A move into BW Scala, Belgrade Waterfront

The paperwork comes before the van

This is not an advertisement. It is a record of one of our moves into the BW Scala tower at Belgrade Waterfront, with the photographs we took along the way. If you have a move into or out of one of those towers coming up, this is what it actually looks like.

The client called a week ahead. The first thing we told him was not the price — it was: tell the building management you are moving. In the BW towers, nothing happens without that notice. Security has to know who is coming, when, and how long it will take. You are given a slot for the goods lift, and that window is when the work happens.

It sounds complicated. In practice it is one email and one signature. We told the client exactly what to write, he forwarded it, and two days later we had the slot.

The day itself, box by box

We arrived in the morning, before the building got busy. The flat was partly packed already — the client had done the clothes and the small things himself, and we brought boxes for the rest.

Every box gets a marker label: kitchen, living room, bedroom. It looks trivial. When fifty boxes come off the van at the other address, those three words on the cardboard are worth a great deal.

The corridors in Scala are narrow and bright, with new flooring. Nothing gets dragged there — everything is carried or goes on a trolley with rubber wheels. The management requires it, and it is our habit anyway: leave the building as you found it.

The goods lift

Within the agreed slot, the goods lift is effectively ours. We set up a small staging point beside it — the chest of drawers, the mirror, the boxes — and then send it down load by load.

One of the crew stays upstairs filling the lift, another is downstairs emptying it. That way the lift is never travelling empty, and we are not getting in the way of residents using the passenger lifts.

The garage, which is what everyone asks about

A van cannot get into the BW garage itself — the height does not allow it. But there is a service passage beside the ramp, and that is where we positioned ourselves, two or three metres from the lift exit.

In the photograph at the top of this article you can see a car passing beside us. It is tight, but it works, which is why one of the crew is always watching the traffic while loading.

From the lift to the van, boxes go on the trolley. When the vehicle is practically at the lift exit, loading goes twice as fast as carrying across a street — and nothing stands in the rain.

In the van the old rule applies: heavy at the bottom, light on top, everything strapped. The chest of drawers and the mirror go against the wall in blankets, the boxes stack like tetris. Nobody rushes — ten minutes of more careful stacking saves an hour of explaining why something is cracked. The full method is in how to load a van properly.

Finished before dark, almost

We drove the last load after dark. Unloading at the new address went faster, because the boxes were labelled: each one straight into its own room, with none of the "put it there and we'll see".

In total: one notice, one lift slot, one full van and one day's work. No drama.

Three things that genuinely help in a BW move

1. Give notice as soon as you know the date. Goods lift slots at the end of the month go first. The general procedure is in telling the building manager about your move.
2. Do not plan on the van going into the garage. The service passage does the job, but that is knowledge you only acquire once you have been there — or by bringing someone who has.
3. Label the boxes. Seriously. Three words with a marker.

The same principles — visiting both addresses beforehand, planning the layout in advance, loading outside working hours — apply to our business clients. If you are moving an office, see moving an office.

If a day like this is coming up for you, call 066/50-40-30-9. The survey is free and nobody will pester you afterwards.

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