Office furniture is its own job
Moving an office is one thing; moving and installing its furniture is another. Modern office furniture is a system: panels, worksurfaces, pedestals, cable trays, brackets and hundreds of pieces of hardware that have to come apart in the right order and go back together in a new configuration. Done badly, the move leaves you with wobbly desks, missing screws and a layout that does not match the plan. Done well, your team sits down on Monday at workstations that look like they were never moved.
Our office furniture service covers everything that happens to furniture in a business: disassembly, moving, reinstallation, reconfiguration, assembly of new furniture, storage and disposal. It can be part of a full office move or a project on its own.
What we handle
Workstations and panel systems
Cubicles and benching systems are disassembled panel by panel, with each part labelled to its station on the floor plan and hardware bagged and tagged. At the new location, they are reassembled, levelled and aligned. If the new layout differs from the old one, we reconfigure as we install.
Desks, tables and boardroom furniture
Executive desks, meeting tables and boardroom tables — often large, heavy and with fragile edges or glass tops — are disassembled where possible, wrapped and moved flat or on edge. Glass and stone tops travel in padded crates.
Seating and soft furniture
Chairs, lounge furniture and reception seating are wrapped and moved as a set, placed according to the plan.
Storage furniture
Filing cabinets, lateral files, lockers, shelving and storage walls are emptied or secured, moved and reinstalled. Tall units are anchored where the building requires it.
New furniture from your supplier
When you buy new furniture, we can receive the delivery, check it against the order, assemble it and install it to the floor plan. We remove all packaging and cardboard. Coordinating delivery and installation with the same crew avoids furniture sitting in boxes in a hallway for a week.
Reconfiguration without a move
Many offices never change address but constantly change shape: teams grow, departments merge, hybrid work frees up space. Reconfiguring an office — new desk layouts, removing or adding workstations, converting open space into meeting rooms — is a furniture job, and we do it the same way we do a move: a plan, labelled parts, work outside office hours, and a walkthrough before your staff return.
Removing old office furniture
When furniture is replaced, the old furniture has to go somewhere. We can:
- Deliver it to a charity or community organization that accepts office furniture.
- Deliver it to a buyer if you have sold it.
- Take it to a recycler — metal, wood and panels are recyclable in many cases.
- Store it if another office may need it later.
- Arrange disposal for anything that cannot be reused.
Fees charged by recyclers or disposal sites are passed on at cost and listed separately.
How a furniture project is planned
- Site visit. We count the pieces, identify the furniture systems, check the building’s elevators, docks and moving hours, and look at the new layout.
- Floor plan. Every workstation and piece of furniture gets a code that matches the plan of the new space.
- Written quote. You receive a written scope and a quote — a fixed project price or an hourly rate, depending on the job: what is moved, what is installed, what is new, what is stored or removed.
- Scheduling. Most work happens in the evening or on weekends. Large projects are phased floor by floor.
- Disassembly and move. Parts labelled, hardware bagged, everything protected.
- Installation and walkthrough. Furniture reassembled, levelled and checked against the plan with you.
Working with your electrician and IT provider
Workstations often carry power and data. We handle the furniture; your electrician connects power and your IT provider handles network and phones. We share the schedule so they know when each area is ready, and we leave cable trays and access panels open where they need to work.
Protecting the building
Commercial buildings expect movers to protect common areas. We lay floor protection along the route, pad elevators, protect door frames and corners, and follow the building’s rules for freight elevators, loading docks and working hours. Certificates of insurance are sent to the property manager before the work.
Pricing
Office furniture work is quoted after a site visit — as a fixed project price or by the hour, depending on the project. A full floor reinstalled to a new layout is usually a fixed price; reconfiguring a few workstations is often simpler by the hour. The quote is based on the number and type of pieces, whether they are disassembled and reinstalled or simply moved, the access at both locations, and the time window. Evening and weekend work carry no premium.
Typical projects
| Project | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Moving 20 workstations to a new floor | Disassembly, move, reinstallation to a new layout over a weekend |
| Installing new furniture for a new office | Receiving, assembly, placement and packaging removal |
| Reconfiguring an open-plan area | Removing old stations, adding benching, re-levelling |
| Clearing a floor before a lease ends | Removal of all furniture to storage, charity or disposal |
Across Greater Montreal
We work in office towers downtown, business parks in Saint-Laurent, Laval, Boucherville and the West Island, and smaller offices everywhere in between. For moves that include people, equipment and files as well as furniture, see office moving; for projects with several phases or sites, see large-scale moving projects.
Why office furniture needs a specialist crew
A general moving crew can carry desks. Reinstalling a floor of workstations so every panel is aligned, every surface is level and every pedestal locks is different work, and it is where most office moves lose time on Monday morning. Our crews install the same systems they disassemble, following the manufacturer’s order of assembly, and they check each station before moving on to the next.
Office furniture: what to decide before the move
The furniture decisions you make before a move shape its cost more than anything else. Four questions are worth answering early:
- Does the old furniture fit the new layout? Workstations designed for one floor plate do not always fit another. Measure the new space and check the layout with your furniture dealer or designer before deciding to move everything.
- What will be replaced? New furniture ordered for the new office usually has a long lead time. Plan the delivery date against the move date so staff are not waiting on desks.
- What will be reused elsewhere? Surplus furniture can furnish another office, a training room or a storage area — or be sold.
- What goes to charity, recycling or disposal? Deciding before the move avoids paying to move furniture that will be thrown away.
Common office furniture systems
Most commercial workstations come from a handful of manufacturers and follow a few designs: panel systems with connectors, benching systems on shared beams, height-adjustable desks with motors and cables, and freestanding desks with pedestals. Each comes apart differently, and each has hardware that is easy to lose. Our crews disassemble them in a set order, bag and label the hardware per station, and keep panels, worksurfaces and parts together so each station goes back together complete.
Height-adjustable desks
Sit-stand desks are now common and need a little extra care. Their motors, control boxes and cables are fragile; the frames are heavy. We lower them fully, disconnect and bag the cables, remove the tops where the design allows, and move the frames upright and padded. At the new office, we reassemble them and check that each desk goes up and down before we leave.
Protecting what stays
In a reconfiguration or partial move, some furniture stays in place while the rest is moved around it. We protect the pieces that stay — covered and moved aside — and restore them afterwards, so the finished space looks intact.
Furniture in storage between offices
When a lease ends before the new office is ready, furniture can go to storage and come back when you are ready. Stored workstations are kept disassembled, labelled and together, which makes reinstallation fast.
Home offices and one-room practices
Furniture work does not need a floor of cubicles. A height-adjustable desk delivered flat-packed to a home office, shelving for a two-person practice, a meeting table that has to go up a narrow staircase, or the old furniture carried out before the new arrives — these are short jobs, usually a few hours, done with the same tools and the same care as a full installation.
Furniture moves for clinics, schools and retail
Office furniture is not the only commercial furniture we move. Clinics have examination tables, reception desks and storage units; schools have classroom sets, library shelving and staff rooms; shops have display fixtures, counters and stockroom shelving. Each is handled the same way: labelled to a plan, protected, moved outside working hours and reinstalled so the space is ready to open. For projects that span several floors or buildings, the work becomes part of a large-scale moving project.
A typical office furniture timeline
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| 6–8 weeks before | New furniture ordered; site visit; layout confirmed |
| 3–4 weeks before | Plan and quote approved; building bookings made |
| 1 week before | Labels placed on existing furniture; storage and disposal booked |
| Moving weekend | Disassembly, move, reinstallation; new furniture assembled |
| First morning | Walkthrough; adjustments; packaging removed |
Layout and ergonomics
A move is a good moment to fix what did not work in the old office: desks too close together, poor access to windows, monitors facing glare, not enough quiet space. When you share the new layout with us early, we can flag problems we see during installation — a desk that blocks an exit route, a cable run across a walkway — before they become permanent.
