Business & Professional Offices

Engineering & Architecture Firm Moving in the Sacramento Valley

Keep drawings flat, sort material samples by their existing system, and place plotters and model tables where your team needs them.

(530) 354-8089

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

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Planning a Engineering & Architecture Firm Move

The heaviest thing in an architecture or engineering office is often paper. A bank of flat files holding years of record drawings, vellums and survey plats outweighs the desks around it, and the firm wants every sheet back in the same drawer. Add a wide-format plotter, a model table and a sample library of tile, carpet and stone boards, and a studio move starts to look like moving a small archive.

We plan it around your deadlines first. A firm with a bid date or a plan-check resubmittal due the week of the move keeps its current sets and one plotter working until the last day; those go on the truck last and come off first. Archived rolls and the sample library can move earlier.

Flat files get the most careful walk-through. Stacked units come apart into their sections, and each section is numbered top to bottom so the stack goes back up in the same order, drawer labels still in place.

Who usually signs off: Studio principal or operations manager, with a project lead confirming which drawings and samples remain in use
Timing that works: Work back from the next bid date, submittal or client presentation: archives and samples move first, current project sets and one plotter last.

What typically moves

Stacked flat files and plan drawersSeparated into sections, numbered and carried level. Whether drawings ride inside depends on drawer weight, which we check at the walk-through.
Hanging plan racks and roll filesClamped sets stay on their hangers; rolled drawings go into tubes or bins marked with the project number.
Wide-format plotters and scannersMoved once they have been prepared per the manufacturer's transport steps, then padded, strapped and kept upright.
Model tables and presentation modelsTables break down to top and base. Your team boxes finished models, which ride flat with nothing stacked on them.
Material and finish sample libraryTile, stone and carpet boards are heavy for their size, so they go in small cartons packed shelf by shelf.
CAD workstations with large displaysUnplugged and padded as a set per desk, then hooked up at the same seat; licenses and file storage stay with your IT contact.
Survey field-gear shelvingTotal stations and GPS units travel with your survey crew; we move the emptied cabinets and shelving.

Access and scheduling

Design firms here occupy every kind of space: converted buildings in midtown Sacramento, second floors in downtown Chico, office-park suites in Roseville, Rocklin and Natomas. A flat-file section and a plotter both need a clear, level route, so at the walk-through we measure the tightest turn at each end and check whether the elevator can take a section lying flat.

We also ask where the old drawings are really going. Many firms use a move to send record sets out for scanning or offsite archiving, and it is far easier to pull those boxes aside before packing than to sort them on the new floor. When the new building asks for an insurance certificate, it is issued to the property manager before the date is booked.

Protection and handling

Drawings are ruined by creases, water and dirt, not by weight. Rolled sets travel in tubes or closed bins, never loose, and flat-file sections are wrapped with drawers taped shut. Nothing is stacked on a drawer section or a model box. On a July move, with the truck parked on hot asphalt, paper and models load last and unload first so they do not sit in a closed box body through the afternoon.

The sample library is labeled by shelf as well as by carton, because designers find samples by where they sat. Plotters stay upright, strapped to the truck wall. Boxed models are marked this side up on every face. At the new studio the flat-file stacks are set first, since the rest of the room is arranged around them.

Who does what

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

Plotter, scanner and wide-format printer preparation: Your print service provider or in-house tech handles transport steps and reinstall; our crew moves the prepared units.
File servers, licensing and the project network: Your IT contact moves and configures any server or network equipment. We handle the desk workstations.
Drawings going to scanning or an offsite archive: Your records vendor collects those boxes at the old office; they are set aside so they never ride to the new one.

Not part of our work

Sorting, purging or re-filing drawings; your staff decides what stays in the flat files.
Moving survey instruments or field equipment, which stays with your survey crew.

Around Chico, Yuba City and Sacramento

Engineering and architecture offices cluster near the State Capitol and in midtown Sacramento, along the I-80 and Hwy 65 corridor through Roseville and Rocklin, in Davis and Woodland, and in downtown Chico. Many older midtown and downtown Chico buildings have narrow stairs and small elevators, which is where a flat-file stack decides the plan.

The crew that shows up

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

Murdock’s crew rebuilding cubicle panels in an office, one mover on a step ladder

Murdock’s movers working the loading ramp of an open box truck

Engineering & Architecture Firm Moving FAQs

Another question? Call (530) 354-8089.

We have a bid due the week of the move. What stays behind until the last day?

Tell us the date and which team is on it. That team's desks, current sets and one plotter stay put until the submission is out, then move as the final load and come off the truck first. The rest of the office, archives and sample library included, can move days earlier without touching the bid team's corner.

Can our flat files move with drawings still inside?

Often, but it depends on weight. We look at each stack during the walk-through. Drawers of bond sets can stay loaded if the section is taped and carried level. Drawers packed with vellum or old linen originals can be too heavy to lift safely, and those are emptied into flat cartons in drawer order first.

How do we keep our finish sample library in the same browsing order?

Label the shelves, not just the samples. Each shelf or bin gets a number, its boards go into small cartons marked with that number, and the cartons go back on the matching shelf at the new studio. If the library layout is changing, sketch the new shelf order and we label to that instead.

Who prepares our large-format plotter before it goes on the truck?

Your print service provider or whoever maintains it in house. Most wide-format units have manufacturer steps for the printheads, ink and rolls, and skipping them is the usual cause of trouble afterward. Once it is prepared, we pad it, keep it upright and strap it in, and the same provider handles setup and a test print.

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Plan your business move

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.

Call (530) 354-8089

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