Community College Department moving in the Sacramento Valley: Murdock's crew at work

Education, Civic & Community

Community College Department Moving in the Valley

From portables into a new building in one break: portable-and-room labels, district-booked docks, and lab prep rooms left to your instructional staff.

(530) 354-8089

Licensed & InsuredUSDOT 3421940 · MC 1416634
Locally OperatedChico + Yuba City
Sacramento ValleyChico · Yuba City · Sacramento

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Planning a Community College Department Move

Community college departments tend to move when a new building opens. A program that has taught out of portables for years finally gets permanent rooms, and the whole department, offices, classrooms and prep rooms, shifts across campus in one break. At Yuba College, Butte College, Sierra College or one of the Los Rios colleges, that break is often the short one between fall and spring rather than the long summer.

Scheduling runs through the district, not the college alone. District facilities books the docks, elevators and gate access, and in a multi-campus district it may be juggling several projects at once. The department owns the room list; our job is to make that list survive the trip.

Portables are where labels fail. A portable numbered the same as a room in the main building, or a row of portables with small door placards, will send cartons to the wrong door unless every label carries the portable's name as well as the room number. We tag both, and the receiving list reads the same way.

Who usually signs off: Department chair or administrative lead approving the room list with the district facilities office
Timing that works: The break between fall and spring terms or the summer, with district facilities booking docks for the first quiet days and the contractor's punch list agreed.

What typically moves

Portable-classroom tables, chairs and whiteboardsTagged with the portable's name and room number, so nothing stops at a matching room in the main building.
Department office desks and student-records cabinetsStaff box and close the records; cabinets and cartons travel on the same load as their office.
Faculty prep-room cabinets and course-material shelvingInstructors mark what they need in the first week of spring; those cartons come off first and sit by the door.
Instructional assistant stations in lab prep areasDesks and chairs only; the lab side is packed by the instructional assistants themselves.
Tutoring-room tables and study carrelsCarrels come apart only if they will not clear a door, with hardware bagged to each carrel.
Shared adjunct-office desks and mail slotsEach desk carries an instructor's name, and the mail-slot unit keeps its name strips.
Department office computersDisconnected, cartoned and set out at the stations the college technology group assigns.

Access and scheduling

A short winter break leaves little slack. We ask the department to settle the room list before fall classes end, and district facilities to confirm dock and elevator time for the first days of the break, when campus is quiet. The receiving building is often brand-new, so the general contractor may still be on site with punch-list work; facilities tells us which doors and corridors are open to movers and which still belong to the contractor.

Portables usually have a ramp and a single door, and a truck cannot always park beside them. We plan the cart route from the nearest approved truck position, check the ramp width on the walkthrough, and size the crew to the carrying distance. When a portable is being hauled away after the move, facilities gives us the date it has to be empty. Weekend days can be arranged on request if the district opens the campus.

Protection and handling

A new building gets extra protection: runners over new flooring, corner guards on fresh drywall and pads on door frames along the route facilities approves. Furniture coming out of the portables is wrapped and looked over as it leaves, so older wear is noted before it goes on the truck.

Instructional labs and shop rooms stay with the department. Instructional assistants and lab technicians pack chemicals, specimens, instruments and tools, or arrange the vendor who does, and they decide what leaves. Our crew takes the room contents they release: emptied storage cabinets, demonstration tables, chairs, rolling whiteboards and closed cartons. Student records in the department office are boxed and closed by staff and ride on the same load as the office they belong to. Office desktops go to the stations the college technology group assigns.

Who does what

Some of this job belongs to other trades. The written plan names each one.

Dock, elevator and gate reservations across the district: District facilities schedules them and tells us which doors in a new building are still the contractor's.
Instructional lab instruments, chemicals and shop tools: The department's instructional assistants and technicians pack them or bring in the equipment vendor; heavy shop machines go with a rigging contractor the district hires.
Classroom projectors, smart boards and network service: The college technology group removes and reinstalls them.

Not part of our work

Moving chemicals, specimens or anything the lab staff have not released.
Punch-list or finish work in the new building, which belongs to the general contractor.

Around Chico, Yuba City and Sacramento

Yuba College is in Marysville, Butte College's main campus sits in open country between Chico and Oroville, Sierra College is in Rocklin off I-80, and the Los Rios colleges spread across the Sacramento area out to Folsom. Each district has its own facilities office and access rules, and the drive runs up Hwy 70, Hwy 99 or I-80 depending on the campus.

The crew that shows up

Two Murdock’s movers carrying a pad-wrapped table up the truck ramp

Two Murdock’s box trucks staged outside a single-story building in the Sacramento Valley

Murdock’s crew carrying a pad-wrapped piece through a tiled entryway

Community College Department Moving FAQs

Another question? Call (530) 354-8089.

We only have the break between fall and spring. Is that enough time for a department move?

Often it is, if the room list is settled before fall classes end and the district books dock time for the first quiet days of the break. The tighter the window, the more it helps for staff to pack their own offices before finals. We set the load order so rooms needed on the first day of spring go in first.

Our new building still has the contractor finishing punch-list items. Can we move in anyway?

Usually, if district facilities and the contractor agree on which doors, corridors and rooms are open to movers. We protect new floors and walls on that route and stay out of areas the contractor still controls. If a room is not released yet, its cartons are staged wherever facilities chooses and set in place later.

Our department is leaving a whole row of portables. How do you keep the cartons straight?

Every carton and piece gets the portable's name and room number plus the destination building and room. The receiving list uses the same format, so the crew at the new building checks each group as it comes off the cart. If the portables lack clear placards, we tape a temporary sign on each door during the walkthrough.

Who packs the lab prep room when a community college department moves?

Your instructional assistants or lab technicians. They know what is hazardous, what is calibrated and what can travel in a carton. Once they have packed and released the prep room, we move the emptied cabinets, carts and closed cartons they point to. Anything heavy or bolted down goes with the equipment vendor or contractor the district arranges.

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Tell us both addresses, the building rules you know about, and the dates you cannot move. We will send back a written plan and estimate.

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