Container Connections

Twistlocks_image

Require assistance with a new container project?

Container Twistlocks

Container Twistlocks NZ is a business of Smooth Services Limited. We act as an agent of an Australian business, operating out of our main premises at 11 Tarndale Grove, Rosedale, Auckland.

We are a nationwide supplier of shipping container twistlocks and container connection devices. Whilst some of you may not know what these devices are and what can be done with these unique products, our staff are on-hand to help you with your exciting container project and to answer any of your queries.

Commonly known, shipping containers have become a proven method to reliably move cargo around the world. Container Twistlocks offer a range of devices, including various twistlocks, corner castings, bridge clamps, locks and footings, to assist you with safely mounting or joining your containers.

Our Auckland base holds a range of products in stock – some of which are unique in New Zealand. They can be viewed here: www.twistlocks.co.nz

We carry the side twistlock, which is our own patented product. Simple and clever, its primary purpose is to secure containers to hard standing footings. But it can also be used for mounting roof structures, aerials, etc. You think it, it is probably able to work!

All products are load-rated to comply with ISO standards.

Give us a call or email (sales@twistlocks.co.nz) and we will happily talk about your project and offer help and guidance to choose the best suited products for your application. You can become very creative with containers, so do not be afraid to ask for assistance.

PACKING AND PREPPING

PACKING AND PREPPING

Moving house or office and need some assistance packing?

Packing can certainly be very time consuming. So, if you’ve got a busy life with kids, animals and lots going on, why not get a little extra help from the friendly team at The Smooth Mover?

In addition to our moving services, The Smooth Mover offer a packing service – be it just for your kitchen, or your whole house or office!

We have a small but dedicated team of packers ready to head to your property to pack your belongings. We bring boxes, paper and tape etc to efficiently and carefully get everything boxed and ready to be moved.

Worried about your expensive mirrors and framed artwork being placed into storage? Not to worry – we also have transit wrap available to help protect these items, and can get these ready for the move too.

Whilst we do not offer international level packing of belongings or furniture, we are able to carefully pack your belongings in readiness for transportation around NZ by our moving teams.

Depending on the amount to be packed, we generally aim to schedule packing jobs a day or two ahead of the move, to ensure there is a swift transition of packing, moving and delivering.

We offer a three-hour minimum packing charge – so keep us busy! Our packing team will arrive at your doorstep with materials consisting of medium (half tea-chest) and large (tea-chest) sized boxes, clothes/flat boxes, paper and tape. Materials are charged separately, itemised on your invoice.

Packing yourself? We can also arrange free delivery of materials to you (subject to minimum order quantity).

The best part? We offer a 30% refund on boxes if/when returned in a reusable condition following your move & unpack – this system means we can reuse them, often several times each. Although a lot of people do choose to keep some boxes for storage, or pass them on to friends for reusing.

Moving into 2020

2020 new year - smooth movers

Happy New Year!!!

Looking back on 2019, we’ve had one hell of a year. From upgrades to our facilities and brand new equipment to a year full of amazing memories.

We want to extend a huge thank you to all of our amazing customers through the year – we couldn’t do it without you and we hope you are all enjoying your new homes!

2020 is the year of the metal rat (according to the Chinese Zodiac), bringing new beginnings and renewals. It’s a great year for founding and evolving; which is exactly what we’re making the most of here at the Smooth Mover.

Firstly we’ve said a special goodbye to Falk Mohr (of Master Movers – a business we purchased in 2018). Falk made a large contribution to the operations side of our business and will be missed. He’s now living it up in the Fijian sunshine!

Darren Lam and Daniel Fawcett are now increasingly office based, joining Gavan & Erika as the first point of contact at the quote and booking stage.

We also have a number of new staff members join the team. We would like to welcome Tom Hughley and Rhys Menefy, who have both already made an amazing addition to our team.

With our team renewing First Aid certification and recent staff safety meetings, our crew is raring and ready to go for the New Year.

We are super excited heading into 2020 and already have the books filling up fast, with plenty of work and excitement headed our way. Be sure to get in early to avoid missing out as January is already near full!

Straight back into it we’ve got all our trucks out on the road and off to a busy start. We have jobs down to Waipukurau and over to Waiheke Island this week to kick start the summer with a bang.

We hope you’ve all enjoyed your holidays and had a great start to the New Year so far. We’re pumped and raring to go for 2020… are you?!

Remember, big or small, near or far, home or office, we’re here to do the hard work for you.
Best wishes and Happy New Year from the team at The Smooth Mover.

HOW BIG ARE YOUR BALLS?

If you have a towbar and don’t know how big your towball is, check it out! All towballs have their ball size stamped into the top of the ball.

As you might know, NZ’s most common tow ball size is 1 7/8” (47.625mm). But with the influx of European vehicles coming into New Zealand, along with imported trailers and floats, new tow ball sizes are increasingly 50mm.

That’s a difference in diameter of less than 3mm. But that’s enough to make a huge difference to towing safety!

The difference does result in a lot of confusion. While a 1 7/8″ coupling will not fit on a 50mm towball, the 1 7/8″ towball will fit into a 50mm trailer coupling easily… but is a loose fit, which is highly dangerous – with a real risk of the trailer coupling jumping off the ball on the road.

Towballs and couplings are critical safety components which are engineered to high standards, with very little tolerances or margins for error. The two items form the crucial link between the tow vehicle and the trailer – any incompatibility between the two could have hugely serious consequences, with the potential for a trailer to detach from the tow vehicle and career into oncoming traffic. With that in mind, it is critical the correct pairing is used.

The Smooth Mover offers a range of trailers for hire. And with both safety and practicality in mind, all of our trailers and new double horse float available for hire have clever dual fit tow couplings, which will safely accommodate either a 1 7/8” or 50mm diameter tow ball. The new couplings are super easy to use and require less time to attach than previous couplings.

Contact The Smooth Mover if you’re in need of a trailer this weekend!

 

TRAILERS & HORSE FLOAT FOR HIRE

 

Going to do a garden cleanup and need a large cage trailer?

Or you’re happy to move furniture and boxes yourself with a furniture box trailer? (though don’t forget The Smooth Mover can take the stress off your shoulders and do this for you!)

Or you’re looking to take your horse(s) out for a forest or beach ride this weekend?

Well, The Smooth Mover has a solution for you!

The Smooth Mover are pleased to offer a range of four trailers in various configurations, for multiple purposes. Including the latest addition of a British made Ifor Williams double walk through horse float!

For your peace of mind, all four trailers have hydraulic brakes. And for ease and road safety, all four trailers also have unique multi-fit tow couplings to fit both towball sizes seen in New Zealand (1 7/8” & 50mm).

 

The furniture trailers even come equipped with blankets and ties to keep your possessions protected in transit!

We offer hire rates for half day (up to 5 hours), full day (based on a 24 hour day), weekend and longer.

We can even assist with delivery & collection if required. Or by special request, we can offer a suitable tow vehicle and driver to work with you!

 

Contact The Smooth Mover for further details and rates.

See more on our TRAILER & FLOAT HIRE

horse-float-image2

Moving Smoothly into 2019

 

With the weeks flying by, it’s been a positive and busy start to 2019 for The Smooth Mover and our team.

 

There’s the inevitability of a couple of staff changes, with Aaron leaving at the end of 2018 to start an electrical apprenticeship, and three new team members (Trevor, Daniel F & Daniel S) starting with us.

 

We’ve recently experienced a couple of injuries in the team, and this has been apt timing to reinforce our Health & Safety Policy with team members new and old.

 

We’ve had a full team meeting to discuss various issues; from health and safety requirements, to reinforcing our ethos to help ensure we provide a superior level of service to all of our clients.

 

As we approach autumn, it is important for us to remind our team of the high standard of service we endeavour to give our clients, through hard work and positive attitudes; in order for customers to trust our team and see value for money in the service they are paying for.

 

We have seen our team work in and around Auckland, with a number of trips elsewhere in the North Island and Hauraki Gulf – including Northland (notably the Bay of Islands & Kerikeri), Waikato and the Coromandel Peninsula, Bay of Plenty (what is it with Tauranga these days!),  Hawkes Bay and Taranaki too. As well as shorter trips north to Omaha, Snells Beach, Langs Beach & Mangawhai.

Our team of packers have also been busy, helping clients by packing up their belongings and preparing for their move – including organising rooms, dismantling furniture and wrapping up fragile items of kitchenware, ornaments etc – thus helping ensure a swift, smooth move!

 

We have seen lots more happy clients, with some being kind enough to offer our teams drinks and snacks throughout their moves (for which we are always very appreciative!). And have received some fabulous reviews on community Facebook pages and review sites, such as https://www.nocowboys.co.nz/businesses/the-smooth-mover

 

We’re a strong team and look forward to helping you with your move. We can take care of everything for you… packing, moving and storage too!

moving boxes

Declutter Help in Auckland

Are you about to move and need a hand to declutter? Are you finding it hard to make a decision of what to keep, what to discard and what to donate?

We have all, to some extent become the ultimate consumer… far too many of the same items floating around our homes – do we really need them?

Lisa has been in the home-staging industry for 9 years and has seen a real need for clients to declutter prior to moving.

“Too often I see people packing up items, only to discard them in their new homes because of lack of storage – or realise through their moving experience they just don’t have any purpose anymore. We have all witnessed the boxes in the garage a year later – still not attended to!”

By making the hard decisions of what you really need to keep, and downsizing before you move, you can save time and money and stress.

With good, practical, kind advice – and either advisory or a hands on “get stuck in approach” – whether it be furniture/homewares or personal items, Lisa at The Final Touch can help you through the process.

I have had many clients tell me how liberating it feels to finally down-size, let go and start afresh!

Buy Less, choose well – make it last! (Dame Vivienne Westwood) 

Contact:  Lisa – Final Touch 

ginod@xtra.co.nz

Ph: 021 275 5860 

7 Home Staging Tips to Increase Your Home’s Marketability

You’ve decided to move, and now need to sell your home? The length of time it takes to sell, and the amount of money you sell for, will vary based on many factors; including location, pricing strategy, size, the state of the property market, and the presentation and appearance of your home. While some of these factors are outside your control, you can control how it looks and broaden its appeal through using home staging techniques.

 

Home staging is a marketing technique used by homeowners to increase the desirability of their home to buyers. Rather than renovating a home, it requires you to highlight the areas which would be most appealing to buyers.

 

As Auckland furniture movers, we meet many homeowners who have used home staging successfully when selling their property. Today we’re going to share seven home staging tips we believe played a large role in our clients’ successes.

Your home is your castle, and all the decisions you’ve made regarding its décor and furnishings were to your preferences. When selling a home though, you want to make it appealing to a wide audience and not just to yourself. This requires you to highlight the positives, and make the negatives more appealing. This can be done through home staging – here are seven tips to get you started:

 

  1. Declutter – there’s nothing worse than seeing hundreds of books, ornaments or pictures in a home you are interested in purchasing. While you may enjoy seeing them, buyers do not, as they like to be able to visualise their own belongings.
  2. Put extra furniture and belongings into storage. Like with decluttering, removing and storing excess furniture helps to make your rooms look larger and more appealing. The Smooth Mover can help you with your declutter process, by packing, moving and storing your excess items. Our North Shore self-storage units are perfect for keeping your excess items while your home is on the market.
  3. Remove personal items – put away toiletries, photos, certificates and artwork belonging to you and your family members.
  4. Use neutral décor – you may love bright colours, but not everyone does. A splash of colour in rugs and cushions is fine, but keep your walls, floors and drapes in neutral colours if you can.
  5. Keep things clean and tidy – remove all mould and mildew. Put items away in cupboards or drawers and make sure there are no noticeable odours which buyers will find off-putting.
  6. Don’t forget the outdoor areas – keep the lawns mowed, trees pruned, weeds and rubbish removed and add a few coloured flowers or shrubs to improve the appearance of your garden area.
  7. Remember your furniture – if your furniture isn’t something you are proud of, consider borrowing or hiring some to display in your home while it is on the market. A few nice pieces can set off a room, portraying the type of lifestyle a buyer is wanting to see in their new home. The Smooth Mover works with and recommends Distinctive Homestaging (www.distinctivehomestaging.co.nz) who can help you present your home for sale within Auckland.

 

When your home is sold and it’s time to shift, we’re here to help! Available for relocations within the Auckland area, the Hauraki Gulf, or anywhere in the North Island, our furniture removal and storage services cannot be beaten! Get in touch with our friendly team today for a free quote regarding your upcoming move.

Two forces combine

Master-Movers

We are pleased to announce the merging with Master Movers – another reputable furniture moving business, which was started by Falk Mohr in 2010.

The joining of the two businesses increases our team size and general ability to service your packing, moving and storage needs.

Falk and his team are now proudly wearing Smooth Mover colours. Falk will be primarily office based in an operations role, working alongside Gavan and supported by Erika.

We are Expanding

We’ve been busy recently making a few additions and improvements at our office and storage facility. We’ve added eight 20 foot shipping containers (accessible 24/7) to our site, boosting our storage capacity from 64 up to 72 storage units.

 

We offer a range of unit sizes and are happy to offer you accessible storage solutions for either residential or commercial contents – whether short or long term.

And we’ve just added an extra bathroom for both staff and clients’ use, significantly enhancing the functionality of the building.

We are fortunate to have premises offering great accessibility, plenty of space, parking and options for the future.

Contact us today to book your next move 🙂