Moving is stressful enough, finding out that your bed supporting boxspring won’t fit makes your move even more stressful. In older Manhattan and Brooklyn walk-up apartments you might think you would have trouble getting a King size mattress up a tight stairway. Your bed mattresses will bend, the more rigid boxsprings wont. The supporting base for a King Mattress are two standard Twin box springs. The Full Size box spring is a little larger than the twin.See size chart below. The Queen Boxsprings are where movers and DIYers encounter issues. Box springs do not bend and there is often there is just no way to get that boxspring upstairs as it is.
Is it your moving skills or is it the Boxspring? This is where it pays to hire professional movers. Movers have the skill and sometimes strength to get the piece in. Sometimes it will fit will a little “finesse”. and Sometimes it just wont fit. You can often see signs of this on the walls of the space. Box springs will compress a little but that may be all you need to get it in. You may damage the walls. Ask previous residents if they had an issue. PRO movers will often ask if you want them to try to squeeze it it. It may damage the wall or the boxspring or both. If the issue is getting the piece out of the space, It was either modified to get into the space, the space was modified after it was moved in (IE a wall or ceiling height was changed). It will fit if you try it another way. Try the box spring with the tall side up or the short side up. Go into a doorway in the opposite direction of where you want to move first. Rotate the boxspring over the top of a railing. Remove teh railing. Angle it up in this space:
Still wont fit? Here are your options.
Try a different approach. Is there another entrance? Try a different stair way or go in a window. Depending how many stories up you are and the site conditions, it may be able to go into a window or up and over a balcony. The mattress will then need to be hoisted. Many moving companies can do this. They may need 3 to 4 movers to hoist it with strapping. They may charge extra or can refer you to a 3rd Party. Rigging companies can also do this, but the cost of a rigger will most likely exceed the cost of a set of spit boxsprings.
Split Box springs. Clients often learn that yes they do make split box springs that will fit up stairs easily. The queen box spring width is achieved with 2 narrow split box springs. Bed and Mattress stores such as MattressFIRM will have these in stock. BoxSpringOnly.com has a few more optionas.
Forget the Boxspring all together
- Just don’t use a box spring. Either for the first night or permanently. Usually you find out the boxspring wont fir the day you are moving it. Whether you are moving yourself or hired professional movers, you are going to be tired at the end of the move. (Tip load the mattress and boxspring last at the pickup to tie off the load and so they are the first to be off loaded)
- Use bed slats. You can purchase at IKEA. These may have strapping so it can be rolled up easily and ensure proper spacing or you can cut your own to length and secure with screws.
- Use a platform bed. The base of the bed supports the mattress.
- Make your own “boxspring”with standard 4′ x8′ plywood sheets. Measure and cut to size. Use two pieces as one layer and two pieces rotated 90 degrees as a second layer. Screw or bolt together.
- Use IKEA middle support hardware to make a boxspring on a Non IKEA bed. <LINK>
- Get a new Bed. Mattresses last about 8-10 years. This may be the time to buy a new one. If you ware moving long distance the weight, box, and cost of boxing the bed can add up.
Modify The Boxspring Yourself
You can pull back the upholstery and cut the wood supporting members of the boxspring and reattached and sister in supports it so i can be bent and carried upstairs. Ask this Old House has an episode where XXXXXX
with a client.
Hire someone to modify it for you
Occasionally movers will have someone in-house that has the skills of a mover, carpenter, and upholsterer. You can also hire companies that specialize in disassembling and reassembling large items <link> Usually sofas or large armoires are the issue but theses specialized companies have theses skills and the cost will match the skill. It will cost about a XXXX to disassemble and reassemble a Queen boxspring at the same location. If you are moving locally you may want to wait until you arrive at the destination and have it reassembled there.
It you need to plan think you might have an issue with a box spring here is a great chart the shows standard dimensions for different types of mattresses.
“But I measured”. Measuring will help fit the piece in the space but moving the piece in a three dimensional world with weird angles and can only be done with actually trying it. (or you could build a 3D model in CAD). You can make a cardboard or fir strip model of the piece. (This is helpful if you will be moving something heavy and expensive like a Grand piano.)
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