Hingham Moving Services makes laboratory relocation management simple. We have classroom-trained crews who can survey the facility, prepare a custom plan, then pack, transport, and properly place equipment.
We work with research, healthcare, and corporate research laboratories moving locally, across the 48 contiguous states, or internationally. Every laboratory move is quoted from the on-site survey of your facility.
What Laboratory Relocation Management Covers and Who Handles Each Task
Our own crews handle the entire physical move. We visit your facility for an on-site survey, write a plan tailored to your lab, and provide a clear upfront quote. We then pack your instruments, transport them on dedicated trucks, and unload and place them so work can resume. Frozen and cryogenic transport is part of our laboratory relocation services, including freezers that travel plugged in and powered on trailers with 110 V to 220 V outlets. For instruments under a service contract or warranty, equipment-maker (OEM) coordination starts with your lab checking those contracts and booking the manufacturer where required.
In general terms, laboratory relocation management means organizing, sequencing, and running the physical move of a laboratory’s instruments, materials, and samples so that research can restart at the new site. It settles who handles each task, in what order, and on which dates, from the first survey until equipment is placed and ready for the lab’s own restart steps.
The following table outlines each task and the responsibilities of our crews, your lab and EHS team, and the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or vendor.
| Task | Hingham Moving Services | Lab / EHS team | Equipment maker (OEM) or qualified vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Naming the lab's contact | Not applicable | The principal investigator or laboratory director appoints a move coordinator as primary EHS contact | None |
| On-site survey, custom plan and quote | We assess equipment, materials, and timing, then deliver a custom plan and a bound quote | Lab supplies the equipment list, timing constraints, and access | None |
| Decommissioning the vacated space | We offer help with laboratory decommissioning | The principal investigator or laboratory director is responsible for complete decommissioning before vacating | Qualified vendors handle decontamination |
| Biosafety cabinets | We pack, transport, and place the cabinet | Lab arranges decontamination before the move and field certification afterward | A qualified vendor performs the gas decontamination and the field certification |
| Instruments under service contract or warranty | We pack, transport, and place the instrument | Lab checks contracts and warranties and books the manufacturer | Manufacturer engineers often decommission, recalibrate, or reinstall instruments |
| Packing, transport, and placement | Our crews pack and load, with the same driver from pickup through to delivery | Lab has the destination space ready to receive equipment | None |
| Frozen and cryogenic samples in transit | Freezers travel plugged in and powered, backup freezers come along, and each temperature is tracked throughout | Lab decides which samples and freezers travel | None |
Lab and EHS duties in this table follow Boston University’s relocation procedures (Biosafety Manual, Appendix R, last updated 4 April 2023), which make the principal investigator or laboratory director responsible for appointing the move coordinator and for complete decommissioning before vacating.
How Consultants, Movers, and Your Laboratory Coordinate the Move
A laboratory relocation consultant and a moving company do different things. Consultants, such as transition planners, work at program level, coordinating design, fit-out, and the wider schedule across stakeholders. A moving company carries out the physical move itself, packing, transporting, and placing the instruments. Some labs use both. Others run laboratory move management internally and bring in movers for the execution alone.
Instruments under an active service contract or warranty often come with conditions about who may handle them. Manufacturer engineers commonly decommission, recalibrate, or reinstall these units, and some contracts require it. Check your service agreements and warranty terms before the move, then book those visits early so the manufacturer’s schedule and the move date align. Hingham Moving Services coordinates with your equipment vendors or service providers when needed for instruments under warranty or service contract.
A lab relocation project manager serves as the main point of contact, coordinating schedules so vendors, facilities teams, and movers can complete their work in the right order. Hingham Moving Services offers full lab move coordination through the four steps described next.
The Four-Step Lab Relocation Project Management Process
Lab relocation project management at Hingham Moving Services runs in four steps: an on-site survey, a custom plan and quote, packing and transport, and unloading and placement. The same driver handles your shipment from pickup to delivery, and the same crew loads and unloads your equipment.
- On-site survey of your equipment, materials, access routes, and the timing requirements.
- A custom plan built around your lab, with a clear, upfront quote.
- Packing by our crews, then transport on dedicated trucks to your destination.
- Unloading and placement at the new location so that your team can resume work.
Starting With an On-Site Survey and Quote
We always begin with an on-site survey. Our team walks through your facility to assess what you own, what it weighs, and when it can be moved, including how instruments are removed from the room. From that visit, we build a custom plan and deliver an upfront, bound quote, so you may pay less than quoted but never more.
A site survey generally records an instrument inventory with dimensions and weights, the access routes in and out of both buildings, elevator and loading dock capacity and availability, the utility needs waiting at the destination, and any items calling for special handling, such as freezers holding frozen cryogenic and biological specimens, biosafety cabinets, glove boxes, cold-room contents, or anything bolted down, water-fed, or tied into services.
One of the first decisions is whether to move your lab all at once or in phases. A single-phase move requires a complete lab shutdown but is simpler to coordinate because all equipment moves within one scheduled window. A phased move allows parts of the lab to remain operational but requires closer coordination across rooms, dates, and crews. Discuss your preferred approach during the on-site survey so the phased move plan is created accordingly.
University EHS offices publish useful lead times. Stanford EH&S guidelines (accessed October 2026) recommend that the principal investigator or department schedule an advisory inspection at least 60 days in advance of a large move. Harvard EHS (accessed October 2026) states that the lab clean-out process requires at least three months of lead time. A single freezer or a small lab needs far less coordination than a whole facility. For details on sequencing and timelines, read our own guide on how to move a laboratory.
Packing, Dedicated Transport, and Placement at the New Laboratory
Our crews pack, load, transport, and unload. This comes with a few benefits, including:
- Fewer handoffs, with classroom-trained employees, all background-checked and drug-tested, rather than subcontracted crews handling your equipment.
- Equipment placement at your destination, with each item positioned per your floor plan, reconnected where applicable, and walked through with your team before we close the move.
- We handle local, long-distance, and international laboratory relocations, including moves throughout the 48 contiguous states, with customs documentation and export compliance handled on international moves.
Placement is not the final step for most instruments. Recalibration and requalification usually follow before equipment is returned to use, and that work belongs to the lab’s own staff, the manufacturer, or a service vendor, depending on the instrument and its contract terms.
Equipment Handling, Preparation Steps, and Moving Regulated Materials
We move the full range of lab instruments, from benchtop items to clean rooms. Some units need preparation first, and water-jacketed incubators are drained for transport. Packing is lab-specific and carried out by our classroom-trained crews, who have the skills to pack and handle equipment and machines of every size, including:
- Single- and double-stacked incubators, centrifuges of all sizes, freezers full of frozen specimens, Zeiss, Olympus, and other top-brand microscopes, HPLC machines, biosafety cabinets of all sizes, glove boxes, clean rooms, cold-room contents, all types of spectrometers, PCR machines, pumps, sterilizers, imaging machines, microplate readers, and standard lab equipment such as water baths, beakers, and pipettes.
The following table shows the before-and-after steps for four common items, separating what our crews do from the steps that stay with the lab or a qualified vendor.
| Equipment | Before the move | After the move |
|---|---|---|
| Water-jacketed incubators | Drained for transport, which is our own practice | Unloaded and placed at the new location; refilling and restart is the lab’s responsibility |
| Biosafety cabinets | Decontaminated before being moved, and cabinets used with potentially infectious material are gas decontaminated by a qualified vendor | Field certification before use, arranged by the lab or its EHS office |
| Freezers with frozen specimens | The lab decides which freezers and samples travel, and units are loaded onto trailers fitted with power outlets | They travel plugged in and powered, with each freezer's temperature tracked, then unloaded and placed |
| Vacuum pumps | Pump oil drained before the equipment is moved | Refilled and restarted by the lab or its service vendor |
Biosafety cabinet steps follow University of Iowa EHS and Boston University guidance (2023); the vacuum pump step follows Boston University (2023).
We do not offer stand-alone chemical moving. Chemicals may travel as part of a full laboratory move, and whether they do is determined during your on-site survey.
- Under the US Department of Transportation Hazardous Materials Regulations, 49 CFR Parts 171 to 180, the party offering a hazardous material for transport, normally the lab or its institution, classifies and describes it.
- Institutions add rules of their own. At Boston University, for instance, laboratory chemicals must be packed and moved by an outside contractor approved by the EHS office (2023).
- The OSHA Laboratory Standard, 29 CFR 1910.1450, requires the employer to develop and then carry out a written Chemical Hygiene Plan, which governs chemical safety during a move.
- The CDC/NIH Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories, 6th edition, revised in June 2020, is the core US biosafety guidance.
- Disposing of unwanted chemicals and decontaminating the vacated space are part of laboratory decommissioning rather than the move itself.
Cold-Chain Transport and Climate-Controlled Storage Between Your Sites
Frozen and cryogenic samples are transported with temperature-control measures on the road, and climate-controlled, bonded storage is available when the destination lab is not ready to receive equipment. One team can coordinate a cryogenic shipment and the wider laboratory move under the same project.
- Trailers carry 110 V to 220 V outlets, so freezers travel plugged in and powered.
- A redundant backup generator system keeps the power on in transit.
- Backup freezers are carried as an additional contingency in case the lab’s own unit fails.
- The temperature of every freezer is tracked and monitored from pickup through to delivery.
- Overnight and 72-hour delivery options are available for cryogenic freezer relocation and for other frozen shipments as well.
Certain infectious substances are regulated as hazardous materials under the Hazardous Materials Regulations, 49 CFR Parts 171 to 180. Classifying them falls to the party offering them for transport, which PHMSA sets out in its own guidance. Packaging categories and proper shipping names are covered on our cryogenic transportation page.
When a destination is not ready on moving day, our storage services include climate-controlled, bonded storage with flexible durations and a range of unit sizes. Freezers held between sites are different because they need power to stay cold. If your move involves frozen material, ask about climate-controlled and powered storage at the site survey.
The 100% Guarantee and Bound Pricing
- You do not pay us until every portion of your move has been completed as promised in your moving agreement.
- Bound pricing on laboratory moves, which means you may pay less than the quoted amount but never more.
- Estimates are free, and we build the quote based on a survey of your facility.
What your quote looks like depends entirely on what our team finds during the on-site survey, as explained in much more detail on our page on laboratory relocation cost.
We carry liability, workers’ compensation, and motor truck cargo coverage, as set out on our page on moving service insurance. Decades of experience sit behind our lab work, from small operations to large facilities. We are Massachusetts-based, operating from four offices in Hanover, Woburn, Wellesley, and Millis.
Featured Laboratory Relocation
We moved a full laboratory from the University of Chicago to San Francisco. Several site visits went into building the move plan. Packing began on July 16 with an eight-person crew, covering water baths, analytical balances, thermal cyclers, HPLC machines, microscopes, and flow cytometers, along with two large glove boxes and three large biosafety cabinets. The lab was packed and loaded within three days. Two drivers then spent four days on the road, unloading in San Francisco on day five.
Laboratory Relocation Management FAQs
Often, yes. A phased move allows parts of the lab to remain operational while others relocate. Moving all at once requires a complete shutdown but is simpler to coordinate. During the on-site survey, we review your equipment, access routes, and scheduling requirements to develop a move plan around your research needs.
Yes, as general practice. A cabinet is decontaminated before it is moved, and it requires field certification to NSF/ANSI 49-2026 at its new location before it is returned to use. Your lab or its EHS office arranges the qualified vendor for both steps. We pack, transport, and place biosafety cabinets.
For some instruments, yes. Manufacturer engineers often decommission, recalibrate, or reinstall equipment, and service contracts or warranties may require it. Check your contracts before the survey and share any manufacturer dates so we can sequence the move around them.
Yes. We are Massachusetts-based and move laboratories locally, long-distance across the 48 contiguous states, and internationally, with the same driver from pickup to delivery. For example, we moved a full laboratory from the University of Chicago to San Francisco. If you are moving within the Boston area, see our lab movers in Boston page.
Next Step: The On-Site Laboratory Survey
Laboratory relocation management with Hingham Moving Services begins with an on-site survey, followed by a free estimate and a bound quote. To arrange yours, contact Hingham Moving Services. You pay only after the move has been completed as promised in your moving agreement.
