For many businesses, the expensive part of an office move isn’t the removals bill. It’s the time when nobody can work. Move in the evening or over a weekend, and your staff leave on Friday and start again on Monday in the new office, with no lost day in between.
We offer evening and weekend office moves through our teams in Manchester, Edinburgh and London, and most of the office moves we plan happen over a Friday night or a weekend. Here’s how one actually runs, what both buildings need to agree to, and where these moves tend to go wrong.
Why businesses move out of hours
The main reason is simple: you don’t lose a trading day. Staff work as normal until Friday afternoon.
The building is usually quieter as well, so you’re less likely to be sharing lifts, corridors and loading bays with other tenants. And sometimes it isn’t a choice. Many commercial landlords only allow moves outside core hours.
It does ask more of you. You need both buildings to agree, your IT support has to work the same hours as the crew, and someone from your business needs to be available.
How an evening move runs
An evening move suits a small office, or one department of a larger one. As a rough guide, an office of under ten desks usually goes in a single evening after close. For anything bigger, the survey sets the timetable. If you’re moving a small office, our small office move guide covers the planning.
A typical evening goes like this:
- Afternoon: staff finish packing their desks into crates and, if that’s been agreed, unplug their equipment.
- Early evening: the crew arrives, protects floors and lifts, and starts loading in the goods lift slot booked with the building.
- Night: the vehicle travels, and the crew unloads and places everything to the new floor plan.
- Next morning: staff arrive at their desks.
Agree in advance what happens if anything isn’t finished overnight.
How a weekend move runs
Friday afternoon: before staff leave
Ask everyone to:
- pack their desk into their own crate, labelled with their name and new desk number
- take home anything personal or valuable
- shut their computer down properly, not just lock the screen
- unplug and label their own equipment, if your IT plan says so
- clear the fridge.
Saturday: load, travel, place
The crew protects both buildings, loads in the order agreed at the survey, then moves and unloads to the floor plan. Furniture that needs taking apart is dismantled at one end and rebuilt at the other. Every crate carries a label matched to a position on the new plan, so it’s carried once and put down where it belongs.
Sunday: IT and checks
Your IT provider reconnects desks, printers and network equipment. That’s their work rather than ours, so their availability needs pinning to the move window, not assumed.
Then ask a few real staff to test it. Log in at a few desks, print something, make a call. Someone should also walk the floor and check every desk has its crate, its screen and its chair.
Monday morning: who’s on site
Expect something not to work on Monday morning. A missing cable, a desk in the wrong place, a crate on the wrong floor. These are quick to fix if the right people are there.
Have your IT provider physically on site for the first morning, and tell staff how to report a problem. Ask your mover who, if anyone, will be there and how to reach them.
What both buildings need to agree to
Ask the building managers at the old and new offices, in writing:
- which evenings or weekend days moves are allowed, and at what times
- whether the goods lift and loading bay can be booked, and for how long
- whether security or a building engineer must be present, and whether there’s a charge for it
- what paperwork they need from the mover beforehand. This may include a risk assessment, a method statement and copies of insurance certificates.
Get these answers before you fix the date. Managed offices often need notice for weekend access, and that’s much easier to secure three weeks out than three days. Without a lift booking, there’s no weekend move.
On our office moves, we arrange the goods lifts, loading bays and weekend access at both addresses.
IT: the part that decides whether Monday works
The furniture almost always arrives. Whether Monday works depends on IT.
Book your IT provider for the weekend as early as you can. Order broadband and phone lines for the new office first: lead times for business lines run to weeks and can’t be squeezed once your date is fixed. Check the connection is live before the move, not on the Monday.
Before anything is unplugged:
- take a full backup and check it actually restores
- photograph the back of every workstation and rack
- label both ends of every cable.
Then plan a test on Sunday afternoon, with someone from each team. Our guide to moving office IT goes into more detail.
When a phased move is better
If your office is too big to move in one weekend, or some teams can’t stop at all, move in phases, one team or floor at a time. It takes longer overall, but only part of the office is ever affected at once. We phase larger sites team by team for exactly this reason. The office move project plan shows how to sequence it.
What it changes about the quote
Out-of-hours work can affect the price. Crews are working evenings or weekends, and buildings may charge for security or lift time. We agree the working window at the survey and price it into the written quotation from the start, rather than adding it afterwards.
Whoever you use, ask for out-of-hours costs and any building charges in writing, and weigh them against the cost of a lost working day for your whole team.
Questions to ask before you book
- Have you done out-of-hours moves in buildings like ours?
- Who is in charge on the night, and are they there until the job is finished?
- What happens if the building runs late releasing the lift?
- Who will be on site on Monday morning, and how do we report a problem?
- Is everything in the quote, including out-of-hours rates?
For the full list, see questions to ask before hiring an office relocation company.
Plan your out-of-hours move
Tell us your dates, both addresses and when each building allows moves. We’ll survey both buildings, agree a window that suits your trading, and give you a written price based on an agreed inventory.
Request a quote, or see our office removals in Manchester, Edinburgh and London.
Frequently asked questions
Do weekend office moves cost more?
They can, because of out-of-hours working and any charges the buildings make for security or lift time. We price the working window into the written quotation at the survey rather than adding it later. Whoever you use, ask for these costs in writing.
What should staff do before a weekend move?
Pack their desk into their own labelled crate, take home anything personal, shut their computer down properly, and unplug their own equipment if that’s in the IT plan.
Who is on site on Monday morning?
Ask your mover. Have your IT provider there in person for the first morning too. Small problems are normal, and quick to fix when someone is on hand.
Last reviewed: 23 October 2026.