Our Moving Services

Local moves inside the Triangle are billed hourly, and the rate depends on crew size and truck. Two movers and a truck is the baseline; a three- or four-person crew costs more per hour but finishes sooner, so a larger crew is often the cheaper total on a full house. Travel time and specialty items (a piano, a gun safe, a slate pool table, a marble-top antique) are the line items that move a quote. The only way to get a real number is a free estimate, which takes a few minutes by phone or through the form, and is not binding on you.

The estimate is free and carries no obligation. A modest booking deposit to hold your date is normal in this industry; a demand for a large percentage up front, cash, or a wire transfer is the clearest warning sign of a moving scam, and we do not do any of those. The balance is settled when the move is complete, not before the truck is loaded.

J.E. Ladd & Son Transfer is a licensed North Carolina household goods carrier, NCUC-628, and fully insured. The legal default coverage on any licensed move is released value, roughly 60 cents per pound per item, which is a liability limit rather than insurance: it pays about $24 on a destroyed 40-pound television. Full value protection is a real product you can buy for the move, and specific high-value pieces (a piano, an appraised antique, fine art) should carry declared value. Ask about it at the estimate, because it cannot be added after move day.

Piano moving is quoted as a flat price for the instrument, separate from any hourly household rate, because the crew and equipment are different. An upright between ground floors typically runs $350 to $500; a baby grand or grand between ground floors runs $600 to $900. Stairs, a long carry from the truck or a reserved freight elevator move the quote toward the top of the range. We are the movers trusted by the Duke Department of Music.

Yes. Commercial moves across Durham, RTP, Raleigh and Chapel Hill are scheduled around your business, which usually means a Friday-evening IT move and a Saturday furniture move so the office is working Monday morning. We handle the certificate of insurance most Triangle office buildings require and the freight elevator window that goes with it.

Two to four weeks is comfortable for most local moves. The end of any month, the last two weeks of May and the first two weeks of August (university move-out and move-in across Duke, UNC and NC State) book up earliest, so give those dates a month or more. If your date is sooner than that, call: a same-week move is often possible mid-month.

We are based in Durham and move households and businesses across the Triangle: Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Cary, Apex, Morrisville, Carrboro, Hillsborough, Wake Forest, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, Garner, Knightdale, Pittsboro and Mebane, plus long-distance moves out of or into North Carolina. The company has operated from Durham since 1882, 144 years and five generations of the Ladd family.