After-Hours and Weekend Business Moves

An evening move depends on people who are usually gone by then. Before booking the date, ask both property managers which door can open after hours, who holds the alarm code, whether the freight elevator can be reserved outside business hours, and where a truck can park overnight or wait between loads. When a building asks to see our certificate of insurance first, it goes out with the date request.

Your business names one person to stay for the full window with keys and a phone. A locked door or an alarm nobody can reset can stall an evening crew longer than any piece of furniture. In July and August, an evening start also keeps the carrying out of the hottest hours of the Valley day, which matters when the route crosses a parking lot.

Night work leaves little room for a second trip, so the crew measures the tight spots on a daytime walk: the service door, the elevator cab, the turn into the new stockroom. Anything that will not fit whole is identified then, with its hardware bag ready. Cases, counters and desks are pad-wrapped. Glass shelves ride in their own cartons, and the route gets floor runners where the building allows.

The truck is loaded in reverse, so the pieces you need first go on last. At the new space those come off and get placed before anything else, which means that if the window runs short, what remains is secondary. The crew lead keeps a short list of anything that did not go to plan, such as a scuffed case or a piece that missed its spot, and walks it with your contact before the building is locked.