How to plan an office move

How do you plan an office move?

You plan an office move backwards from two fixed points: the date your current lease ends and the longest time your business can be off the network. Everything else (the removal company, parking, lift bookings, crates, clearance) is scheduled to fit between them. Give one person the job of running it, write the plan down, and move out of hours.

The checklist below is the order we see work best for London offices of 5 to 60 desks. Larger or multi-floor moves follow the same shape with more time at each stage.

Office relocation checklist: 3 months to move weekend

Three months out

1. Appoint a move lead and agree a budget.
2. Read both leases. Note the exit date, the notice period and the dilapidations clause (what you must make good when you leave).
3. Get a floor plan of the new office and decide the layout: teams, meeting rooms, kitchen, comms room, printers.
4. Ask your IT provider how long the network, phones and internet will be down, and when the new line can be installed. New business lines can take weeks, so order early.
5. Ask the new building’s management for their move rules: lift booking, loading bay hours, insurance certificates, working hours for contractors.

Two months out

1. Get quotes from removal companies, ideally after a site survey at both ends. A price without a survey is a guess.
2. Decide what is not coming: old desks, broken chairs, dead IT, archive paperwork. Book its clearance now.
3. If the new office is not ready when the old lease ends, arrange storage between leases.
4. Tell staff the date, the new address and how their commute changes.

Four to six weeks out

1. Book the removal company and confirm the move date and times in writing.
2. Book parking. Most London boroughs need at least a week, and some two, for a bay suspension. Your removal company should apply for it.
3. Book the goods lift and loading bay at both buildings.
4. Send the removal company’s insurance certificates to both building managers.
5. Start telling clients, suppliers, your bank and Companies House (if the registered address is changing) about the new address.

Two weeks out

1. Number every desk on the new floor plan and give each person their number.
2. Crates arrive. Staff start packing anything they do not use daily.
3. Update the website, email signatures, Google Business Profile and printed stationery, ready to switch on move day.
4. Set up post redirection from the old address.

Move week

1. Staff clear their desks and pack personal items into labelled crates.
2. IT backs up everything and confirms the shutdown time.
3. Walk the old office with the removal team lead so nothing is missed.
4. Photograph the condition of both offices before anything moves.

Move weekend

1. Friday evening: IT is disconnected and bagged per desk, furniture is dismantled where needed, vans run until the old office is empty.
2. Saturday: furniture goes in against the floor plan, desks are reassembled, IT is reconnected.
3. Sunday: the move lead walks every desk, checks screens, phones and printers, and notes anything missing.
4. Monday: staff arrive to their own desk and a working network.

Who owns what on an office move?

Most office moves that go wrong fail at the handover between people, not in the van. Settle who owns each part before anything is booked.

The move lead does not need to do the work, only to know who is doing it and chase it. In a small company that is often the office manager; in a larger one it may be facilities.

Lifts and loading bays are where the handover most often breaks. A managed building will usually want a lift booking and proof of insurance filed a week or two ahead, and some only allow moves outside core hours. If the removal van arrives and the lift is booked by another tenant, the job stops. Confirm both buildings in writing.

How to move IT and phones without losing a day

The real limit on an office move is almost never the furniture. It is how long you can be offline.

1. Agree the shutdown and restart times with IT before the move date is fixed.
2. Order the new internet line and phone numbers at the three-month mark. Ask for them to go live before move day so there is time to test.
3. Back up every machine and server the day before.
4. Bag each desk’s cables, dock, keyboard and mouse together and label the bag with the desk number.
5. Move servers and comms cabinets with IT present, or with clear written instructions.
6. Test every desk before staff arrive, not while they wait.

If you use cloud phones and cloud storage, the downtime can be a few hours. If you run an on-site server, plan for longer and tell clients.

How to label desks and crates

A labelling system is what lets a crew set up 30 desks correctly without asking anyone.

1. Number every desk on the new floor plan (for example, 2-14 is second floor, desk 14).
2. Put the number on the desk, the chair, the pedestal, the monitor, the cable bag and every crate from that desk.
3. Use one colour per floor or zone if the move covers several.
4. Tape a copy of the floor plan at the entrance of the new office and at each lift.
5. Label shared items by room: “Kitchen”, “Meeting room 1”, “Comms”.

Staff should pack their own personal items and desk drawers. Files, archive and shared equipment are usually faster packed by the movers. Our packing materials page covers crates, boxes and wrap.

Should an office move happen out of hours?

For almost every business, yes. An evening and weekend move means no lost trading day, empty corridors, free lifts and quieter streets for loading. As a rough guide, up to 10 desks moves in one evening, 10 to 30 desks in an evening plus a day, and 30 to 60 desks over a weekend. Bigger moves, or moves across several floors, are split over two weekends by department.

Check two things first: that both buildings allow contractors in out of hours, and that someone with keys and alarm codes is there at each end.

What to do with old office furniture and IT

Decide what is not coming before you pack, or you pay to move it twice.

• Furniture in good condition can go for reuse or resale rather than landfill.
• Broken furniture and general office waste goes to a licensed transfer station. Council recycling centres do not take trade waste, so a business needs a registered waste carrier. See our guide to the types of office waste.
• Computers, screens and printers are electrical waste and must be recycled, not binned. Wipe or physically destroy hard drives first, and keep a record of what left the building.
• Confidential paper should be shredded, not put in general waste.

Clearing the old office properly also helps with dilapidations: an empty, clean floor is easier to hand back.

Getting help with your office move

Sal Removals plans and runs office moves across London and Hertfordshire, from a survey at both sites to IT reconnection and clearing what you leave behind. Office removals start from £240 for up to 10 desks, and as a registered waste carrier we can take old furniture and IT in the same job through our waste removal service. If you are moving home as well, our moving house checklist covers the domestic side.

Call 020 3475 0377, Monday to Sunday 8am to 8pm, or request a free quote.