San Francisco & Bay Area Laboratory Moving Company.

The full timeline from initial planning to operational readiness typically runs three to six months. The physical move itself is one to three days for a small lab, three to seven days for a mid-size biotech, and two to four weeks for a large multi-department relocation executed in phases. The longer timeline accounts for pre-move planning, BSC decontamination scheduling with your certification vendor, EH&S clearance for the vacated space, calibration vendor coordination at the destination, and post-move re-qualification before research resumes. We recommend contacting Ontrack at least eight weeks before your target move date for any lab with biosafety cabinets, regulated chemicals, or more than 20 instruments. Larger labs benefit from a six-month runway. For realistic timelines by lab size, read our guide on how long a laboratory move takes.

Ontrack Moving carries $10,000,000 general liability coverage. This policy covers damage to the building and property during the move, which is what facility managers at Genentech, Gilead, Stanford Research Park, and most Bay Area biotech campuses verify before granting loading dock access. This $10M policy does not cover the value of your laboratory equipment itself. Equipment is covered by federal cargo liability at the standard rate of $0.60 per pound per article under FMCSA requirements. For high-value instruments, additional valuation protection is available for purchase and we recommend it for mass spectrometers, ultracentrifuges, NMR systems, confocal microscopes, and any instrument valued above $50,000. We will walk through valuation options during your lab survey. Certificates of Insurance with additional insured endorsements are delivered to your facility management team in advance of the move date.

Yes. Documented instrument tracking and transfer procedures are standard for every laboratory relocation. Each instrument receives a unique tracking ID, pre-move condition photos with timestamps, signed transfer logs at pickup and at delivery, and post-move verification records. This documentation package is built to support FDA 21 CFR Part 11 audit trails, Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) compliance under 21 CFR Part 58, CLIA accreditation requirements, and institutional biosafety review board records. We hand the complete documented audit trail to your quality assurance officer or compliance lead at move completion. This is part of standard service and is included in every lab move quote.

Sensitive analytical instruments such as HPLC, mass spectrometers, NMR systems, balances, and confocal microscopes travel in air-ride suspension trucks that absorb road vibration and shock. Each instrument is documented with pre-move calibration status, photographed at the connection level before disconnection, and crated with foam-in-place inserts that conform to the instrument geometry. Where the OEM provides specific shipping hardware (Bruker NMR shipping braces, Beckman ultracentrifuge rotor restraints, Waters HPLC transport locks), we install it before transport. Even small movements can shift optical alignments or magnet homogeneity, so post-move recalibration by your vendor is part of the planned timeline. We coordinate directly with Agilent, Waters, Thermo Fisher, Bruker, Beckman Coulter, Sciex, and your other OEM field service representatives to schedule recertification immediately after placement, which keeps instrument downtime to a minimum.

The standard protocol for occupied -80C freezers is to consolidate samples, document inventory, transition to dry ice or LN2 backup, and execute the move within a window that keeps samples below temperature thresholds. For short Bay Area moves under one hour of transit, samples often remain in the freezer with the unit powered down and pre-chilled with dry ice. For longer transit windows, we coordinate with your team to move samples into a backup -80 at the destination, into LN2 dewars, or into temporary dry ice storage. The freezer itself is transported upright on air-ride suspension with orientation indicators and is given a four-to-twelve hour compressor settle period after placement before the unit is restarted. We bring temperature data loggers for the freezer and for any cold chain shipment so you have a documented temperature record for sample integrity verification.

Biosafety cabinet relocation follows a strict sequence. First, your BSC certification vendor performs decontamination, typically using vapor-phase hydrogen peroxide, chlorine dioxide gas, or formaldehyde gas, and issues a clearance certificate that the cabinet is free of hazards. EH&S signs off on the clearance. Only then does our crew disconnect, crate, and transport the unit. BSCs commonly weigh 600 to 1,200 pounds and contain a HEPA filter assembly that cannot tolerate handling shocks, so we use mechanical lift equipment, vibration-dampening pads, and air-ride transport. After placement at the destination, your certification vendor performs the post-move re-certification before the cabinet returns to service. We schedule the decontamination, transport, and re-certification so the BSC is offline for the shortest possible window. We do not perform the decontamination or certification ourselves. We coordinate with the vendor your facility uses (TSS, Eagleson, NuAire, or your in-house EH&S team).

Yes, but fume hood relocation requires coordination with Building Facilities and your EH&S team because of ductwork, exhaust fans, makeup-air balancing, and ASHRAE 110 face-velocity testing requirements. The physical move includes purging and decontaminating the work surface, removing the chemicals stored in the base cabinet under separate hazmat protocols, disconnecting plumbing and electrical, capping the existing duct stub, and lifting the hood with a mechanical assist (most chemical fume hoods weigh between 500 and 1,500 pounds). At the destination, the building's HVAC team reconnects ductwork and exhaust, and your certification vendor performs the ASHRAE 110 face-velocity test before the hood returns to service. We handle the physical lift, transport, and placement. We coordinate timing with the building HVAC team and your EH&S team. We do not perform the ductwork reconnect or the face-velocity certification.

HPLC, UPLC, and LC-MS systems follow OEM-published shutdown procedures. Before the move, we coordinate with your in-house chromatographer or with the OEM (Agilent, Waters, Thermo Fisher, Shimadzu, Sciex) on system flush, solvent line removal, waste container disposal, column removal, and transport-lock installation. Solvent reservoirs and lines are removed, the Z-assembly is locked down with its original transport brace if available, and inlets are sealed with parafilm to prevent dust contamination. Each module (binary pump, autosampler, column compartment, detector, mass spec) is crated separately with foam-in-place inserts. Air-ride suspension trucks handle transit. At the destination, OEM field service performs the system requalification and IQ/OQ documentation, which is the document set your QA team needs for GLP compliance.

Yes. We handle the physical relocation of BSL-2 laboratories with several caveats. Biological materials at BSL-2 and above must be transferred under your institution's biosafety protocols, which typically require advance approval from your Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBC) at universities or your Biosafety Officer at private biotech companies. All large equipment that contacted biological agents must be decontaminated and labeled with a Certificate that Property is Free from Hazards (or equivalent institutional form) before our crews disassemble it. We coordinate with your EH&S or biosafety team on the timing, decontamination verification, and signed equipment clearance forms. Biological agents that require shipment (samples between two institutions, for example) follow IATA and CDC packaging requirements that are handled by your team or by a specialty hazmat carrier, not by our standard moving service. For BSL-3 labs and Select Agent registered facilities (governed by APHIS/CDC), we work as part of a coordinated team led by your biosafety officer and require additional pre-move clearance.

We do not transport regulated hazardous chemicals on our trucks. Chemical relocation requires DOT hazmat-certified carriers and EPA waste manifest documentation. This is true for any non-specialty mover and is a federal limitation, not a service limitation specific to Ontrack. Our role is to coordinate the chemical inventory and disposal timeline with your EH&S team and your contracted hazmat vendor (Clean Harbors, Stericycle, Triumvirate Environmental, and similar are commonly used across the Bay Area). We move the empty chemical storage cabinets, the flammable cabinets, the corrosive cabinets, and the lab benches that surrounded the chemical workspace after your EH&S team has cleared and certified them. We do not move chemicals, compressed gas cylinders with hazardous contents, or radioactive materials.

A phased lab migration moves the lab bench-by-bench or workstation-by-workstation, on a staggered schedule, while the rest of the facility remains operational. The protocol typically runs over two to six weekends or after-hours windows depending on lab size. Phase one is often the cold storage and sample-critical equipment, moved on a Friday evening so samples are in the new freezer by Saturday morning. Phase two is analytical instruments, scheduled around your calibration vendor's availability. Phase three is general lab benches, chemical cabinets, and lab furniture. Phase four is the final clean-out and EH&S clearance of the original space. Each phase has a documented start time, scope, and crew assignment. Phase shift execution avoids the all-or-nothing risk of a single weekend move and gives your scientists rolling access to their workspace. The same staggered approach is mapped out in our Phase-Shift Protocol playbook.

Yes. EH&S coordination is built into every lab move. At Bay Area research institutions (Stanford, UCSF, UC Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab), the EH&S Lab Safety Program typically requires 60 days advance notice for any large move, an advisory inspection of the existing space, a chemical inventory submission, and a final clearance inspection of the vacated lab. At private biotech campuses (Genentech, Gilead, Amgen, BioMarin, Vir, and others along the 101 corridor), the Environmental Health and Safety team works directly with building management on COI verification, loading dock scheduling, freight elevator reservations, and after-hours building access. We integrate with your existing process and follow the protocols your facility already uses. We do not impose a separate parallel process. Bring us into the planning loop after you have notified EH&S, ideally six to eight weeks before the move.

Lab decommissioning is a six-phase process. Phase one is inventory and triage: identify what goes to the new lab, what gets surplussed to other groups, what gets disposed as e-waste, and what gets disposed as hazardous waste. Phase two is hazardous materials clearance with your contracted hazmat vendor under EH&S supervision. Phase three is equipment decontamination, particularly BSCs, fume hoods, freezers, and incubators that contacted biological or chemical agents. Phase four is the physical packout of furniture, benches, casework, and equipment by our crews. Phase five is final cleaning of bench tops, floors, and shared spaces. Phase six is the EH&S final clearance inspection, after which the keys are returned to building management. We handle phases four and five. We coordinate timing with the vendors handling the other phases. Many Bay Area landlords (Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Kilroy Realty, BioMed Realty) have specific surrender condition requirements written into the lease, so we recommend a pre-move review with your facilities lead. Our Bay Area lab decommissioning checklist walks through the full close-out sequence.

We handle the physical relocation: disconnection documentation, crating, vibration-isolated transport, placement at the destination, and reconnection of utilities the building manager has restored (power, dedicated circuits, water, drainage, vacuum). Calibration, requalification, and IQ/OQ verification are performed by your OEM service representative or your in-house calibration team after we have placed the instrument and the building utilities are connected. We coordinate timing with your calibration vendor so that the OEM technician arrives on-site within hours of placement, which minimizes the gap between move completion and instrument re-availability. For most Bay Area moves, our crew leaves at the end of the move day and the calibration vendor begins the next morning. The result is typically two to seven business days of instrument downtime depending on the OEM technician's availability and the complexity of the requalification.

Yes, we serve all four. Each institution has a different procurement and EH&S process. UCSF runs lab moves through the UCSF Logistics department for campus moves and accepts external movers through the Relocation/Household Moves Form for cross-campus or off-campus relocations. Stanford requires an EH&S advisory inspection 60 days before any large lab move and a final clearance after the move, coordinated through the Stanford EH&S Laboratory Safety Program. UC Berkeley coordinates through campus EH&S and Facilities. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory operates under DOE oversight and requires additional clearances for any work involving radioactive materials, controlled substances, or export-controlled equipment. Our crews have moved labs at all four institutions and we follow each campus's documented protocols. Our Hayward headquarters places us 20 to 40 minutes from each campus, which supports rapid crew dispatch and same-day site visits.

We serve 19 Bay Area cities with dedicated lab moving crews: Berkeley, Burlingame, Foster City, Fremont, Hayward, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Oakland, Palo Alto, Redwood City, San Carlos, San Francisco, San Jose, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Silicon Valley, South San Francisco, Sunnyvale, and Walnut Creek. The core Bay Area biotech corridors we work in are South San Francisco / Oyster Point (Genentech, Amgen, Vir Biotechnology, and the DNA Way corridor), Mission Bay (UCSF, Gladstone Institutes, and the Alexandria Real Estate cluster around Third Street), Stanford Research Park in Palo Alto, Emeryville Biotech Row (Bayer, Novartis, and the Hollis Street cluster), Foster City / Metro Center (Gilead Sciences, Zoetis), the Sand Hill Road and Menlo Park venture-backed startup corridor, and Santa Clara semiconductor and pharma facilities. Our Hayward headquarters is centrally located for rapid dispatch to any of these corridors.

Before move day we provide: the Certificate of Insurance (COI) with $10M general liability and your facility named as additional insured, our USDOT number 2551548 and California license CAL-T190721 for FMCSA verification, a written scope of work with each instrument listed and the documented handling protocol per item, the move schedule with arrival times and crew sizes, and the documented instrument tracking forms that will accompany each piece of equipment from origin to destination. After the move we provide: the signed transfer logs, the timestamped photos at pickup and delivery, the placement sign-off documentation, and the audit trail package for your QA, GLP, or institutional review records. This documentation set is included with every lab move quote. Before you sign with any carrier, our guide to vetting a lab mover lists the nine compliance items to verify, from COI limits to calibration coordination.