 bedrooms or 4½–5½ | 3 movers, 22 ft truck | $160 / hr | 4–9 hours |
| 4+ bedrooms or house | 4 movers, 34 ft truck | $220 / hr | 9–12 hours |
The low end of each range is a ground floor or an elevator at both addresses; the high end is a third-floor walk-up at both. Moves out of the region — to Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto or further — are not hourly: they are quoted as one fixed long-distance price based on your inventory and the distance. You can get a range for your own move in about a minute with the moving cost calculator, and every rate is listed on the pricing page.
How we keep a residential move on schedule
A move runs late for predictable reasons: the truck cannot park, the elevator is booked by someone else, the boxes are not closed, or the crew discovers a piano nobody mentioned. Most of our preparation is about removing those surprises before the day.
- Parking permit. On the island, most boroughs require a temporary occupation permit to reserve curb space for a moving truck. The permit is requested by you, ahead of the day; we tell you how much curb space the truck needs, so it can park at your door instead of down the block.
- Elevator and loading dock. We confirm the reservation, the time window and the building’s rules — padding, floor protection, hours when moving is allowed.
- Inventory. A short video call or a list of the large items lets us send the right crew size and truck. It also flags anything that needs special handling, such as a piano, a safe, a treadmill or an aquarium.
- Protection. Floor runners, door-frame guards and banister padding go down before the first box leaves the room. Furniture is blanket-wrapped and stretch-wrapped in the apartment, not on the sidewalk.
- Crew chief walkthrough. At the start and at the end of the job, the crew chief walks through both addresses with you, so nothing is left behind and every room gets the right furniture.
Moving on July 1st
Quebec’s leases traditionally end on June 30, which turns July 1 into the busiest moving day of the year and the week around it into the tightest. If your lease ends on July 1, contact us in the spring: crews book out weeks in advance, and the good morning slots go first. If you have any flexibility, moving a few days before or after July 1 — or bridging the gap with a few days of short-term storage — gives you a better choice of crews and a calmer day. When we are full, we say we are full instead of taking a deposit we cannot honour.
Getting ready: a simple timeline
- Six to eight weeks before: ask for a written estimate, confirm your dates, and tell us about anything heavy or fragile. Book the elevator in both buildings if you live in a condo.
- Four weeks before: start packing the rooms you use least. Sell, donate or plan disposal for what you are not taking — every item you do not move is time you do not pay for.
- One week before: confirm the parking permit, label every box with its destination room, and set aside a box of essentials: chargers, medication, documents, toilet paper, a kettle.
- The day before: empty and defrost the freezer, disconnect the washer if you can, and make sure all boxes are closed and stackable.
- Moving day: keep a clear path from the door to the truck, keep children and pets in a quiet room, and walk through both addresses with the crew chief.
If you would rather not pack at all, our packing services cover anything from the kitchen alone to the whole home the day before.
Residential moves that need something extra
Some household moves need a different plan rather than a bigger truck. Seniors downsizing into a smaller apartment or a retirement residence usually need help deciding what goes where, a floor plan for the new unit and a slower pace; we plan those with the family and the residence’s move-in coordinator. Student moves are often small, fast and tied to residence check-in times — a two-person crew and a short minimum usually covers them. Estate cleanouts and donations happen when a home is being emptied: we move what the family keeps, deliver furniture to the charity you choose, and arrange disposal for what is left. And heavy or delicate items — a piano, a gun safe, a marble table, a large mirror — go on the estimate as specialty items so the right equipment is on the truck.
Why homeowners and tenants choose Simplex
For a two-box studio move, a full move is not always the best value: our labour-only helpers or a friend with a van may cost less, and we will say so. What we offer is predictability: a written estimate with a realistic range, a crew that shows up in a Simplex truck at the time we said, and a crew chief who owns the job from the first box to the last. More than ninety customers have described their move on our Google profile — you can read what they wrote below.
We work across the island of Montreal, the West Island, Laval, the North Shore, the South Shore and Vaudreuil-Soulanges at the same hourly rate. Moving between two of those regions is still a local move, with no out-of-town surcharge.
