Lab Moves By: Jeanne MacLellan

Moving, be it your home or office, is always a complicated process. Stressful and time consuming it can become quite the daunting endeavor. Add the complexities of a lab and you are gearing up for a whole other level to your move. Why do Labs differ? With all the normal requirements of moving the office, a new layer of complexity is brought in with the specialized equipment, chemicals, biologics and on-going experiments that come with moving a lab.
Starting with equipment, you must evaluate each piece and determine what actions will be required before and after the move. Does the Facilities group need to be involved with equipment disconnects / reconnects; does the equipment need to be calibrated; what other service vendors need to be scheduled? Many of the analytical pieces require having the manufacturer’s technician service them for both pre- and post-move, as not doing so may void any service warranties that are in place. Scheduling of these vendors can be time consuming and must be done with ample notice. In many cases, there are only one or two service technicians who cover a significant territory, so their time is scarce.
Working with your Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) representative, come up with a plan to decontaminate all the equipment. Most movers will not touch anything if they cannot confirm it is safe to handle. Hazardous stickers need to be defaced; exterior surfaces wiped down; waste materials properly disposed of.
Hiring the mover becomes a little more complex with a lab move. Make sure to vet that each mover bidding has in fact worked in a lab before, checking with references and confirm what their exact responsibilities were and what types of equipment were involved. Determine if a Rigger will be required (not uncommon with lab moves) along with a General Mover.
Chemicals and Biologics will require their own mover. Most times there is a service vendor in place who handles the lab waste and usually they are equipped to help with your move, getting them on board early will help save time and money later in the project. Now is the time to purge anything that may have expired or is no longer being used, take this opportunity to come up with a clear inventory of what is there, what is needed and what can be disposed of.
None of these decisions are made alone. Involving the scientific staff is a must. This is a very knowledge and hands-on group of people. They must be allowed to provide input into the schedule, what they are working on in the lab can greatly effect when you can shut down and relocate them. Often they will be the ones doing the work to get all the equipment ready to go, so don’t allow them to underestimate the time needed to accomplish all the tasks at hand.
Organization is the key. Be sure to have a strong team in place to keep track of all the details and your lab move is guaranteed to be a success.
Jeanne MacLellan, is senior project manager and lab specialist at Dowling Huoy LLC.