Custom wooden crating for fragile pieces
A crate is a box built around one specific object. The object is measured, padded and blocked so it cannot shift, and a rigid wooden shell goes around it so anything that happens on the truck happens to the crate.
Built to the piece, not the piece squeezed into a box
A carton is a compromise: you find the closest size and fill the gaps. A crate starts from the object's own dimensions, plus the thickness of the padding, plus the frame. Inside, blocking holds the piece off the walls so it is suspended rather than resting against anything.
That is what makes a crate different from heavy packing. Cartons can be stacked on, leaned on and squeezed. A crate holds its shape under a strap and under whatever is loaded next to it, which is exactly the situation the fragile piece needed protection from.
What tends to need one
Glass tabletops. Large framed art and mirrors past the size any manufactured box covers. Stone, marble and granite tops, which travel on edge and never flat. Chandeliers and light fixtures with arms that will not survive being wrapped against themselves. Sculpture, ceramics and anything with a protruding or irregular shape.
Also the pieces people underestimate: a large television with no original carton, a cabinet with glass doors, an aquarium, a heavy mirror already cracked in one corner, and anything whose value is high enough that the question is not worth guessing at.
What happens before the shell goes on
The piece is prepared first, and the preparation depends on the surface. Bare glass gets a face treatment so it holds together if it breaks. Painted, gilded or antique finishes never get anything adhesive against them, and go into soft wrap first instead. Then a corrugated layer, then corner protection, then the frame around it.
Detail matters at this stage. Hardware comes off and goes in a labeled bag attached to the crate. Art faces are separated from one another by a barrier rather than touching. Orientation gets marked on the outside, because a crate that must travel upright and a crate that must travel flat look identical once they are closed.
The crate has to fit through the same doors
A crate is always bigger than what is inside it, sometimes by several inches on every side. Measure the doorway, the stair turn, the elevator opening and the truck door against the crate dimension, not the object dimension. This is the most common late surprise in crating work and it is entirely avoidable at the measuring stage.
Decide at the same time what happens after delivery. Crates can be opened and removed at the destination with the debris taken away, or left closed if the piece is going straight into storage, where a crate is by far the safest way for something fragile to sit. If the piece will travel again, the crate is worth keeping.
25+
Years moving Long Island
2
Counties covered, Suffolk and Nassau
7 days
A week we run crews
$0
Hidden fees on a quoted job
Licensed and insured. NYSDOT #42381, USDOT #4161235. Certificates of insurance provided for buildings that require one.
Book a walkthrough, keep the Starter Kit
Three professional-grade boxes, two rolls of tape and one of the moving blankets our crews use on real jobs. Yours to keep, for moves of two bedrooms and up. No purchase and no obligation.
See what is in the kit