Moving from San Francisco to Seattle
Seattle's family-operated mover — Our founder has 35 years on the trucks. The same crew loads in San Francisco and unloads at your new Seattle home.
Why this route
Why Seattle families pick Lake Union for the San Francisco → Seattle route.
Same crew, origin to destination. The Lake Union team that loads your home in Pacific Heights, the Marina, Noe Valley, or a Peninsula address is the same team unloading at your Seattle address two days later. Your shipment stays on one truck with the same crew the entire route.
Direct route, no detours. Your shipment stays on one truck. Your truck carries your household alone — direct load-to-delivery, no warehouse stop.
Real-time updates from the road. You hear from the driver as the truck leaves the Bay Area on I-5 north or US-101, climbs past Mt. Shasta, threads the Willamette Valley, and drops into Seattle. You always know where your things are.
Seattle delivery expertise. The crew unloading in Seattle is Seattle-based. They know which Capitol Hill streets a 26-foot truck can't fit, which Queen Anne addresses need a parking permit pulled three days ahead, and which Belltown, South Lake Union, or downtown buildings require an insurance certificate on file before the elevator will release.
our founder has been moving Seattle households for 35 years and still works the jobs that matter. The same crew that loads your home in San Francisco unloads it at your Seattle address — same truck, same names, same accountability the whole way. More about our founder →
The route
The San Francisco → Seattle route.
Approximately 810 miles — the shortest of our West Coast backhauls. The route runs I-5 north out of Sacramento (or US-101 north for North Bay and Marin origins) before joining I-5 at Cottage Grove, OR. Most loads complete in two days of crew transit, including the pickup day.
Weather risk is minimal year-round on I-5. Mt. Shasta and the Siskiyou Pass section can require chains briefly during major winter storms, but rarely close for long. Marin and North Bay pickups during atmospheric river events occasionally face Highway 101 closures — we monitor and adjust.
Our founder runs the larger SF and Peninsula moves personally — particularly corporate moves and Atherton or Hillsborough estate-scale loads where the same lead at origin and destination is part of the brief.
Moving the other direction? See our Seattle → San Francisco guide.
Pricing
How San Francisco → Seattle moves are priced.
Long-distance pricing depends on a handful of inputs — the same inputs every reputable carrier uses, scored against your specific move. After our founder walks through your home (in-person or by video), you get a written estimate. That's the number you sign for.
- Weight or volume of the household. The single biggest variable. A studio versus a four-bedroom is a different truck, a different crew, a different number of hours on both ends.
- Distance and route specifics. Fuel, tolls, driver hours-of-service rules, and the days the truck is on the road all factor in.
- Packing service level. Full pack, partial pack (we pack the kitchen and fragile items, you handle bedrooms and closets), or load-only with your own boxes.
- Storage-in-transit. If your Seattle delivery date isn't locked yet (closing slipped, lease gap, renovation), we can hold the load short-term in our own trailer and deliver when you're ready.
- Specialty items. Piano, safe, original art, wine collection, oversized antiques — anything that needs custom crating or a third crew member.
For the full breakdown of how we structure long-distance quotes, see how pricing works. More on the service itself: long-distance moving.
What we handle
What we handle on the San Francisco → Seattle route.
- Full-service packing at the SF Bay origin — boxes, paper, bubble, fragile wrap, custom crating for art and antiques
- Building manager coordination at high-rise SF origins — COI, freight elevator, dock window
- Loading and securing the truck — direct load-to-delivery
- Seattle delivery — HOA coordination, elevator reservations, COI submission for buildings
- Unpacking and debris removal in Seattle on request
- Cars and motorcycles on the same truck (one vehicle, optional)
Origin coverage
Where we load in San Francisco.
We're Seattle-based. For SF Bay pickups, the same Seattle crew drives down with the truck. The person who answers your questions on Seattle move-in day is the same person who coordinated the freight elevator in your Pacific Heights building.
We schedule San Francisco → Seattle pickups around our outbound Seattle → SF runs whenever the calendar allows — ask about windows when you call. Within the Bay Area we load in Pacific Heights, the Marina, Noe Valley, Russian Hill, the Mission, plus Marin (Mill Valley, Sausalito, Tiburon, Larkspur), East Bay (Berkeley, Oakland, Piedmont), and the Peninsula (Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Hillsborough, Burlingame). South Bay tech-corridor pickups (Mountain View, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Los Altos) on the same schedule.
Settling in
Settling into Seattle — what newcomers should know.
Most of our SF Bay → Seattle customers are tech-industry relocations, family moves, or retirements. The two cities share a tech corridor culture but differ on everything practical — parking, building access, weather, neighborhood structure. A few items make Seattle move-in day far less stressful.
Parking + permits
The City of Seattle requires a temporary moving-truck parking permit for most non-driveway loads, applied for through SDOT roughly 5 business days ahead. We handle the application when we have your destination address. Without a permit, parking a 26-foot truck in Capitol Hill, downtown, or Queen Anne can cost an extra hour or more — the same kind of urban-density challenge you know from SF, but with different rules.
Building requirements
Most Seattle high-rises and managed condo buildings require a certificate of insurance from the mover on file 24 to 72 hours before move-in, plus a reserved elevator window — typically a 3- to 4-hour block. We coordinate both directly with the property manager once you provide their contact. Downtown, South Lake Union, Belltown, Capitol Hill, and Bellevue buildings handle this routinely.
Neighborhood snapshot
SF transplants commonly land in Capitol Hill or Queen Anne for the walkable urban core, in Ballard, Madrona, Wallingford, or Phinney Ridge for more residential character, and on the Eastside (Bellevue, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Sammamish, Medina) for the tech corridor and school districts. Pac Heights-to-Madrona, Marina-to-Capitol Hill, Palo Alto-to-Bellevue, and Atherton-to-Medina are recurring patterns on the higher end.
Recent moves
Recent San Francisco → Seattle moves.
We complete a steady share of SF Bay → Seattle moves a year — common patterns include tech relocations between SF, Palo Alto, and the Seattle/Bellevue corridor (Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Google's Kirkland office), family moves away from Bay Area cost-of-living, and retirees rejoining adult children in Seattle. Peninsula estate moves are a regular part of the higher-value share.
FAQ
Common questions on the San Francisco → Seattle route.
Ready to plan your San Francisco → Seattle move?
Our founder quotes every long-haul personally.
Related: Seattle → San Francisco · Long-distance service · How pricing works · Reviews