Moving in Encino, from the hills to the Sepulveda Basin
Encino runs from the Santa Monica Mountains down to the Sepulveda Basin, and a move here depends on which part of it you are in. South of Ventura Boulevard, estates in Royal Oaks and the Encino hills sit on sloping lots, many behind private gates, some at the top of long drives toward Mulholland Drive. On Ventura itself, the moves are condominiums and office towers. North of it, the streets level out toward the basin. Elite Moving & Storage builds the plan from whichever of those three it is.
Encino is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles, not a city of its own, so Los Angeles rules govern the curb, Red Flag parking and trucks left overnight. The walkthrough, in person or by video, answers the Encino questions first: does the truck load from the drive or the street, is there a gate and whose list the crew must be on, and how steep is the carry? After that comes the room-by-room list, with the pieces that warrant a custom crate marked, and that itemized inventory and written estimate are what the white glove move runs on.
Encino movers for Royal Oaks and the hills south of Ventura
Royal Oaks, in the hills of southeastern Encino around Royal Oak Road, mixes mid-century ranch houses with larger new estates, many on generous lots with long drives under mature oaks. Farther west, still south of Ventura, Clark Gable Estates was laid out on the twenty-acre ranch where Clark Gable lived from 1939 until his death in 1960, and Tara Drive, named for the plantation in Gone with the Wind, keeps the story in its name.
Higher up, the streets climb toward Mulholland Drive and the Encino Hills. Just west of Encino Hills Drive, Mulholland becomes a dirt road closed to motor vehicles, so there is no through route along the ridge and trucks come in from the paved side. On the steepest, narrowest drives, the big truck parks where the street widens and a smaller shuttle truck makes the runs up to the house. Before the first piece moves, the crew lays protection over stone entries and wraps stair rails and door frames, and the crew size follows the length of the carry, not only the square footage.
Gated enclaves and private gates
Encino has a few gated communities and many more single estates with gates of their own. Royal Oaks Colony is a gated enclave with its own homeowners association. Just south of Ventura Boulevard, Encino Towers is a gated condominium community on Park Encino Lane. Across the hills and the flats, private gates and intercoms are common at the larger houses.
Every association writes its own vendor rules, so we ask for them in writing: who needs to be on the gate list, the days and hours moves are allowed, whether the association must be named on a certificate of insurance, and where a truck may park once inside. A private gate is simpler, but it still needs a code or someone to open it, a clear swing for the truck and room to turn on the motor court.
North of Ventura: Amestoy Estates and the Sepulveda Basin
North of Ventura Boulevard the ground levels out, in neighborhoods such as Amestoy Estates. On level streets the truck can usually get close, so the work moves indoors: fine furniture, stone tops, chandeliers and art, each packed for the way it travels, with a crate built only where a piece calls for one.
Farther north, the Sepulveda Basin fills the land behind Sepulveda Dam, which the Army Corps of Engineers completed in 1941 to hold back Los Angeles River flood water. Its 2,000-acre recreation area holds golf courses, playing fields and Lake Balboa, and Burbank Boulevard and Woodley Avenue run through it. In the February 2024 storms both roads were closed when the basin flooded, so a winter move that crosses the Valley carries a second route.
Estates, high-end collections and time between homes
Encino estates often hold what took years to gather: paintings and sculpture, antiques, stone and marble, and wine. A piece that needs a crate gets one built to its measurements, and art that calls for specialist handling on its own timetable goes through fine art moving. A cellar that cannot go straight to the new house is something we work out with you at the walkthrough, before any bottle is packed.
Bigger Encino moves can run past a single day. A household may be moving a main house and a guest house together, holding furniture while a new house is finished, or renting nearby while its own home is rebuilt. Whatever the next house cannot take yet goes into storage, tracked on the same inventory as the move. Where a principal residence, a guest house and staff quarters all move together, we plan it as an estate move.
Office movers on Ventura Boulevard in Encino
Ventura Boulevard is Encino’s business street, lined with banks, shopping centers and office towers. Encino Gateway, at 15760 Ventura, rises 21 stories, and 16000 Ventura is a 12-story office building close to the 101 and the 405. In towers like these, property management controls the freight elevator and the loading dock and generally asks for a certificate of insurance before it books either. For a professional firm, the load is client files, conference room art and executive furniture, so we inventory by department, tag each desk to its place on the new floor plan and book the move for an evening or a weekend. Office moves are covered in more depth under office and commercial moving, and executive moves into the Valley under corporate relocation.
Moving east along Ventura? Hillside and condominium moves are covered on the page for Sherman Oaks movers, and homes to the west, in Tarzana and beyond, on the page for Woodland Hills. The rest of the Valley is on our page for San Fernando Valley movers.
