The short answer
Marble steps chip, and the chip is permanent and visible from across the street. Formstone cracks and spalls, and a patch never quite matches. Both sit directly on the route every single item takes out of a Baltimore rowhouse.
The protection is not an add-on and it is not billed. A sofa is $126, a refrigerator is $164, a washer is $133, a queen mattress is $103. The visit minimum is $75. Blankets, boards and a crew that walks the route first are part of the job.
Why marble steps are a genuine hazard
Baltimore's white marble front steps are the city's most recognisable domestic feature, and homeowners scrub them for a reason. They are also, structurally, a problem for anyone carrying weight.
- The edges are the weak point. A marble nosing chips when a hard corner or a steel dolly wheel comes down on it. Once it is chipped there is no repair that hides it.
- They are shallow and steep. Three to six steps from the sidewalk to a door, with treads narrower than a modern stair, which means a carrier cannot get a full foot on one.
- Usually no handrail. Nothing to catch yourself on, at the exact moment you are holding two hundred pounds.
- They are slick when wet. Polished stone and Baltimore drizzle is a bad combination, and it is worse when the steps are in shade all morning.
They are also, in many cases, original to the house. That is not a thing you replace casually.
Formstone, and why it does not forgive
A large share of rowhouses across Highlandtown, Canton, Patterson Park, Pigtown and East Baltimore wear formstone: the mid-century faux-stone cladding applied over the original brick, scored and colored to look like masonry.
It is a surface treatment, not structure, and it behaves like one. Scrape an appliance corner along it and you take a chunk out. A cracked panel cannot be invisibly patched, because the color and the scoring were hand-worked and no two houses match.
The danger zones are exactly where things go wrong: the door surround, the corner of the vestibule opening, and the wall beside the steps where someone sets a fridge down to change grip.
The same caution applies to the houses that had the formstone stripped back to brick. Old soft brick and original mortar are not tougher than formstone, just older.
What a crew actually does about it
- Walk the route first. Front door to truck, before anything is lifted. Thirty seconds, and it decides everything else.
- Cover the steps. Moving blankets over the marble, boards where a dolly has to roll.
- Never bounce a dolly down the steps. Heavy items get carried down by two people, not rolled. This is the single biggest cause of chipped marble in the city.
- Protect the door surround. Blankets against the formstone or brick at the pinch point where the piece turns out of the vestibule.
- Take the doors off. Three inches of extra clearance means nothing scrapes the reveal on the way past.
- Break the item down rather than force it. If it will only fit by being dragged against a wall, it gets cut instead.
The items that cause the damage
Not the biggest items. The hard-cornered heavy ones.
- Refrigerators. $164 standard, $183 side-by-side. Steel corners, high center of gravity, always on a dolly.
- Washers and dryers. $133 and $128. Coming up from a cellar, so the crew is already tired at the steps.
- Cast iron radiators. $123 each, and nothing in a house is denser per square inch of contact.
- Cast iron bathtubs. $185. Two-person carry, awkward shape, unforgiving on stone.
- Upright pianos. $290. The classic Baltimore front-room item and the one that demands the most planning at the steps.
- Safes. $100 for a small one, and it is denser than it looks.
Rear access, when it exists
The cleanest way to protect a facade is to not use it. Many rowhomes have a rear yard and an alley, and for heavy items that is usually the better route.
It depends on the block. Alleys in Canton, Highlandtown and Patterson Park are frequently one vehicle wide, with parking pads, poles and cans narrowing them further, and some are blocked by parked cars by evening. Rear gates are often narrower than the front door.
Tell us in the booking notes whether there is a rear gate and whether the alley is passable, and the crew will pick the route before arriving instead of standing on your steps working it out.
Winter, specifically
Marble in January is the worst version of this. Wet stone, a cold snap overnight, and a set of steps that look dry and are not.
If your window is in winter, salt or sand the steps before the crew arrives and clear any ice from the sidewalk. It is the one preparation that genuinely matters, and it is as much about the people carrying your sofa as it is about the stone.
What it costs
Nothing extra. Protection is method, not a line item. There is no stair charge, no difficult-access charge, and no surcharge for a house with original marble and a formstone front.
A sofa out of a Highlandtown rowhouse with formstone and six marble steps is $126, the same as a sofa out of a garden apartment in Towson with a concrete walkway.
Frequently asked questions
Will you damage my marble steps?
The crew covers them with blankets, uses boards where a dolly has to roll, and carries heavy items down by hand rather than bouncing a dolly on the nosings. There is no charge for any of that.
Is there an extra fee for a difficult rowhouse facade?
No. A sofa is $126 and a fridge is $164 whether the house is formstone with original marble or a modern build with a concrete path.
Can you use the back alley instead of the front steps?
Often, and for heavy items it is usually better. Tell us whether there is a rear gate and whether the alley is passable, and the crew plans the route in advance.
What about a cast iron radiator or bathtub?
A cast iron radiator is $123 once disconnected and a cast iron bathtub is $185. Both are two-person carries and both get the steps covered first.
Should I do anything before the crew arrives in winter?
Salt or sand the marble steps and clear ice from the sidewalk. Wet or frozen marble is the main safety risk on these jobs.