Cost To Move A 2 Or
3 Bedroom Home
The Direct Answer
2 And 3 Bedroom,
Straight Answer
A two bedroom in San Diego is usually a three mover job running four to five hours, and a three bedroom is usually three movers running five to seven. At $119 an hour cash for two movers plus $50 an hour for each additional mover, a two bedroom typically lands somewhere around $751 to $920 all in, and a three bedroom around $920 to $1,258. Those are the full range the estimator produces for those hours, not floors. What moves the number is access, how much is packed and whether there is a garage, because garages are where the hours quietly disappear.
Three movers is usually right for a two bedroom
$119/hr cash for the first two plus $50/hr for the third, so $169/hr cash or $179/hr by card, with a flat $75 fuel fee. Four to five hours is the normal range.
Three or four movers for a three bedroom
Five to seven hours is typical. A fourth mover ends a three bedroom about an hour and a quarter sooner and costs a little more rather than less, so it is mainly a question of your schedule.
Garages and storage rooms are the hidden hours
Almost nobody counts the garage when they describe their move. Tools, bikes, boxes and the accumulated overflow of years routinely add two hours to a three bedroom.
Packing status is the biggest single variable
A fully packed house loads continuously. A partly packed one stops and starts, and stopping is billable. If you do nothing else, finish the packing.
A fourth mover buys a shorter day, not a smaller bill
Our estimator moves three movers at 220 cubic feet an hour and four at 275, so a fourth mover cuts about a fifth off the loading and unloading while the rate rises from $169 to $219. On the working hours alone that is about $24 more on a two bedroom and about $39 more on a three bedroom. The drive between your two addresses does not get shorter, and both crews bill it, so in practice expect $50 to $140 more. Book four to end the day sooner, not to spend less.
What Is Included
What The Hourly
Rate Covers
Crew and truck together
$119/hr cash for two movers with the truck, $50/hr for each additional mover.
Protection as standard
Blankets, shrink wrap, straps, floor and door frame protection, all included rather than billed.
Disassembly and reassembly
Beds, tables and simple furniture taken apart and rebuilt at the destination.
Placement in the right rooms
Furniture placed where you want it, not stacked in the hall.
Flat fuel fee
$75, flat, within our local service area.
25 free boxes
Included with the move, which is a useful start on a house though rarely the whole job.
What Changes The Price
Why Two Similar
Houses Differ
The garage
The most underestimated part of any family move. Count it honestly when you describe the job and the estimate will be far closer to the final bill.
Driveway access and truck placement
A house where the truck backs to the door loads much faster than one on a narrow hillside street or a long shared driveway.
Stairs inside and out
Interior stairs matter as much as exterior ones. A two story house with a heavy primary bedroom upstairs is a slower job than a single story of the same size.
How much is genuinely packed
Half packed is the most common reason a family move runs long. Kitchens and garages are where people run out of time.
Specialty items
Pianos, safes, gun cabinets, large appliances and outdoor equipment change the crew and sometimes the equipment.
Sanity Check
What 850 And 1,400
Cubic Feet Look Like
Our instant estimate sizes a two bedroom at 850 cubic feet and a three bedroom at 1,400, and prices an itemized list off the industry standard cube sheet it uses. Those numbers decide the hours, so it is worth knowing what they hold.
A two bedroom at 850 cubic feet. A queen bed and a full bed, two dressers and two nightstands, a three seat sofa and a loveseat, coffee and end tables, a television and stand, a bookcase, a dining table with four chairs, a refrigerator, a washer and dryer, a desk and chair, two bicycles, a grill, and a patio table with four chairs. That is roughly 600 cubic feet of furniture. The remaining 250 is about 80 medium boxes.
A three bedroom at 1,400 cubic feet. Everything above, plus a third bedroom set, a buffet and china hutch, an armoire, two recliners, an entertainment center, a treadmill, a tool chest and mower, and a filing cabinet. That is roughly 940 cubic feet of furniture, and the remaining 460 is about 155 medium boxes.
The box count is the part people get wrong. Eighty boxes for a two bedroom and 155 for a three sound high until you pack a kitchen. If your box count is well under those, the move is smaller than the standard estimate and will run at the low end of the range. If it is well over, expect the top.
At 220 cubic feet an hour for three movers, 850 cubic feet is about 3 hours 50 minutes of loading and unloading and 1,400 is about 6 hours 20 minutes. Access is what moves those figures, which is why the sections above spend so long on driveways, stairs and the garage. Both sizes fit one truck, which holds 1,800 cubic feet.
Local Reality
San Diego Houses
And What They Cost
House moves across the county vary more by street than by square footage. Clairemont, Serra Mesa and Allied Gardens are mostly single story homes on flat streets with driveways, which is about as efficient as a family move gets. Point Loma and parts of La Jolla sit on hillsides with narrow streets, tight turns and long stair runs from the street to the door, and those add hours regardless of how much furniture there is. Scripps Ranch, Poway and Rancho Bernardo are suburban with good access and often a big garage, so the garage is the variable rather than the route. North Park, Kensington and South Park mix older two story homes with narrow streets and no driveway, which is the slowest combination in the county. Chula Vista and Eastlake are newer and easy to load. We are a licensed California carrier, CAL-T #201759 and US DOT #4372335, family owned since 1997.
FAQ
Cost to Move a 2 or 3 Bedroom Home in San Diego
Questions
Related
Moving A House?
Free in home estimate and a written not to exceed price. Try the crew calculator first if you want a number today.
📞 Call (858) 490-0155