Movers in St. Johns, North Portland
Family-Owned & Operated | ODOT #275978 · USDOT #3604556 | $150.35/hr for 2 Movers | Google 4.8★ Rated | Open 7 AM–10 PM, Every Day
- ODOT For-Hire Carrier #275978USDOT #3604556Licensed & InsuredBBB A+ AccreditedGoogle 4.8★ RatedFamily-Owned · Hillsboro, OR
St. Johns has something unusual for a Portland neighborhood. It is the commercial and civic center of the North Portland peninsula, and it has a zoning chapter of its own, one that works to discourage auto-oriented development and enhance the pedestrian environment. What decides a load-out, though, is what is physically at the address. In the core, many buildings open directly onto the sidewalk, and that's where the work happens.
The yard is in Hillsboro, about 30 minutes out.
A load-out from an apartment over a Lombard storefront and one from a house six blocks north are two different days on the same hourly card. Tell us which you have, and we will price the crew that fits it.
What the Town Center Rules Mean for a Truck
The zoning chapter for the St. Johns plan district is written to strengthen the neighborhood's role as the commercial and civic center of the peninsula, and the core those rules build is a place to walk before it is a place to drive. Where new building has followed them, they also describe the conditions a moving crew works in.
What the code steers away from
Commercial parking, self-service storage, and vehicle repair are prohibited uses in the plan district's CM3 and employment zones, and quick vehicle servicing is prohibited throughout the plan district. Those are rules about what may open here. None of them is a survey of where a truck can stand, so we quote a core address on the assumption that the truck works from the street and adjust it when the building turns out to have something off-street.
Buildings can cover nearly the whole lot
In the CM3 zone across the commercial core, a building may cover up to 85 percent of its site. That is a cap on what may be built, not a description of your address, so tell us what your building actually has: a driveway, a side yard, a back gate, or only the front door onto the walk.
The sidewalk doubles as the loading dock
The code allows exterior activities on sites in the core: outdoor restaurant seating, and flower, food and drink stands. Tables and stands out front are common on a main street like this, and they come out and go back in throughout the day, so the free concrete in front of a storefront is not the same width at every hour. Measure it yourself, twice: front door to curb, and again across whatever the seating leaves. The narrower of those two is the crew's working width, and it decides whether a sofa goes out flat or turned on its end at the door.
The sewer job on the boulevard
A sewer project along N Columbia Boulevard runs to about February 2027, with crews Monday through Friday, 7 AM to 6 PM. Current work is at the pump station and in Pier Park, with only periodic activity in the boulevard itself, and few residential properties sit in that area. Where a work zone is in place, expect traffic delays and little or no on-street parking during those hours. If the boulevard is your way in, the hours carry it; if a work zone reaches your block, move your own car off the street before 7 AM.
Moving Out of an Apartment Over a Shop
The apartments above the core's storefronts are among the fussiest homes we empty. Two things decide the day: the stair inside, and the piece of curb outside.
Why the stair carries the whole move here
Above a storefront in the core, the way out is commonly one interior stair, sometimes with a turn at a landing partway up, with no side yard to swing a sofa through and no back way out. Say so on the call if yours is different, because it changes the plan. Two numbers decide the rest. Measure the stair across its tightest point, which is the turn if there is one, and measure the longest dimension of the biggest piece in the apartment: a sectional, a tall dresser, a dining table or a mattress larger than a queen. If the piece is longer than the stair is wide at the turn, it goes down on its end, or it comes apart, and legs and doors come off before anything moves.
One standing spot, used properly
Where there is no lot and no alley behind the building, the truck takes one place at the curb and keeps it. We load to suit that: cartons first while the stair is fresh, long pieces staged inside the doorway and taken out in a run, and the tailgate kept clear so nobody works on the sidewalk longer than the piece takes.
Houses, Not Storefronts
Much of St. Johns is ordinary North Portland houses with driveways and back gates. If that is what you have, the sidewalk load-out is not your day at all.
Where the core stops
Detached houses are prohibited in the CM3 zone across the commercial core. That is a rule about what may be built there. A house with a driveway is a different day from a walk-up over a storefront: the truck stands off the street, the carry is short and flat, and the stair inside is what sets the crew size.
What a clear driveway is worth
An empty driveway on the morning takes the sidewalk out of the job altogether. Park your own cars on the street the night before so nobody has to shuffle them at 8 AM. If the driveway slopes down toward the street, expect a loaded dolly to need two people on the way out, and expect that to show in the hours.
Services We Run in St. Johns
Which applies turns on whether your door opens onto the core or a driveway.
In the core
- Apartment moving: the stair-and-sidewalk day above, sized from those two measurements
- Office relocation: a storefront business in the town center, with fixed shelving and counters settled beforehand
- Piano moving: an upright that must turn at a landing, measured before the day
- Safe and vault moving: a home safe, with its weight and the stair it comes down, settled at the estimate
St. Johns Moving Questions
Can the truck stand on Lombard itself while you load?
Often, and the block decides it. Lombard through the core is a main street with shops at street level and homes above them, so how much frontage a truck can hold depends on your own stretch of it and on what is parked there. Give us the address and the door we will work from. Where the frontage will not hold a truck for a whole load, we settle one workable standing spot before the day and name a fallback in case it is taken.
There is no back door on my building. Does everything go out the front?
In the core, often yes, and it moves crew size more than it moves the hours. An extra pair of hands on the stair does more for the day than one anywhere else on the job, because the stair is the bottleneck and the curb is not. The stair width at its tightest point is the number that sets the crew, so have it ready when you call.
Can the crew stage furniture on the sidewalk?
Briefly, and with a walking lane kept open. The concrete outside your door may already be spoken for by seating or a stand, so the crew stages in batches beside the tailgate and leaves the rest of the room upstairs until the truck is ready.
Can you move a shop or a small office in the core?
Yes, and it bills the same way, with the crew sized to the job. A storefront load-out runs on the same constraints as the apartment above it: the front door, the walk in front of it and whatever the neighbors have set out. Square footage and whatever is fixed to the walls set the crew size, and anything bolted down that has to come with you needs a decision before the day.
Do you have storage if the dates do not line up?
No. We do not offer storage. Self-service storage is also a prohibited use in the plan district's CM3 and employment zones, so a unit is unlikely to sit inside the town center itself. We can move you into a facility and back out of it, billed like any other job.
St. Johns Moving Rates
Local moves bill by the hour. In the core, what sets those hours is the front door and the free concrete outside it, so we set crew size at the estimate and work to it on the day.
(503) 506-4149Standard rate: Monday–Saturday, 7 AM–7 PM
- 2 movers + truck: $150.35 per hour · 3 movers + truck: $206.75 per hour · 4 movers + truck: $263.15 per hour
- 3-hour minimum · $56.40 per hour for each additional mover or packer
- Evenings after 7 PM Mon–Sat, and Sundays (3-hour minimum): $195.20 / $273.40 / $351.60 per hour
- Holiday rate (3-hour minimum): $230.50 / $325.50 / $420.50 per hour
Packing is separate and optional, billed at the packer rate above, plus boxes priced individually.
The drive from our Hillsboro yard is part of the hours, billed at the same hourly rate as the crew.
Charges we do not add
- A stair, elevator or homeowners-association surcharge
- A fuel charge or a month-end premium
- A deposit to hold the date
- A charge for wrapping, padding, floor protection or taking a bed apart
- A charge for boxes we brought and you did not open
The estimate lists everything that is billed.
Released Value, Replacement Cost and Claims
Released value at $0.60 per pound is the legal floor, not a plan. Replacement-cost protection is available if you choose to purchase it. We will submit a claim upon request.
Payment is due upon completion, by card, check, or cash.
What Our Customers Say
Tell Us Which Door It Comes Out Of
Call (503) 506-4149 and answer one question first: which door does it all come out of? With that, your street, the corner nearest you, and the date you have in mind, you get a crew size, the hours we expect, and where the truck is going to stand.
Call (503) 506-4149 → Free St. Johns Estimate, 7 AM–10 PM Every Day
Hours
Monday–Sunday, 7 AM–10 PM. Messages left outside those hours get returned.
Butterfield Moving LLC · 2092 NE Aloclek Dr, Suite 516, Hillsboro, OR 97124 · Moving…Like Butter™
North Portland coverage: St. Johns and the surrounding peninsula neighborhoods, plus the rest of the city from our Portland moving page. Oregon intrastate work only.