Terwillegar South Movers, Edmonton

At the smallest size the dispatch is two movers and one truck, and the middle of those 46 southwest Edmonton jobs took 4.25 hours on site. Half ran between 2.81 and 7.19 hours and half cost between $457 and $1,348, a wide band for one size. Access is what stretches it: stairs, whether a lift is available, and how far the truck ends up from the door. Terwillegar South has fewer than five of its own at this size, so the figures here pool the wider set.

The step up from one bedroom to two is a third mover rather than a second truck. Across southwest Edmonton the middle of those 41 two-bedroom apartment and condo jobs ran 5.75 hours on site, with half of them costing between $601 and $1,698. These are apartment and condo addresses more often than houses, so where the building has a lift it is worth booking, and a clear loading spot is worth holding before the date rather than hunting for on it.

This is the card cut from Terwillegar South's own work: 6 three-bedroom moves, 55% of everything completed inside the boundary, at a median of $957 with tax in and 4.63 hours on site. Half of the six ran between 3.82 and 7.25 hours and cost between $767 and $1,327. Three movers and one truck is the median dispatch, and at this size the garage and the basement are as much of the day as the bedrooms are.

Four movers and one truck is what a four-bedroom-plus house takes across southwest Edmonton, and the median day is 8.13 hours on site, which is a full working day and then some. Half of the 12 jobs at that size ran between 5.13 and 11 hours, and half cost between $1,249 and $2,877, so read $2,232 as the centre of a small sample rather than as a rate. What lengthens a day like this is not the hourly rate, which does not change, but how much of the house is still in cupboards when the crew arrives.