Guides / The steep-driveway scope
The steep-driveway scope: what we check before we quote
Hourly pricing is honest, but on a steep block it can feel like a meter you can't see. The scope is how we take the mystery out: everything that could stretch the day gets found, named and planned for before the day exists. Here's the actual checklist.
Why the driveway gets its own appointment
These streets were cut into a quarry slope, and the driveways carry the story: short, steep, and often turning as they fall. A truck, a trolley and a sofa each experience that fall differently, so the scope walks it three times in imagination: once as a driver, once as the crew, once as the furniture.
If you'd rather do it interactively, the Driveway Scope tool walks the same questions in sixty seconds. This page is the long-form version, and the printable one.
The scope checklist
1. The truck decision
- Can a truck stand on the drive at all: width, fall, overhang at the apron?
- If not: does it stand at the top of the drive, on the street, or up the street?
- Is the street itself truck-friendly: cul-de-sac turning room, parked cars, council clean-up day?
- Where does the ramp land, and is that landing flat?
2. The fall and the footing
- How steep, and is the fall even or stepped?
- Surface: concrete, pavers, gravel? Grip changes the plan (and wet weather changes it again).
- Where do trolleys run, and where must loads be hand-carried?
- Rest points: flat spots where a heavy carry can safely pause.
3. The clearances
- Garage opening height, and the lowest beam behind it.
- Front door, gates, side passages: width at the tightest pinch.
- Internal stairs: width, head height, and the turn at the top.
- The tallest and widest pieces in the load, measured, not guessed.
4. The carry route
- Which entry serves which level of the house?
- Where do boxes stage so living areas stay clear?
- What needs floor protection along the route?
- Anything overhead: low branches, light fittings, the clothesline everyone forgets.
5. The specials
- Piano, pool table, safe: named early, routed individually.
- Anything that was assembled inside a room and may not leave whole.
- Anything alive: plants, the fish tank, the dog's plan for the day.
What the scope changes
Everything found above lands in the plan: the crew size that genuinely fits, the gear on the truck (extra trolleys, boards, floor runners), the staging plan, and an honest conversation about hours before anything is booked. That's the whole point: on a steep block, surprises are the expensive part, and every one of them is findable in advance.