The edge · E
A seafront
Margate, Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Deal, Hythe and the marsh edge. A seafront address adds three things no inland street has: a restriction on the promenade, a season, and weather that genuinely changes what can be carried.
Wind is not an excuse. It is a thing you plan a load around, like a staircase.
What a coastal job involves
The promenade is not a street
Seafront access in the Kent coastal towns is governed by local restrictions that differ from town to town and, in several places, from season to season. A promenade you can drive along in February may be closed to vehicles in August.
We check with the council before the date rather than arrive and find out. It is a short enquiry and it is the difference between standing outside the door and carrying from a car park.
Wind is operational
On an exposed frontage a strong onshore wind changes what two people can safely carry. Mattresses, wardrobe doors, sheet material, large pictures and anything flat behave like sails, and the risk is to the crew rather than to the item.
It is planned around rather than complained about: large flat items go early or late, and where the forecast is genuinely severe we will talk to you about the hour rather than press on.
The houses are deeper than the fronts suggest
Kent seaside terraces run back a long way and up several floors, usually with a basement and usually with a turn at every landing. A narrow, unremarkable frontage regularly hides a great deal of house.
So the survey goes right through rather than glancing at the front, and the clear diagonal at the tightest turn is measured like anywhere else.
And the marsh edge
South of Hythe the character changes entirely — flat, open, well-surfaced roads with very few alternatives. When one route floods there is frequently no second way in, so those jobs are planned with the weather in view rather than around it.
A seafront
Questions about a seafront
01 Can you park on the promenade?
Sometimes, and it depends on the town and the season. We check with the council before the date rather than arrive and find out.
02 Is summer harder on the coast?
Materially. Seafront traffic, visitor parking and seasonal restrictions all change the same road, and the standing point that worked in winter may not exist.
03 Does wind really change anything?
On an exposed front, yes. Large flat items are the problem and the risk is to the crew. We move those at a better hour rather than fighting it.
04 Our terrace looks small from the front.
They usually do, and they usually are not. Basement below, three floors above and a turn at every landing is the standard Kent seaside house.
05 Will salt damage anything?
Over a short carry, rarely — but polished metal, unsealed timber and upholstery are wrapped rather than carried bare along an exposed frontage.
06 What about Romney Marsh?
Good surfaces and very few alternatives. If a route floods there is often no second way in, so the weather is part of the plan rather than a caveat.
What is the last road like?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and whatever you know about the final stretch at each end. A photograph of a gateway from the road beats any description of it.