Most offices can stop for a weekend. Some businesses can’t. A trade counter has customers on Monday morning, despatch has orders going out, and a production line has output promised. For them, the move happens in stages, so part of the business is always working.
That’s a phased move. It protects trading, but it takes longer overall. This guide covers when it’s worth it, how to set the order, and what to agree before the first stage moves. For how we run them, see our commercial relocation programmes.
Do you need a phased move at all?
Often not. Most office moves happen over a Friday night or a weekend, so staff arrive on Monday to a desk that already works. If that fits your business, read how evening and weekend office moves work instead.
Size is the first test. In our office move project plan, below about thirty people a single weekend move is generally simpler. Above that, this is how we usually approach offices:
| Size of office | Usual approach |
|---|---|
| 30 to 75 desks | A full weekend, phased by floor or team |
| 75 to 150 desks | Two weekends, or a staged midweek plan |
| 150 desks or more | Phased across several agreed windows |
The second test is what can’t stop. Any business that has to keep despatching, serving or producing while it moves is a candidate, whatever its size.
Moving a department at a time over two or three weekends reduces the risk of a single catastrophic weekend, gives you a chance to correct problems before the bulk of staff arrive, and keeps some capability running throughout. Against that, it extends the period of disruption, splits teams temporarily and costs more in lease overlap and coordination.
Step 1: name the part that can’t stop
This one decision shapes the whole plan. Most operations can keep one function live throughout, and which one you choose changes the sequence:
| What must keep running | How the move is sequenced |
|---|---|
| Outbound despatch | Picking face moved last, bulk stock first |
| The trade counter | Counter and front stock moved overnight |
| Production or assembly | Line moved between shifts, cell by cell |
| Goods inward | Receiving bay set up at the new site first |
| An office team | Moved team by team, so only part of the floor is affected at once |
Ask whoever runs the operation, not whoever holds the lease. They know which department can work from boxes for a day and which can’t.
If the answer is “nothing has to keep running”, a single clean break is usually faster and cheaper. Phasing is a trade you make for continuity, not a default.
Step 2: set the order
A relocation becomes a programme the moment one part can’t start until another has finished. Two sites merging into one, departments moving in stages, a fit-out still running at the new premises: each creates a dependency. The order should follow the business, not the buildings.
Three rules keep the order honest:
- Each stage leaves both premises working. That’s a different job from emptying a building as fast as possible.
- Move everything once. Second handling never appears in a quotation and always appears in the invoice. A stage delivered into an area that isn’t ready gets handled twice and takes up space the next stage needs.
- Don’t move a team before the one it depends on. Otherwise people end up unable to work in two places rather than one.
How that looks in practice depends on the premises. In a warehouse, bulk stock goes first and the picking face last, so orders keep going out of the old unit while the new one fills behind it. For more on that, see our commercial removals in Manchester. Shops and cafés usually move overnight or before opening, with the counter prioritised on the unload so the front can open while the back is still being finished. That’s covered for listed and city-centre premises on our commercial removals in Edinburgh page.
Step 3: agree the fallback before you start
Programmes slip. A fit-out overruns, a handover moves, or a landlord delays access. The useful question is what happens to the stage that was due that week.
Usually the answer is storage or a reordered sequence. Agree it in advance, and a setback becomes an adjustment. If goods are held between stages, they should be counted in and counted out, so what was stored in week two is verifiably what arrives in week six.
Step 4: one person on each side
On a single-day move, anyone can answer a question. Across a programme that runs for weeks, the business needs one person who knows what has already moved and what’s due next, and so do we. Without that, decisions get made twice, and sometimes they contradict each other.
Running two buildings at once
For a while, you’ll be operating from both. Plan for it:
- IT. Where you can, run the old and new networks in parallel for a period. It costs a little in duplicated connectivity and leaves you somewhere to fall back to. Our crews move monitors, docks and peripherals. Comms rooms, cabinets and hardwired equipment stay with your IT provider, so their plan and ours are sequenced together. See moving office IT.
- Crates. A crate packed in week one may not be opened until week six. We issue crates per stage rather than all at once, and the marking carries the stage as well as the destination, so a later phase isn’t delivered with an earlier one.
- Access for every window. Each stage needs its own goods lift, loading bay or out-of-hours slot. Goods lifts, loading bays and out-of-hours permissions are ours to arrange once we know the buildings.
- People. Tell each team which stage they’re in and where they’ll be working in the meantime. Make sure customers and suppliers know which address handles what while both are open.
What a phased move costs
Three things set the price: the total volume, the access at every building involved, and the number of stages. The last is what separates a programme from a large single move.
Each stage is surveyed and costed, and you get one written price with the stages set out inside it. You can see what each phase costs without a new quotation every time a date moves. Budget separately for the lease overlap while both buildings are in use. Our office relocation costs guide covers the wider budget.
Four answers to have before you ask for a price
- Which dates are firm, and which are only intended. A plan built on intentions treated as certainties can’t absorb the first delay.
- What can’t stop operating. It sets the order more firmly than any building does.
- Who holds the programme on your side.
- Whether fit-out works are running at the new premises, and when each area will be finished.
Get a phased move planned
Send us the sites involved, roughly what each holds, the order you’d prefer, and which dates are firm and which are only intended. We’ll survey every building, build the sequence around what can’t stop, and return one written price with the stages set out inside it.
Request a quote, or read about our commercial relocation programmes.
Frequently asked questions
Can a business keep trading while it relocates? In most cases, yes, if the move is phased around the function that can’t stop. It takes longer overall than a clean break, which is the trade you’re making.
Is a phased move more expensive? Usually. It costs more in lease overlap and coordination than a single move. Against that, part of the business keeps trading throughout.