Will It Fit Through the Door

Furniture gets returned because of a corner, not because of a room. Fifteen minutes with a tape before ordering prevents it, and the method is always the same: find the smallest opening on the route, then find the smallest cross-section of the piece.

The furniture side

Write down all three dimensions, then ignore the largest.

The Two-Seat Sofa is 1620 long, 860 deep, 780 tall. Carried on its end, the opening it has to pass is 860 by 780 mm. The 1620 only matters where it has to turn.

Then check:

• Does anything come off? Feet, cushions, a back section. Every removable part reduces the problem.
• What is the diagonal of the cross-section? For 860 by 780 mm, the diagonal is about 1160 mm. Tilting into a diagonal is how things pass openings narrower than they look, provided there is ceiling height for the tilt.
• Is it rigid? A sofa frame does not compress. An upholstered arm will give a few millimetres under pressure, which experienced movers rely on and you should not plan around.

The route side

Measure in order, from the street inward. The narrowest point governs everything.

1. Building entrance. Width with the door open to its maximum, and the height of the opening.
2. Hallway width, and the width at any turn, measured between the real obstacles: radiators, meter cupboards, handrails.
3. Stairs. Clear width between handrail and wall. Then the landing: length and width available for the swing. Then ceiling height above the turn.
4. Lift. Door opening, car width, car depth, car height, and the internal diagonal.
5. Flat door, with the door removed where possible.
6. Room door, and anything immediately inside it: a radiator, a boiler cupboard, a tight corner.

The things that are forgotten

• Radiator pipes at the bottom of a wall in a hallway. They reduce the real width at exactly the height a sofa arm travels.
• Door stops and architraves, which are not in the frame measurement.
• Handrails, which make a stair 80 to 100 mm narrower than the wall measurement says.
• Light fittings above a stair turn.
• The last metre. A piece can reach the room and then not turn into it.

The tilt

Most apparently impossible deliveries work because a piece is tilted. Tilting converts a width problem into a height problem.

To know whether you have room, you need the diagonal of the piece in the plane of the tilt and the available ceiling height at the tightest point. A 1620 mm sofa tilted to pass a landing needs roughly that much clear height above the turn, measured from the step surface and allowing for a light fitting.

This is also where two people beat one by more than double. A tilt that a single person cannot control is routine for two.

If it does not fit

In order of preference:

1. Remove doors, feet, cushions, handles.
2. Choose a piece that comes apart or that is delivered in sections.
3. Choose a smaller piece. A 1620 mm sofa and a 1400 mm sofa seat the same two people.
4. Hoist through a window, which is a professional job and costs more than most furniture.

Made-to-order pieces have an advantage here, because dimensions can be discussed before anything is built rather than after. That is part of what made to order actually buys you.

Weight is a separate question

A piece that fits can still be a problem to carry. The Concrete Bench at 84 kg is a two-person lift on the flat and a careful four-person job on stairs, and it must be carried from the base rather than the top. See moving concrete furniture, and for the floor at the far end, heavy furniture and floor load in apartments.

Work out the diagonal

Tilting a piece is how most tight deliveries happen, and the number that decides it is the diagonal of the face you are leading with. For a rectangle, the diagonal is the square root of the sum of the two sides squared.

• 860 by 780 mm gives a diagonal of about 1160 mm.
• 900 by 450 mm gives about 1006 mm.
• 1600 by 400 mm gives about 1649 mm.

If the opening is wider than the smaller side but narrower than the diagonal, the piece goes through flat but cannot be turned inside the space. That is the situation that strands furniture halfway up a staircase.

Make a cardboard gauge

For a piece you are unsure about, cut a cardboard rectangle the size of its cross-section and carry that along the route. It takes ten minutes and finds every problem, including the ones that are not on any drawing: the meter cupboard that projects, the handrail bracket, the ceiling light above the turn.

This works better than a tape because it tests the turns, which is where tape measurements give false confidence.

Tell the seller the constraint

If the route is tight, say so before ordering rather than hoping. A workshop can often change a dimension, split a piece, or confirm what comes off. That conversation is routine before anything is built and impossible afterwards.

Reality check

• Smallest cross-section of the piece against smallest opening on the route.
• Removing a door buys about 40 mm and often decides it.
• Stair turns stop more deliveries than stair widths.
• Handrails, pipes and architraves are the measurements people skip.
• Check before ordering. Afterwards, the options are all expensive.