Packing materials · tape
Tape is the cheapest thing on your list and the only one that fails catastrophically. Here is what to buy, how much of it, and why the cheap rolls let go in February.
The two brown tapes on the shelf look identical. Polypropylene is the thinner, crackly one that comes off the roll with a sharp noise. Vinyl, sometimes sold as PVC, is thicker, quieter and feels better in the hand, which is why people reach for it.
The difference shows up in the cold. Vinyl adhesive stiffens as the temperature drops and its grip on cardboard falls away with it. A Luton van at seven in the morning in February is a cold box, and a carton whose top seam opens as somebody lifts it is how a set of glasses ends up on a driveway. Polypropylene keeps working. We use nothing else.
There is a low noise polypropylene as well, which uses a different adhesive to lose the crackle without losing the grip. Worth it if you are packing in the evening with other people in the house.
48mm is the trade standard and the only width worth buying. Narrower tape means more passes to hold the same seam, which uses more tape and more of your evening. Wider tape is for palletising, not for cartons.
Length is sold at 50m, 60m or 66m per roll. The price per metre usually improves as the roll gets longer, so the 66m rolls tend to be the better buy if you are moving a whole house.
Work on one roll per fifteen boxes, with a floor of three. An average three-bedroom move at 70 to 90 boxes therefore lands at five or six rolls, and you should buy one more than that. Tape gets used on far more than boxes: taping drawers shut, bundling curtain poles, holding bubble wrap round a mirror, strapping a bin liner over a lampshade.
Some tape comes with your boxes on a full move with us. Treat that as a start rather than the total.
Tape the bottom before you fill it, not after. One strip straight down the centre seam, then one across each end so the short flaps cannot fan open under load. That is the H pattern, and it is what turns a box into a container rather than a sheet of folded card. Repeat it on top when the box is full.
Do not rely on interlocking the flaps without tape. It holds fine on a table and gives way the moment the box is lifted by its hand holds.
Both of these are 48mm brown polypropylene. The three-roll pack suits a flat or a small house or a top up; the six-roll pack is the one for a whole house.
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48mm x 60m per roll, low noise, polypropylene
The right starting quantity for a one or two bedroom move, or as a top up if the tape that came with your boxes has run out. Low noise tape is worth having if you are packing in the evening with other people in the house.
View on Amazon →48mm x 66m per roll, heavy duty polypropylene
Six rolls at 66m is the sensible buy for a three bedroom house and up. Work on roughly one roll per fifteen boxes and never fewer than three, then add one for the odd jobs nobody plans for, like taping drawers shut and bundling curtain poles.
View on Amazon →A hand dispenser with a cutting blade is worth the few pounds if you are sealing more than about thirty boxes. Tearing 48mm tape by hand for an evening is miserable work.
What size boxes a house move needs, double wall versus single, and how many.
Removal box sizes →Packing tape · good to know
Brown polypropylene parcel tape, 48mm wide. It is the standard trade width, it keeps its grip in the cold and it is cheap enough that you can afford to use it properly rather than sparingly.
Around one roll per fifteen boxes, and never fewer than three. An average three-bedroom house works out at five or six rolls of 66m. Buy one more than the sum says, because the last roll always runs out on the last box.
Vinyl is quieter off the roll and looks more substantial, but it loses adhesion in the cold. A van in February is cold, and a box that opens as it is lifted is how things get broken. Polypropylene is the sensible choice for a move.
Not for a house move. Gummed paper tape needs wetting and a dispenser to work properly, and self-adhesive paper tape does not hold a heavy carton reliably. It is a good option for posting parcels you want to be recyclable, not for cartons carrying 20kg down a staircase.
One strip along the centre seam, then one across each end so the flaps cannot fan open, and repeat the same pattern underneath before you fill it. Most boxes that fail at the bottom were taped with a single strip.
Some, yes. Every full house removal comes with a starting quantity of boxes and some tape, worked out when we quote. If you are packing a big house yourself you will almost certainly want more than that.
About these links. These are the sorts of materials we buy and use on real moves. Links to items we do not supply ourselves are Amazon affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if you buy through them. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. You pay the same price either way.
We do not list prices here, because they change and a stale figure helps nobody. Nothing on this page is sold by us, and any order, delivery or return is between you and Amazon.
On a packing service we arrive with everything the job needs and take the spares away. Nothing for you to buy.