Laboratory Relocation Services
Moving a working laboratory — instruments that must be recalibrated, samples that cannot warm up, and substances that need a licence to travel.
A laboratory is not equipment on a floor
Machinery can usually be switched off, moved and switched on. A laboratory cannot. It is a set of instruments whose readings are only trustworthy because they were calibrated in place, samples whose value depends on never leaving a temperature band, and in many cases controlled substances that cannot legally be put on a truck without paperwork.
The move itself is rarely the hard part. Re-establishing that everything still does what it did before is, and that is decided by how the move was planned rather than how carefully the crates were carried.
Instruments and calibration
Analytical instruments — chromatographs, spectrometers, balances, microscopes — hold their accuracy through mechanical alignment that transport disturbs. An analytical balance that is out by a fraction is worse than one that is obviously broken, because it produces plausible wrong numbers.
We plan around requalification rather than hoping it will not be needed. That means recording the calibration state before the move, transporting on isolation mounts appropriate to the instrument, and coordinating with your service engineers or the manufacturer so recalibration is booked for the day the instrument lands, not three weeks later when the lab is already trying to work.
Cold chain and sample integrity
Samples, reagents and biological material are frequently the only irreplaceable things in the building. Everything else can be re-bought.
- Validated cold-chain transport at the temperatures your material actually requires, including deep frozen
- Continuous temperature logging, so integrity is evidenced rather than assumed
- Backup power and contingency for the freezer that fails at the wrong moment
- Dry ice or liquid nitrogen handling where the material demands it, with the safety implications managed
- A written excursion protocol agreed before the move, so a delay does not become an improvised decision
Controlled and hazardous materials
Laboratories accumulate things that are regulated to move. Controlled substances, precursor chemicals, radioactive sources, compressed gases and materials classified as dangerous goods each have their own licensing and transport regime, and several require the receiving site to hold a licence before the material may leave the old one.
These are the items that stop a laboratory move, and they stop it weeks in advance rather than on the day. We audit the inventory for them at the survey and start the licensing early, because no amount of logistics competence compensates for a permit that has not been applied for.
Cleanrooms and controlled environments
Where the laboratory includes a cleanroom or a controlled environment, the move includes bringing that environment back into specification. Equipment has to be cleaned to a standard before it enters, the sequence of installation matters, and the space needs to be re-certified against its classification before work resumes.
We sequence the move so certification is the last step rather than an afterthought, and we coordinate with whoever holds responsibility for that certification rather than assuming someone else has it in hand.
The survey is where the risk is found
Every laboratory move is quoted from a physical survey, because the things that derail one are never on the asset register. The instrument that was installed before the doorway was narrowed. The freezer nobody can identify the contents of. The gas cylinders behind a cupboard that have been there since the building opened.
We survey with your scientists and your facilities team together, produce an inventory that separates what must stay cold, what must stay upright, what needs a permit and what can travel as ordinary freight, and price against that. A laboratory quoted without a survey is a laboratory quoted on assumptions, and the assumptions are what fail.
Sequencing so the science does not stop
Most laboratories cannot close for a fortnight. The realistic answer is a phased move: the instruments that are least in demand go first and are brought back into service at the new site while the old one still functions, and the critical path equipment moves last and fastest.
Planning that requires knowing which work genuinely cannot pause, and that information comes from your scientists rather than from us. We survey with them, not just with facilities, because the person who knows the freezer contents matter more than the fume hood is usually not in the room otherwise.
Asked often about this service
Can you move samples and reagents as well as equipment?
Yes, under validated cold chain with continuous temperature logging at the range each material requires. We agree the excursion protocol in writing beforehand so any delay is handled to an agreed rule rather than improvised.
Who recalibrates the instruments afterwards?
Usually your existing service provider or the manufacturer, and we coordinate the booking so recalibration happens as the instrument lands. Where you have no arrangement in place we can help arrange it, but we will not certify an instrument ourselves — that belongs with whoever holds the accreditation.
What about controlled substances and radioactive sources?
They need licensing before the move, and often the receiving site must hold its own licence first. We audit for them during the survey and start that process early, because it is the item most likely to delay the whole project.
Can the lab keep operating during the move?
Usually, with a phased plan. We move the least time-critical equipment first and recommission it at the new site while the old one still runs, keeping the critical path equipment down for the shortest possible window.