Steep basement stairs and 30-inch doorways: getting furniture out of an old Portland house

The short answer

Portland's pre-war housing stock has a specific problem and it is not the truck. It is the stairwell.

Every flat price we publish includes the carry from wherever the item sits — bottom of the basement stairs, top of the attic stair, third floor of a walk-up, back of a detached garage. There is no stair charge, no walk-up fee, and no long-carry fee.

• Sofa $126
• Washer $133 / Dryer $128
• Upright piano $290
• Cast iron radiator $123
• Chest freezer $146
• Mattress — Queen $103
• Visit minimum $75

Why the stairs in these houses are like that

The inner eastside was built out between roughly 1905 and 1930 — Craftsman bungalows through Sellwood, Woodstock and Richmond, Old Portland foursquares in Irvington and Alberta, English cottages in Laurelhurst and Alameda, and the fourplexes of Buckman and Kerns.

The basement stair in those houses was designed for one person carrying a coal scuttle or a laundry basket. It has:

• A steep rise and a short tread. Often noticeably steeper than anything built after 1960.
• A quarter-turn at the bottom, sometimes with winder treads, which means nothing rigid longer than about six feet negotiates it.
• A low header at the top where the floor structure crosses. You duck, while holding something heavy.
• No handrail, or one added later on the wrong side.
• A door at the top that opens inward into the stair, which is the detail that catches people out.

Add to that: the stair is often the only route, because Portland houses rarely have a bulkhead hatch, and the exterior basement door, where one exists, has its own set of wet concrete steps.

The 30-inch doorway

The other constraint is width. Original interior door casings in a 1912 house are commonly around 30 inches, and bathroom doors narrower still. Bedroom doorways in a converted attic can be tighter again.

Modern furniture is not sized for that. A deep-seat sectional, a king box spring, a wide dresser — these went into the room by a route that no longer exists, or before a wall went up, or with the door and casing off.

What a crew actually does: takes the door off its hinges, and where necessary takes the stop molding off the casing to win an inch. Both go back on. It is normal in this housing stock and it is not a separate charge. What we will not do is take a structural element out of your house, and we will tell you before anything comes off a wall.

The pieces that give the most trouble here

• Box springs. A one-piece queen or king box spring is rigid and cannot flex around a winder. This is the classic Portland attic-bedroom problem. A box spring is $92, the mattress and box spring set is $143.
• Sleeper sofas. $149. The steel mechanism makes them rigid and extremely heavy at once.
• Cast iron radiators. $123 each. Common in these houses, and genuinely awkward — dense, no grip points, sharp fins.
• Upright pianos. $290. Almost always in the front room and almost always down a flight of front steps off a raised porch.
• Washers and dryers. $133 and $128. The Portland laundry is in the basement, so it is always an uphill carry.
• Old CRT televisions. $62. Absurdly heavy for their size and with nowhere good to hold.
• Chest freezers. $146. Somehow always at the far end of the basement behind the furnace.

The other carry: from the street

Inner Portland has a second access problem stacked on top of the first. Blocks in Ladd's Addition, Sunnyside, Sellwood and off Clinton are narrow, parked solid both sides, mostly without alleys, and a lot of houses have no driveway at all — just a strip of concrete down the side of the lot if you are lucky.

So the truck parks where it can, often a house or two down, and the material walks. On a deep lot with a garage at the back that walk can be 80 feet each way.

Also not billed. A quarter load is $241 whether the truck is backed up to the garage door in Beaverton or sitting on the street in Sellwood.

What to tell us when you book

• What floor the item is on, and whether the route is a basement stair, an attic stair, or a rear stair.
• Whether there is a turn in the stair.
• Whether the item was assembled in the room.
• Whether there is an exterior basement entrance, and whether its steps are usable in the wet.
• Whether there is any legal parking on your block, honestly.
• Whether the front porch has a railing that limits the turn at the top of the steps.

None of it changes the price. All of it changes how many people come and what they bring.

What not to attempt yourself

Plain advice, not a sales pitch. The specific combination that hurts people in this city is a heavy rigid object, a steep stair with a turn, and one helper who is walking backwards and cannot see the treads. That describes a washer coming up out of a basement, a CRT television, a radiator, and a box spring on a winder.

If you are going to do one thing yourself, do the light boxes. Let somebody else do the appliance on the stair. It is a $133 problem, and the carry is what you are buying.

Worked totals

• Washer + dryer out of the basement: $133 + $128 = $261
• Chest freezer + CRT television + large junk pile: $146 + $62 + $208 = $416
• Upright piano + two cast iron radiators: $290 + $123 + $123 = $536
• Attic bedroom — queen set + bed frame + dresser: $143 + $68 + $126 = $337

No sales tax in Oregon, so those are final.

Frequently asked questions