Whole-house Chicago relocations are where the Waley wedge really earns its keep. The 1900s brick three-flat with the dogleg back stair, the Logan Square greystone with the heavy oak banister and the leaded transom over the foyer, the Lincoln Park rowhouse with parquet floors that buckle if a 200-pound armoire pivots on one corner — this is the housing stock Marcus grew up moving on the Loop van outfits before he opened Waley in 2014. Tony Pawlak has run the inner-North-Side residential board for ten years, and the crew knows which Wicker Park six-corner alley fits the box truck without folding a mirror.
Greystones, courtyard buildings and bungalow row by row
A 2-bedroom Logan Square greystone with the rear stair, a Lakeview courtyard 2-flat off the central garden, a Bucktown new-build with the in-unit elevator-less third floor, a Hyde Park brick bungalow with the original wood storms, an Albany Park three-flat with the front parlor and back kitchen split — every shape on the North and West Side gets a different protection plan. Banister pads, corner guards on every doorway turn, masonite landings on every parquet, and shoulder dollies on any narrow turn that can’t take a four-wheeler. Eddy walks the house in person on whole-home jobs.
Binding figure signed by Marcus before it leaves the office
Whole-house residential is priced as a binding flat almost every time, not a clock. Eddy writes the figure off an in-home walkthrough that takes ninety minutes for a typical greystone and runs longer for an estate move out of Beverly or Kenwood. Marcus signs it before it goes out, and the number on the contract is the number on the invoice — no curb-three reweigh, no add-on at the destination ramp. Flats on whole-house jobs start at $545 for the small end and scale by room count, stair count and the long-carry on the destination side.
What's Covered
- In-home walkthrough by Eddy for whole-house jobs, with a binding flat figure countersigned by Marcus before the quote leaves the Milwaukee Avenue desk
- Banister wraps, doorway corner pads and masonite floor runners cut to fit every greystone center stair, Lakeview courtyard threshold and Lincoln Park parquet hallway
- Tony Pawlak chief on inner-Chicago whole-house jobs — Logan Square, Wicker Park, Lincoln Park, Lakeview, Bucktown — with the 1900s housing stock memorized stair by stair
- Antique-grade pad-wrap for hutches, sideboards, leaded transoms and Marshall Field-era armoires that don’t take a standard quilted blanket clean
- Dual-truck staging on five-bedroom estates so the Bridgeport-to-Park Ridge upgrade fits inside a single calendar day instead of a two-day overnight in the box
- End-of-day walk-through with the homeowner room by room before the meter stops and the deposit balance is reconciled
What's the Cost?
Two uniformed W-2 Waley movers and the 26-ft straight truck run a posted Logan Square hourly of $185 an hour; if your room count slots cleanly into a half-day — studio, junior one-bedroom, or a tight in-building swap — Eddy will quote it as a locked flat instead, starting at $545 all-in.
Everything the day calls for is folded into that hourly figure: the two W-2 movers themselves, the 26-ft Waley truck, quilted blankets, masonite floor runners, two-wheel and four-wheel dollies, ratchet straps, walk-boards, and the lake-effect winter mats we put down off the porch in any month with salt on the sidewalk. Fuel adders, third-floor stair charges, long-carry charges from the alley to the door — none of those line items show up on a Waley invoice, period.
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