Lab Moving
San Diego
The Direct Answer
Lab Moving,
Straight Answer
A lab move is three separate problems wearing one name. There is the cold chain, where a minus 80 freezer full of samples cannot lie down and cannot sit unpowered for long. There is the fixed casework, benches, fume hoods and biosafety cabinets that were installed by trades and have to come out the same way. Then there is everything that rolls, centrifuges, analyzers, incubators, which moves like heavy office equipment once it is decontaminated. We handle the transport and the reinstall of what we removed. We do not certify a fume hood or a biosafety cabinet after it lands, because that is a certifier’s signature, not a mover’s.
Decontamination comes before we touch anything
Your lab signs off that surfaces and instruments are clear. Our crews are movers, not a hazmat contractor, and we will not load equipment that has not been released in writing.
Minus 80 freezers travel upright and planned around
Compressors do not tolerate being laid down. We move them upright, keep the door sealed, and schedule the run so the unit is off for the shortest window your protocol allows. If contents cannot risk any excursion, dry ice or a backup unit at the destination is your call to arrange.
Fume hoods and biosafety cabinets come out, they do not get certified by us
We disconnect what is mechanical, cap what needs capping through your trades, and set the unit in place at the far end. Recertification is booked with your certifier, and it should be on the calendar before move day, not after.
Casework is usually reused, so it comes apart carefully
Bench tops, base cabinets and shelving are unbolted, labeled by run and rebuilt in the same order. Epoxy and phenolic tops chip at the corners, so they travel on edge in blankets, not stacked flat.
Elevators are the constraint nobody checks
A loaded minus 80 plus a pallet jack can exceed a passenger car rating. We check the plate before scheduling, not on the day.
Scope
What Moves,
And How It Travels
Cold storage
Minus 80 and minus 20 freezers, refrigerators, cryo storage. Upright, strapped, doors sealed and taped, shortest possible power gap.
Fixed casework
Bench runs, base and wall cabinets, epoxy and phenolic tops, sinks and eyewash stations. Unbolted, labeled by run, rebuilt in sequence.
Ventilated equipment
Fume hoods, biosafety cabinets, ductless enclosures. Mechanical disconnect through your trades, transport, set in place. Certification stays with your certifier.
Instruments
Centrifuges, analyzers, incubators, shakers, microscopes. Rotors out, moving parts locked, foam and crate where the manufacturer calls for it.
Glass and consumables
Glassware, reagent shelving, sample boxes. Boxed by us or by your team, your call, and inventoried either way.
The rest of the suite
Desks, filing, breakroom and reception. Same crews, same day, so the lab is not waiting on a second contractor.
How It Runs
A Lab Move,
In Order
Walkthrough with your lab manager
We measure doors, elevators and dock access, list every fixed item, and identify what needs a trade rather than a mover. You get a written not to exceed price on the Agreement for Moving Services.
Decontamination and release
Your team decontaminates and signs the release. Nothing gets loaded before that, and the release travels with the paperwork.
Trades disconnect what is plumbed or ducted
Gas, vacuum, drain and duct work is disconnected by licensed trades. We coordinate the timing so the crew is not standing idle waiting for a plumber.
Cold chain last out, first in
Freezers load last and unload first, so the power gap is measured in the length of the drive and nothing else.
Reinstall and punch list
Casework rebuilt in sequence, equipment set on the plan, and a walk with your manager to close out anything missed. Certification and commissioning are booked separately by you.
Who We Serve
San Diego Labs
We Work In
San Diego runs on life science, and the lab corridors are specific. Sorrento Valley and Torrey Pines hold the research and biotech density, mostly tilt up buildings with real dock access and freight elevators that were specified for this work. Sorrento Mesa and Mira Mesa carry the mid size labs and the contract research operations. UTC and the campus edge mixes academic and startup space, where the building is often shared and the loading rules are strict. Carlsbad and the 78 corridor holds device and diagnostics companies, and those buildings usually have grade level roll up doors, which makes a heavy instrument far easier to land. We are a licensed California carrier, CAL-T #201759 and US DOT #4372335, operating since 1997.
Permits That Move With The Lab
The County of San Diego's Hazardous Materials Division is the Certified Unified Program Agency for the county, and a lab that files a Hazardous Materials Business Plan has to deal with it on both ends of a move. The county asks the owner to notify HMD 30 days before relocating and to complete the permit application for the new location. The old permit is inactivated in CERS by answering no to every question on the Business Activities page and making a submittal. Put that 30-day date on the move calendar before you settle on a truck date.
If the old suite is being closed rather than transferred, the county wants the updated facility information 30 days before closing, with a comment to the regulator in CERS noting the closure. An HMD inspector then visits the site. That inspection is the reason the waste pickup and the last bench wipe-down belong on the schedule, not on the truck. Our crews move what has been cleared and released; the waste vendor and the inspection are yours to arrange.
Labs holding a California radioactive materials license answer to the Radiologic Health Branch at the California Department of Public Health. Anyone installing or relocating a device that contains radioactive material or a sealed source has to be trained and authorized by the State of California, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or an Agreement State license. Those items do not ride on our truck. Tell us at the walkthrough so the plan routes around them.
Freezer Prep Before The Truck Arrives
UC San Diego's Environmental Health and Safety office publishes the steps its own labs follow to close or relocate a laboratory, and they are a workable checklist for any San Diego lab. The list starts with properly defrosting research freezers, then washing benchtops, equipment and fume hoods with soap and water, running water into sinks and floor drains to fill the traps once the lab is empty and clean, and requesting hazardous waste pickup for chemicals, refrigerators and freezers.
The same guidance is specific about the ice. For a freezer that held radioactive material, an ice sample is tested on a liquid scintillation counter before any contents are relocated, and ice above three times background is collected as radioactive waste for EH&S pickup. UCSD's equipment relocation planning page also has the lab confirm that the outlet at the destination is sufficient, including emergency power, before the freezer moves.
Dry ice on the truck is simpler than most people expect. Under the federal hazardous materials regulations at 49 CFR 173.217, dry ice is regulated only when it travels by aircraft or vessel, and the rule that packaging must allow carbon dioxide gas to escape is written for those modes. A freezer or a stack of sample boxes riding in a box truck across San Diego does not trigger that paperwork. The packaging rule exists so the gas can escape, so pack dry ice in something that can vent and tell the crew which boxes hold it.
Hoods And Cabinets Under Title 8
Cal/OSHA regulates laboratory fume hoods under Title 8, Section 5154.1, which applies whenever a laboratory-type hood is used to prevent harmful exposure to hazardous substances and requires the hood to conform to Article 107 as well as the section itself. That is the standard your certifier tests against after we set the hood in its new location, and it is why the certification appointment belongs on the move schedule rather than after it. We handle the weight, the doorway and the placement. The airflow reading is a number only the certifier can sign.
Biological safety cabinets are exempt from Section 5154.1 and governed by their own rule, Section 5154.2, Ventilation Requirements for Biological Safety Cabinets. A Class II cabinet may be used to control aerosols and particulate matter where the substance does not present a risk of fire or explosion, and to prevent exposure to cytotoxic agents during compounding or preparation for parenteral use. The distinction matters at the walkthrough. A hood and a cabinet can look alike on a floor plan, but they are certified to different sections, often by different people, so we list each unit by type and you book the right certifier for each.
FAQ
Lab Moving San Diego
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Moving A Lab?
Free walkthrough, a written not to exceed price, and a schedule that puts the cold chain last out and first in.
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