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Moving Warehouses (asking advice and tips)

WakelessFoil

Aluminum
Joined
Aug 18, 2020
We are getting ready for a big move this summer. We need to move heavy machinery (lathes, mills, etc.) as well as many palletized and non-palletized loads to our new locations about 50 and 100 yards away. In addition, we are taking several sets of pallet racks to one of the new locations. We have a large flatbed trailer, several forklifts, pallet jacks, and other various tools to help get things moving.

We have been somewhat dreading this task as a move of this caliber often proves to be long and laborious. I am open to any and all discussion regarding labor saving techniques and tricks when it comes to this sort of stuff. Any ways we can save time, labor, and money.

EDIT: May not matter but I should mention the new locations are actually 170 and 340 yards away. My eye was way off on this one.

Thanks.
-Justin
 
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Your a bit vague with your question. Your moving 300 feet away, is this the same building, same lot, same side of road, are you crossing a river?

A move 300 feet away is about as simple as you can get.

Usually labor savings = more overall move time.

I would say your best bet is to move all your little stuff, get it all setup and in entries and whatever, then move all your big stuff so you can start producing asap

Things to consider is air compressor, do you need a rental just to run while existing unit is being installed and other overlooked items like that.

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We moved 150 yds once, took over 20 years and didn't get it all moved until we moved the whole lot 1000 miles, the short move was almost more trouble.
 
Scrap everything you dont want.....then palletize all the small stuff and wrap it with clear stretchy plastic,contents marked in black feltpen.......The machines will take some planning,as bases for them and power hookup will need to be arranged before they are disconnected in the present location....And dont let idiots drive forklifts ,when machines are moved.....I moved 30 ft long x16ft high racks in one piece with a single four ton forklift,but the rack was welded monolithic structure of 3" pipe.
 
My thought was to create a layout so you have a plan, not just randomly dump stuff inside that has to be double-handled later on. If you have a layout to copy, even better, go in any layout the new space with floor tape ahead of time so its a no-brainer as far as where things go any each machine doesn't have to take an hour of head scratching to figure out where it goes.

Armed with that you can create a utility plan (electrics, at least get close enough to finish with a piece of flex).

Not sure about the condition of pavement between the places, ideally its smooth and concrete. Rough is going to slow stuff down.

Sometimes easiest to move the heaviest stuff first.

The teardrop pallet racks can sometimes be moved by applying bolts in certain spots to lock a shelf in position. But I would move all of them empty.

Would be very useful to go around and masking tape or wire-tag everything that has to come off a shelf with its location and what it is for.

Depending on your rigging skill sets and gear, you could rent the equipment you need to move the heaviest stuff. IOW a 15,5k makes a lot of jobs go easier vs. relying on a tag team of 5k lifts to move something heavy or long. I always prefer long forks for rigging jobs. 8' if you can get them.

One way to think about it is to imagine you're hiring a rigging crew that costs $2k per hour and you want to reduce the amount of time they have to be on your site, what can you do to make their job simple and easy with the least amount of waiting.
 
For 100 yards??
Do not pack wrap or strap anything if not need be Faster to walk a extra time or have someone walk along the load
If the floor is smooth keep cabinets loaded and move them slowly with a pallet jack You can start getting them on blocks before the move I would leave them on blocks till you are all seattled Or even permanently

With 2 or 3 palletjacks you can move pretty large/heavy machines An electrical one can do the heave pulling if you give it enough load Drag along some timber under the machine so it cannot tumble off. I moved 5 ton machines that way
A rigging set and then the electrical pallet jack on one end doing the pulling also work great Still drag some timber along under the machine to avoid catastrofy if you pull one of the skates out underneeth

Peter
 
Your a bit vague with your question. Your moving 300 feet away, is this the same building, same lot, same side of road, are you crossing a river?

A move 300 feet away is about as simple as you can get.

Usually labor savings = more overall move time.

I would say your best bet is to move all your little stuff, get it all setup and in entries and whatever, then move all your big stuff so you can start producing asap

Things to consider is air compressor, do you need a rental just to run while existing unit is being installed and other overlooked items like that.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

It is in the same lot. Different building. Only obstruction could possibly be some low hanging power lines and uneven pavement. I should also mention that this is mainly a storage move. A lot of this stuff is separate from our operating machine shop up the street.
 
How much pallet racking is moving over? I would consider buying new racks to fit out the new space before moving, and then re-selling the existing racks once emptied if possible to do.
 
for top heavy machines build out riggers so that you don't lose the equipment. The outriggers will prevent the equip from falling over during a fast move, yes it makes it larger, but my feeling is that when rushing to move people will miss something that causes a machine to go over. the outrigger will prevent that. Also pick up machines that allow it higher, to prevent the mass at the top from causing it to go over. higher = lower center of gravity= faster move less chance of failure.

Get some large wooden crates for different sections and just load them for lose parts and move them to the new location to the same machine area. Have wood avail to build sections in the crates to prevent the more precision parts for hitting each other, and ply to create layers.
 








 
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