Planning an Office Move: A Six Week Timeline for Cheshire Business Owners
An office move is one of the few jobs where the work that matters most happens before the vans arrive. Get the six weeks beforehand right and moving weekend is a long day with a tidy ending. Get them wrong and Monday morning starts with staff who cannot find their desks, phones that do not ring and a server that is still in a box.
We are Crown Removals, a family run removals firm based on Kerfoot Street in Warrington. We have moved businesses of every size across Warrington and Cheshire, from two desk start ups at Birchwood Park to multi floor offices in Chester and Crewe, and the moves that go smoothly all share the same shape. This is that shape, written out as a six week timeline. If you would rather hand the planning over, our office removals team can run the whole process with you from the first site visit.
Six weeks out, audit what you actually need to move
The biggest saving on any office move is not moving things you do not need. Six weeks out, walk the office with a clipboard and sort everything into four groups: moving, selling, recycling and shredding.
Be ruthless with the archive. Much of the filing in most office cupboards has passed its retention date, and confidential waste can go to a licensed shredding firm rather than being paid for twice, once to move and once to store. Measure the new office while you are at it, because desk banks that fit one floor do not always fit a smaller one. If some furniture or stock is surplus for now but not for good, our storage units in Warrington are a few minutes from the M62 and are used by several local businesses for exactly this.
Five weeks out, book the removal firm and confirm access at both ends
Five weeks leaves room for a site survey, a written quote and any changes, and it is early enough to get the weekend you want. Fridays and month ends go first, so if your lease has a hard end date, book as soon as the audit is done.
Ask for a site visit rather than a phone estimate. A good surveyor will want to see both buildings and will ask the questions that catch problems early:
- Is there a goods lift, what size is it, and who holds the key out of hours?
- Where can a large vehicle park and load, and does the building manager need to approve it?
- Are there loading bay time slots, parking suspensions or weight limits on the road outside?
- Are the stairs and doorways wide enough for the largest items?
- Does either building need the lift walls, carpets or door frames protected?
Confirm access in writing with the building managers at both ends. Shared buildings and business parks such as Birchwood Park and Daresbury often need a formal booking for the loading bay and lift, and some will not allow moves during working hours at all. Check insurance too: any commercial removals company you consider should hold Goods in Transit cover, and the limit should cover your IT equipment, not just the furniture.
Four weeks out, notify clients, suppliers and utilities
Four weeks out, start telling people. The list is longer than most business owners expect, so work through it in order of how long each change takes.
Broadband and phone lines
Broadband and telephone lines are the slowest item on the whole timeline. Some providers need four to six weeks to install at a new address, so if this has not started yet, start it today.
Royal Mail redirection
Royal Mail redirection for a business address takes a few days to set up and is cheap insurance against lost post.
Utilities, insurers and HMRC
Utilities, business rates, insurers, Companies House and HMRC all need the new address, and your insurer needs to know about the new building before anyone moves into it.
Clients and suppliers
Clients and suppliers should hear from you directly, not from a bounced invoice. A short email with the new address and the moving date is enough.
Website and stationery
Your website, Google Business Profile, email signatures, letterheads and vehicle livery all carry the old address. List them now and change them in the week of the move.
Three weeks out, plan the IT and comms switchover
IT is where office moves go wrong, so it gets a week of its own. Sit down with whoever looks after your systems and agree the following:
- The order things are shut down on Friday and brought back up on Monday. Servers and network cabinets usually go out last and in first.
- A full backup taken the day before the move, tested, and kept off site.
- Who disconnects and labels the cabling. Photograph the back of every rack and desk before anything is unplugged.
- Whether the new building has enough power, data points and cooling in the server room. If not, the electrician needs to finish before moving weekend, not after it.
- A test plan for Monday morning: phones ringing, internet working, printers found, shared drives reachable.
Server racks, comms cabinets and large printers need specialist handling, so tell your removals firm about them at the survey stage. We move IT equipment in padded crates with anti static wrapping, and a dedicated vehicle can be arranged where it needs to travel separately from the furniture.
Two weeks out, label and colour code by department
A floor plan and a roll of coloured labels do more for a smooth move than almost anything else. Two weeks out:
Draw the new floor plan and give each department or zone a colour.
Number every desk position on the plan.
Give each member of staff labels in their colour, marked with their desk number.
Pin the colour coded plan at the entrance to every floor of the new building, so the crew can carry each crate straight to the right spot without asking.
Crates are delivered around now. Lidded plastic crates stack, protect paperwork and do not need tape, so they suit office moves far better than cardboard. Staff pack their own desks into two or three crates and leave them in place. Communal areas such as the kitchen, stationery cupboard and reception are packed by the move coordinator or, if you would rather, by our packing service. Confidential files travel in sealed crates with a signed log.
One week out, the final walkthrough
The week before, walk both buildings with your removals firm. At the old office, confirm what is going, what is staying for the landlord and what other contractors are collecting. At the new office, confirm the floor plan is still right, that keys, alarm codes and the lift are sorted for the weekend, and that any building work is finished.
Then finish the admin: confirm the booking, crew and vehicles in writing, confirm parking and loading at both ends, send staff a short moving pack covering what to pack and where to park on Monday, and book the final clean of the old office for after the vans have left. And defrost the fridge. It sounds trivial, but it is the item most often forgotten on a Friday afternoon.
Moving weekend, keeping downtime to a minimum
A typical office move with us runs from Friday afternoon to Sunday, so the business reopens on Monday as if nothing had happened.
Friday afternoon
Staff pack their last crates, shut down their machines and go home. IT takes the final backup and powers down in the agreed order.
Friday evening or Saturday morning
The crew protects floors and lifts, dismantles what will not travel whole, loads by colour zone, and puts the IT equipment on the vehicle last.
Saturday
Unloading at the new building, zone by zone. Desks go up first so crates can go straight onto them, then storage, then meeting rooms and reception.
Sunday
IT brings the network, servers and phones back up and runs the test plan. The coordinator walks the floor against the plan while the crew is still there.
Monday
Staff arrive to a working office, find their desk by number and unpack their own crates.
Desks, storage units and server racks, what needs dismantling
Most modern office furniture is designed to come apart, and most of it has to. Bench desks rarely fit through doors or lifts whole, tall storage units are unstable in transit unless the shelves come out, and glass partition screens only travel safely when they are removed and packed flat. Our crews carry the tools and dismantle and reassemble desks, shelving, meeting tables and reception furniture as part of the job. Fixings are bagged and taped to the item they came from, so nothing arrives with a bolt missing.
| Item | Usually moved whole? | What we do |
|---|---|---|
| Single desks and pedestals | Yes | Blanket wrapped, drawers emptied or taped |
| Bench and wave desks | No | Dismantled, legs and frames bundled, tops padded |
| Tall storage and filing cabinets | Partly | Shelves out, drawers emptied or locked, moved upright on trolleys |
| Boardroom tables | Rarely | Tops and bases separated, padded and strapped |
| Server racks and comms cabinets | Depends on size | Equipment crated separately, rack moved on trolleys or rebuilt on site |
| Glass partitions and screens | No | Removed, packed flat with corner protection |
| Safes and plan chests | Yes | Specialist moving equipment, planned at the survey |
If you are unsure whether something will come apart, send us a photograph with your enquiry. It is usually a thirty second answer.
Office removals across Warrington and Cheshire
From our depot on Kerfoot Street in Warrington we cover the whole of Cheshire and the North West. In a normal month that means moves within Warrington’s business areas such as Birchwood and the town centre, along the A49 and A56 to Stockton Heath, Appleton and Grappenhall, and across the county to Chester, Northwich, Crewe, Macclesfield, Knutsford and Wilmslow, as well as Manchester and Liverpool.
Every move is quoted after a survey, with a fixed price and the promise that we will beat any like for like quote. Crates, dismantling, floor protection and Goods in Transit insurance are part of the service rather than extras, and the people who plan your move are the people who turn up on the day. There is more on how we work across the county on our Cheshire removals page, and the full service is set out on our office removals in Warrington and Cheshire page.
Book a commercial site survey
Call us on 01925 899 989, or send your details through our contact form and choose the Office Removal option. We will visit both buildings, agree a weekend that suits your business and give you a fixed price for the whole move.