On an office move day, the crew does the carrying. What decides whether the day runs to plan is usually one person on your side who can answer questions and make decisions. Our Manchester office page asks whether anyone from the business needs to be there on the day, and answers it plainly: “Someone with authority to make decisions does.”
This guide is for that person. It covers what to have in hand, what to check at each building and the calls you’ll be asked to make. For the timetable of an out-of-hours move, from Friday afternoon to Monday morning, see how evening and weekend office moves work.
Your job on the day
Moves run best with a single named contact who can answer questions on the day. Not a committee, just somebody who knows where things are supposed to go and can make a decision without a meeting. Name that person at the survey so the crew knows who to ask.
Two things make the job workable:
- Keep yourself free of packing. Your job is answering questions and solving problems as they come up. If you’re taping up your own crate, nobody is doing that.
- Know who leads the crew. Agree beforehand who’s in charge on our side, and how you’ll reach each other if you’re at different buildings.
What to have in your hand
Before the day, gather everything you’ll be asked about into one folder or one shared document:
- The new floor plan, with every desk numbered. It’s the document the whole unload works from.
- The agreed inventory and load order. The quotation is built on the inventory, and the load order was agreed in advance.
- Building contacts at both addresses, with the goods lift and loading bay times each building has confirmed in writing.
- Your IT provider’s contact and schedule. Servers, network equipment and anything hardwired are theirs to disconnect and reconnect, so you need to know when they’re arriving.
- A list of what isn’t moving. Furniture going for disposal, items staying with the landlord, anything you’re taking yourself. Tell us at the survey, so it’s in the plan rather than decided on the day.
Before the crew arrives at the old building
Walk the office first thing and check:
- Drawers and cabinets are empty. Furniture must be emptied before we arrive. Packed boxes shouldn’t exceed twenty kilos, and anything over fifteen should be clearly marked.
- Every desk is packed into its own numbered crate, and computers are shut down rather than left locked.
- Nothing that can’t travel is in a crate. Fuel, gas canisters, solvents, paints and aerosols can’t go on the vehicle. Cash, deeds, certificates and confidential originals are better carried by you.
- The parking is in place, if your street needed a suspension or dispensation. That’s arranged weeks before, but a quick look on the morning saves a delayed start.
When the crew lead arrives, do a joint walkthrough before loading starts, confirming the inventory against the floor plan. It settles most of the questions that would otherwise come up mid-load.
The calls you’ll be asked to make
Most questions on the day come back to scope. The two common ones:
Something that isn’t on the inventory. A cabinet nobody mentioned, or a store room that was missed at the survey. Anything added on the day rather than at the survey is charged at a short notice rate, because the vehicles and crew were planned around the original scope. If the inventory has grown, or the access is different from what was described, we re-quote before starting rather than invoicing a surprise afterwards. Your call is whether it’s genuinely needed at the new office, or whether it waits for the disposal plan.
A change to the order. The load order was agreed so the unload follows the new layout. Change it on the night and the unload stops following the plan, so only do it if something has changed at the new building.
If the building runs late releasing the lift, or access isn’t what was agreed, you and the crew lead take it up with the building manager together. That’s why their number is in your folder.
Leaving the old building
Before the last vehicle leaves, walk every room, including cupboards, the kitchen, the comms room and any store you don’t use often. Then photograph the emptied space for your dilapidations record.
The old office isn’t finished when the crew leaves. Clearing, cleaning, settling dilapidations and returning keys all follow. Our office move project plan treats that exit as its own workstream.
At the new building
Be there when the unloading starts. Everything travels crated and labelled to a position on the new floor plan, so it’s unloaded straight to the desk it belongs at, but questions still come up about rooms that have changed since the plan was drawn.
As the crew works:
- Furniture we dismantled goes back together to the floor plan, where that was agreed and priced at the survey.
- IT equipment is positioned ready for reconnection. Your provider then reconnects it. Our guide to moving office IT covers how the two jobs fit together.
- Check the floor against the plan before the crew leaves. Walk it with the plan in hand. Anything missing or in the wrong room is far quicker to sort while the crew is still there.
Then test before anyone else arrives: phones, wifi and the shared drive, in that order.
After the move
Crates go out to you in advance and come back to us afterwards, so there’s no cardboard mountain in the new office. For who should be on site on the first morning and how staff report problems, see the Monday section of our evening and weekend office moves guide.
The move-day checklist
Before: numbered floor plan · inventory and load order · both buildings’ contacts and lift times · IT provider’s schedule · list of what isn’t moving.
Old building: drawers emptied · crates packed and numbered · nothing that can’t travel in a crate · parking in place · joint walkthrough before loading · every room checked · empty space photographed.
New building: there for the start of the unload · furniture rebuilt to plan · IT positioned for your provider · floor walked against the plan · phones, wifi and shared drive tested.
Get your office move planned
We run office moves from our teams in Manchester, London and Edinburgh. Send us both addresses, a rough desk count and the floor plan if you have it. We’ll survey both buildings, agree a window that suits your trading, and give you a written price built on an agreed inventory.
Request a quote, or read how we plan office moving around your trading hours.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need someone from the business there on move day? Yes: one person with authority to make decisions. Access, load order and where things land at the other end all need someone who can answer.
What happens if we want to move something that wasn’t on the inventory? Anything added on the day rather than at the survey is charged at a short notice rate. If the inventory has grown, the job is re-quoted before work starts. Agreeing the scope at the survey avoids both.
Who reconnects the computers after an office move? Your IT provider. Our crews move and position the equipment, and we work to your provider’s schedule so the two jobs dovetail.