How much does an office move cost? What really drives the price

Office moving cost is harder to pin down than the cost of a house move, because no two offices are laid out the same way. Two businesses with twenty staff each can have very different bills: one has hot desks, a few laptops and a lift; the other has a comms cabinet, a wall of filing and a fourth-floor walk-up. This guide explains what actually drives office removal costs, how to get a quote you can rely on, and the practical ways to bring the price down without cutting corners.

You won’t find a price list here. At Phi Movers we quote every office relocation individually after a survey, because a figure given without seeing the space is a guess — and a guess is how businesses end up with surprise charges on the night of the move. What we can do is show you exactly what goes into the price, so you can compare quotes properly.

What decides office moving cost

Almost every office relocation cost comes back to one thing: how many crew hours and vehicle loads the job needs. Each of the factors below adds to one or both.

• Headcount and desks: the number of workstations is the quickest guide to the size of the job — each one usually means a desk, a chair, a pedestal and a crate or two of personal items.
• Volume beyond the desks: meeting room tables, kitchen equipment, filing cabinets, archive boxes, stationery cupboards and stock.
• Floors and lifts: a goods lift that can be booked for the evening is very different from a passenger lift shared with other tenants, or no lift at all.
• Access and loading: a loading bay at the door saves time; a long carry from a side street, or a building that limits van access, adds it.
• IT equipment: monitors, docking stations, printers and any comms or server kit need extra protection and careful handling.
• Out-of-hours timing: evening, overnight and weekend moves keep your team working, but crew time outside normal hours is generally priced higher.
• Distance: within London, most of the time is spent carrying rather than driving; moving to another city adds fuel, driver hours and sometimes an overnight stop.
• Packing and crates: whether staff pack their own desks into hired crates or the crew packs everything for you.
• Furniture dismantling and reassembly: bench desks, meeting tables and storage walls often have to come apart to move.
• Disposal: old furniture that isn’t coming with you has to go somewhere, and responsible disposal is a cost of its own.

The two that surprise businesses most are access and timing. A building that only lets contractors use the goods lift between 7pm and 7am effectively decides when your move happens — and that, in turn, shapes the crew and the price. It’s worth asking your current and new building managers about their rules before you ask anyone for a quote.

Office removal costs: drivers at a glance

Use this table to see which parts of your move are likely to push the price up, and what you can do about each one. It’s a guide to the cost drivers, not a price list.

Rough industry ranges for office moves do get quoted online, but the spread is so wide — a two-person studio and a multi-floor headquarters are both “an office move” — that a range rarely tells you anything useful about your own job. A short survey does.

IT, furniture and disposal

These three areas are where office moves differ most from home moves, and where a quote can go wrong if they aren’t discussed up front.

Start with IT. Standard kit — monitors, keyboards, docking stations, printers — can travel with the rest of the move as long as it’s properly packed and labelled to the right desk. Comms cabinets, servers and network equipment are different: they need a planned shutdown, careful packing and someone ready to bring them back up at the other end. Our IT & server relocation service covers the physical move of that equipment; your own IT team or provider should handle the shutdown, data and reconnection.

Moving furniture between offices is usually more about dismantling than carrying. Bench desks, boardroom tables and tall storage units rarely fit through doors or lifts in one piece. The cost to move office furniture depends on how much needs taking apart and putting back together, so tell us early if you’re moving desks, buying new ones or doing a mix. See office furniture removals for how we handle it.

Then there’s disposal. Many businesses use a move as the moment to replace tired furniture. Whatever isn’t coming with you needs clearing, and leaving it until the last week usually means paying for a rushed collection. Selling, donating or arranging a licensed clearance in good time is almost always cheaper.

Label every desk, crate and monitor with the same number as its spot on the new floor plan. It’s the cheapest thing you can do to make the unload fast.

How to get an accurate office removals quote

An office removals quote is only as good as the information behind it. To get a fixed price you can budget around, give each company the same brief:

1. Book a survey of the current office, in person or by video — walk through every room, store cupboard and server space.
2. Share the headcount, desk count and a floor plan of the new office if you have one.
3. List what’s not moving: furniture being replaced, items being disposed of or left for the landlord.
4. Give building details for both addresses: floors, lifts, loading bays, parking and any time restrictions.
5. Say what you want the crew to do — packing, crates, dismantling, reassembly, IT handling — and what your staff will do.
6. Confirm your preferred dates and whether the move needs to happen out of hours.
7. Ask for the quote in writing, with crew size, vehicles, timings, insurance and what would change the price.

With that brief, comparing quotes becomes straightforward. If one is noticeably lower, check whether it leaves out crates, dismantling or out-of-hours timing, or assumes a smaller crew than the job needs. Our office removals are quoted as a fixed written price after the survey, with goods-in-transit and public liability cover included.

Office relocation planning timeline

How far ahead you need to start depends on the size of the office, but for most small and medium businesses this timeline works well.

Larger moves, or moves with server rooms, need longer. And if your building only allows moves at certain times, book those slots as early as you can — they’re often the hardest part of the schedule to change.

Ways to reduce the cost of an office move

1. Clear out before the survey — every filing cabinet you empty is one less to move.
2. Scan or archive paper records you only keep for compliance.
3. Have staff pack their own desks into hired crates, following one simple labelling system.
4. Move only what needs moving out of hours; some items can go in the days before.
5. Book lifts, loading bays and parking at both buildings well in advance.
6. Decide early which furniture is staying, going or being replaced, so the crew isn’t moving things twice.
7. Give an accurate inventory up front so the right crew and vehicles are sent first time.

Crates are one of the easiest savings. Plastic crates stack safely, close without tape and can be labelled per desk, which speeds up both packing and unpacking. Our moving crate hire delivers them before the move and collects them once you’ve unpacked.

What we see on real jobs is that the costliest delays aren’t on the road. They’re a lift that wasn’t booked, a set of bench desks nobody mentioned, or a store room full of old equipment discovered on the night. A thorough walk-round at survey stage avoids nearly all of them.

FAQs

How much does an office move cost?

It depends on headcount, volume, access, IT, timing and distance, which is why we quote every office move individually after a survey. You’ll get a fixed written price covering the crew, vehicles, materials and timing.

Is it more expensive to move an office at the weekend?

Out-of-hours crew time is generally priced higher than weekday daytime work, but it usually saves far more in lost working time. Many businesses move the bulk at the weekend and smaller items in the days before.

Do you move IT equipment and servers?

Yes. Standard IT is handled as part of the move, and we offer a dedicated IT & server relocation service for comms and server equipment. Your IT team or provider should manage shutdown and reconnection.

How far in advance should I book an office move?

For most small and medium offices, start getting quotes around two to three months ahead, and book lifts and loading bays as soon as your date is confirmed.

See office removals or contact us to talk it through.

About the author

Sameer Ahmad Basra

Writer

Sameer writes practical, no-nonsense moving guides for Londoners — drawn from real jobs across all 32 boroughs, covering vans, packing, permits and fixed-price removals.