School moves are complex undertakings involving coordinating hundreds of desks, computers, books, supplies, and other educational materials.
Rather than tackling this monumental task alone, many schools and universities opt to use professional school moving services. These companies have the expertise to pack up classrooms efficiently, transport items, and get schools up and running again with minimal disruption.
School moving services offer significant benefits for educational institutions planning a move to a new building or just between classrooms. Read on to learn more about what school moving companies do, why schools use them, and how they simplify major relocations.
What Are School Moving Services?
School moving companies specialize in relocating educational facilities of all sizes. They provide manual labor, trucks, packing supplies, and logistical support for clearing out schools’ worth of furnishings and educational materials on a tight timeline.
While the specific services offered may vary between school moving companies, most assistance includes:
- Packing and wrapping classroom and office furnishings like desks, chairs, shelving units, filing cabinets, etc. Supplying boxes, wraps, padding, and other packing materials as needed.
- Disconnecting electronics like computers, printers, routers, phones, etc., securing items for safe loading and transport.
- Dismantling more oversized items that won’t transport fully assembled.
- Moving pianos, lab equipment, art pieces, and similarly heavy or delicate items.
- Transporting packed items using purpose-built moving trucks.
- Unloading trucks and placing classroom items according to room number or marking.
- Unwrapping furnishings and setting up classrooms/offices per specifications. Reassembling furnishings as needed.
- Reconnecting electronics and other utilities.
In short, school moving services do virtually everything required to transition schools and their contents between locations. This lifts the immense logistical burden off the shoulders of school administrators and staff.
Why Educational Institutions Use School Moving Services
Schools frequently move and rearrange classrooms due to fluctuating enrollments, renovations, expansions, school mergers, or relocations to entirely new buildings. Moving everything internally can take weeks or even months of intensive effort, depending on the school district and the number of classrooms involved.
By hiring professional movers, schools can execute complicated transitions much faster, with less stress and disruption to classes and operations. Specific reasons educational institutions use school moving services include these benefits:
Cost Savings – Despite requiring payment for their services, using professional movers for your relocation can cost less for educational institutions than handling moves. Savings relate to:
- Reduced labor costs – No need to pay existing staff or temporary workers overtime for packing/moving tasks.
- Greater efficiency/speed – Moves finish faster since movers perform tasks daily. Faster moves mean fewer facility rental fees, temporary storage fees, etc.
- Insurance coverage for damaged/lost items. Most movers include basic coverage or offer insurance upgrades.
- Renting fewer moving vans and related equipment since movers supply their own in quantity.
Convenience – School administrators can outsource the move rather than add intensive planning, coordination, and oversight to their existing workloads.
Expertise – A large school moving company brings specialized techniques, efficiency strategies, packing/protective materials, custom moving equipment, etc., to streamline school relocations. These lead to safer transports and a lower risk of damaged furnishings or teaching materials.
Allow Staff/Teachers to Focus on Responsibilities – With the move details and manual labor covered by outside crews, existing school employees can concentrate fully on vital educational tasks. Teachers may still need to pack up their classrooms, but this limits disruptions to student services and learning.
School Moving Costs: What’s the Price Range?
As with moving time estimates, the cost for professional school relocation services fluctuates based on details like:
- Overall quantity of items moved from site to site.
- Type and size of trucks/crew needed for the capacity and day-to-day workload.
- Distance across which contents get transported.
- Supplemental services beyond basic packing/transport like asset inventory documentation, contingency storage fees, specialty item transports (instrument/tech relocation, for example), assistance reconnecting classroom technologies post-move, etc. Schools may leave some setup tasks to existing IT teams to conserve funds.
- Extra liability insurance beyond baseline coverage is essential when moving high-value assets like lab equipment worth over $50,000+ that would be very costly to replace.
- Any unexpected challenges mid-move, like weather delays, truck maintenance issues, crew injuries/absences, etc., that stall progress. Most movers avoid tacking on fees, but per-day coverages rarely apply.
Generally, though, elementary school classroom-only moves cost in the realm of $7,000 – $20,000. Full school relocations with hundreds of assets, sizable distances between old and new buildings, maximum insurance protections, and complete handling from classroom pack-up through reassembly and rebooting of technologies costs closer to $80,000 – $150,000 on average.
University moves hit the high end of quotes due to immense classroom contents, offices, lab equipment, delicate research materials, and specialty items like museum artwork to relocate delicately. Multi-building campus relocations often eclipse $500,000+ in basic moving expenses before extras.
Obtain Accurate Quotes From School Movers
The immense variances in school moving timeframes and pricing mean most companies are reluctant to share hard quotes until they fully understand a specific institution’s needs. Generally school movers provide client schools/universities with detailed moving checklists to capture critical specifics like:
- Type and overall number of furnishings/assets requiring transport.
- Total student population and building square footage if moving entire institutions.
- Truck accessibility at both departure and arrival sites plus distances between – important for large moving vans requiring wide turns and high clearances.
- Lists of any assets worth over $50,000 that merit specialty packing measures, added insurance, and possibly separate transport.
- Explicit layouts detailing classroom contents and new location/positioning specifications post-move.
This comprehensive picture coupled with walkthroughs of actual possessions, allows movers to assemble an accurate quote encompassing costs, estimated timeframes, recommended crew sizes, and specialized services or handling required. Schools then choose which options best fit their budgets and requirements.
School Moving Services: FAQs
Is it better to use school moving services or handle the move yourself?
In most cases, hiring school movers is strongly preferable to internally run moves. The sheer scale of packing hundreds of classrooms then unpacking/reassembling their contents is incredibly daunting without daily moving experience.
By relying on professional crews, institutions shrink both project timelines and chances of classroom resources sustaining damage amidst amateur packing attempts or the handling of bulky furniture. Movers also furnish all required equipment and offer insurance protections schools may lack otherwise.
How early should you hire a school moving service before the move date?
Ideally engage movers’ services six to eight weeks out from the expected relocation. This provides adequate time for movers to strategize/ask clarifying questions about the move scope, order necessary quantities of packing supplies, and block out enough crews on their schedules.
For extremely large interstate school moves, planning even further (three to six months) in advance is wise.
What qualifications or certifications should school moving companies have?
Search for movers thoroughly vetted on review sites and who:
- Carry all essential licenses for residential or commercial moves in your state.
- Are certified members of the American Moving & Storage Association. This signifies upstanding services and accountability.
- Have substantial experience specifically with school/university moving services (dozens to hundreds of past jobs ideal).
- Offer formal valuations of property moved and insurance options.
- Will perform an on-site walkthrough before finalizing moving plans/quotes.
Can movers pack devices with batteries or do I need to remove them?
For fire safety and prevention of draining, school moving companies require devices containing batteries to shut down and batteries detached prior to packing. This includes laptops, classroom electronics, etc.
School IT staff will handle this battery removal/replacement and device reconnecting later on. If lacking sufficient qualified IT members for this workload, consider requesting the movers provide or source reputable IT assistance at an added service charge.
How can I be sure valuable school property will arrive safely?
Verify that prospective movers are properly licensed/insured, have well-maintained equipment, and offer add-on valuation coverage to supplement basic liability limits.
When planning the packing stage, emphasize to crews which educational assets are most sensitive and expensive to replace. Then when loading the moving vans, insist especially fragile/vital classroom materials ride in the cab with the driver rather than stored in the cargo area.
Final Thoughts
If facing an upcoming school or university relocation, save yourself from outsized stresses by calling on professional assistance. Hiring reputable school moving services translates the difficult job of clearing classrooms and transporting their contents into a highly coordinated process engineered for efficiency.
With all the logistics, packing, heavy lifting, and reassembly handled by experienced crews, staff and students can focus their efforts on maintaining academic progress with minimal disruption.
Moving companies furnish just about everything needed as well – from utility carts to the final classroom setups according to provided layouts. All that’s left is for institutions to point them in the right direction, and then concentrate resources on the business of education.
ARC Relocation can help you find school moving services near you. Contact ARC Relocation today to set up a free consultation call.