Rigging-Busters moves the heavy side of lab and medical equipment in Oshawa and across Durham Region. Our riggers take out, transport and set in place the units a lab mover’s cart can’t carry: steam sterilizers and autoclaves, environmental and climate chambers, ultra-low freezers (emptied first), fume hoods, biosafety cabinets, process skids and bioreactors, plus the generators and switchgear that keep hospital plant rooms running.
Hospitals, college and university labs, test facilities and plants hire us directly, and general contractors, lab movers and medical movers bring us in as their rigging crew. Looking for lab movers in Ontario for a whole relocation? We are the riggers for the heavy units, and we work alongside the team that packs the benchtop.
- Heavy units only: lab, hospital and production equipment that needs rigging. No household, office or benchtop packing jobs.
- One crew, rig-out to levelling: rigging, transport, set-in-place, levelling and millwright installation.
- Quick replies: quotes within 2–4 business hours, and estimates are free.
- Service area: Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Pickering, Clarington and the rest of Durham Region.
Want a ballpark before anyone visits? Our Heavy Lifting & Moving Calculator returns a rough price range straight away.
or give a call +1-647-846-5179
How a Heavy Lab or Hospital Equipment Move Works in Oshawa
From a single autoclave to a floor of chambers and freezers, moving laboratory equipment of this weight runs through the same seven steps:
- Inventory the units: make, model, weight and footprint of each one, where it sits now and where it goes, plus any decommissioning or transfer form your hospital, college or university uses.
- Survey both buildings: our riggers measure doorways, corridors and freight elevators, check floor loading, and plan protection for finished floors and walls along the route.
- Book permits and a time slot: City of Oshawa and Durham Region permits for oversize loads, an MTO oversize permit on provincial highways, and move hours your site approves.
- Your side gets the units ready: emptied and cleaned, biosafety cabinets decontaminated, and power, water, steam and gas shut off and disconnected by your licensed electricians and other trades.
- Rig-out: each unit goes onto skates, under a hydraulic gantry or up on jack-and-roll, then gets strapped and braced for the road.
- Transport: on a trailer matched to the load, on the permitted route and at the permitted hours.
- Set, level, hand back: we land each unit on its marks and level it, ready for reconnection and the vendor’s start-up checks.
Rigging Gear We Bring to Oshawa Labs and Hospitals
- Machinery skates and low-profile dollies, with floor protection for hospital and lab corridors
- Hydraulic gantries to lift a unit off its base or plinth where there is no overhead crane
- Jack-and-roll with steel cribbing for the heaviest units, raised and lowered in stages
- Heavy-capacity forklifts for docks, yards and loading bays
- Trailers matched to each load, including lowboys for tall units
- Our crane or a partner crane when a unit has to leave through a roof hatch, a window or a wall opening
Lab Equipment Transport and Permits in Oshawa
Most lab and hospital units travel without a permit. A City of Oshawa moving permit is needed once the vehicle and load together are wider than 2.60 m, longer than 23 m or taller than 4.15 m, or go over Highway Traffic Act weights, and the City asks for the application 10 to 15 business days before the move. If any part of the route is a Regional road, the Durham Region permit comes first, and the Region allows ten business days to process it. The permit holder also clears the move with the railways, fire, police, EMS, Durham Region Transit and overhead utilities, and we arrange all of it. On Highway 401 and the toll-free, provincially owned Highway 407 East, the permit comes from the MTO.
Setting, Levelling and Start-Up: Who Does What
In the new room our millwrights set each unit on its marks, level it and anchor it where the manual calls for anchors. Electrical work for hire in Ontario must be done by a Licensed Electrical Contractor (O. Reg. 570/05), so your licensed electricians disconnect and reconnect power, plumbers or steam fitters look after water, steam and drains, and the manufacturer’s technician starts the unit up and checks it. Under the Canadian Biosafety Handbook, a biosafety cabinet is tested again after any relocation, so your certifier decontaminates it before the move and runs that test once it is installed.
or give a call +1-647-846-5179
What We Move for Oshawa Hospitals, Campuses and Plants
Typical heavy units in Durham Region hospitals, labs and plants:
- Steam sterilizers, autoclaves and washer-disinfectors from sterile processing departments
- Environmental, climate and stability chambers, including walk-in chamber sections
- Ultra-low freezers and lab refrigerators, moved empty
- Fume hoods and biosafety cabinets, once decontaminated
- Coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), test rigs and fixture tables from automotive quality labs
- Bioreactors, process skids, tanks and mixing vessels
- Hospital and campus plant: standby generators, chillers, UPS units, transformers and switchgear (see electrical transformer moving in Oshawa)
Hospitals and Campuses in Oshawa and Durham Region
Lakeridge Health’s Oshawa Hospital on Hospital Court is a full-service hospital and home to the R.S. McLaughlin Durham Regional Cancer Centre. Under the Lakeridge Health plan announced in August 2024, acute and tertiary care at Oshawa expands as some services move to a new post-acute care centre in Pickering, Bowmanville Hospital is redeveloped to double its capacity, and a new hospital is planned in Whitby. Projects like these move sterilizers, lab freezers and plant-room equipment in stages while patients are still being treated, and that is the kind of medical equipment relocation our riggers plan for.
North of downtown, Ontario Tech University shares its campus with Durham College, and its faculties include Engineering and Applied Science and Health Sciences. Ontario Tech also runs the ACE research facility, with a climatic wind tunnel and climate chambers rated from -40 °C to +60 °C. Reach-in and walk-in environmental chambers in campus and supplier labs are among the units we move.
Lab Relocations in Durham Region: What Your Team and Other Specialists Handle
On a full lab relocation, your staff or a lab moving company packs samples, reagents, glassware and benchtop instruments, and your safety office signs off the decommissioning. Cold-chain couriers carry frozen samples, and service technicians check instruments at the new site. Laboratory relocation services often hand the heavy units to a rigging crew, and when they do, we work to their schedule. MRI, CT and X-ray systems are de-installed and installed by their manufacturer (the OEM), and we can rig and move them under the OEM’s direction.
Quality Labs and Test Equipment for Automotive Suppliers
Under the contracts Unifor members ratified in August 2026, GM is putting CAD 144 million into adding the next-generation heavy-duty GMC Sierra at Oshawa Assembly, plus CAD 63 million for stamping and other upgrades in Oshawa. Retooling of that size often means moves at supplier plants as well, including their quality labs. A CMM travels with its axes locked by the OEM’s technician, rides on skates or a gantry, and is levelled on the new floor before the technician recalibrates it. For presses and production lines, see our machinery movers in Oshawa, industrial rigging services in Oshawa or factory and plant relocation in Oshawa.
Storage between sites: if the new lab or room is not ready on moving day, units on skids or in crates can go into storage until it is. Samples, reagents and anything that has to stay powered remain with your own team.
or give a call +1-647-846-5179
Cost to Move Heavy Lab Equipment in Oshawa: Price Factors
We price each Oshawa job from your details or a site walk-through. These are the things that move the number:
- The units: weight, size and centre of gravity of each one
- The way out and in: stairs, ramps, freight elevator size, door and corridor widths, and whether a window or wall opening is needed
- Working hours: evening, weekend or shutdown work in hospitals and plants that cannot stop
- Lifting method: skates, a gantry or jack-and-roll, or our crane or a partner crane, with crane time included in the quote
- Route and permits: distance, City of Oshawa, Durham Region and MTO permits, escorts and clearances for oversize loads
- Extras: crating, taking units apart and rebuilding them, storage between sites, and millwright levelling
Comparing quotes from medical equipment moving companies? Check that each one covers rigging, transport and set-in-place, and says who handles the disconnects, the cleaning and the vendor’s start-up. Our estimates are free; for a rough range first, try the Heavy Lifting & Moving Calculator.
or give a call +1-647-846-5179
Why Durham Hospitals, Labs and Plants Choose Our Riggers
- Riggers, not furniture movers: methods and gear chosen for heavy, sensitive units.
- One crew from rig-out to levelling, using our crane or a partner crane when a lift needs one.
- Fast answers: quotes within 2–4 business hours.
- Planned around patients, classes and production: evening, weekend and shutdown moves.
- Permits, clearances and escorts arranged for oversize loads on City, Regional and provincial roads.
A good fit: Durham hospitals, college and university labs, test facilities and plants moving one sterilizer, a room of chambers and freezers, or a production line; general contractors on hospital and campus projects; and lab movers, medical movers or lab relocation services that need a rigging crew for the heavy units.
Not a fit: gym and fitness equipment; medical supply store deliveries and home medical equipment; hospital beds; IT, server or computer moves; household and office moves; specimen and sample courier runs; and benchtop instruments, glassware or chemicals that need packing.
Downtime is what a move really costs a hospital or lab, so the plan is built around your last day of use and your first day back in service.
or give a call +1-647-846-5179
Areas We Cover in Oshawa and Durham Region
In Oshawa we cover the north-end campus lands and Northwood Business Park, between Taunton Road West and Highway 407 East beside the Oshawa Executive Airport, the hospital on Hospital Court, downtown, and the industrial lands along Highway 401 and the harbour. Highways 412 and 418, toll-free since April 2022, connect Highway 401 with the 407 East.
Beyond Oshawa we serve Whitby, Ajax and Pickering, Clarington (Courtice, Bowmanville and Newcastle), Scugog and Port Perry, Uxbridge, and Port Hope. West of Pickering, our lab equipment movers in Toronto take the work; east along Highway 401, see our lab and medical equipment movers in Kingston; and for other heavy work in the province, our machinery movers across Ontario.
Durham Region and Nearby Towns We Serve
| City | Province | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Oshawa | Ontario | Canada |
| Ajax | Ontario | Canada |
| Aurora | Ontario | Canada |
| Bowmanville | Ontario | Canada |
| Markham | Ontario | Canada |
| Newcastle | Ontario | Canada |
| Newmarket | Ontario | Canada |
| Orono | Ontario | Canada |
| Pickering | Ontario | Canada |
| Port Hope | Ontario | Canada |
| Port Perry | Ontario | Canada |
| Richmond Hill | Ontario | Canada |
| Toronto | Ontario | Canada |
| Uxbridge | Ontario | Canada |
| Vaughan | Ontario | Canada |
| Whitby | Ontario | Canada |
| Whitchurch-Stouffville | Ontario | Canada |
or give a call +1-647-846-5179
Send These Six Things for an Exact Oshawa Quote
The fastest way to a firm price is a quote request with these details:
- Each unit: make, model, weight and size, with a photo of the nameplate
- Both buildings: floor levels, freight elevator size, door and corridor widths, and where a trailer can park or back in
- Site rules: infection-control steps, contractor orientation, work permits and any decommissioning form
- Utilities: who disconnects and reconnects power, water, steam and gas, and when the units will be empty and clean
- Dates: the last day of use, the day the new room is ready, and any shutdown or holiday window
- Photos: each unit from two sides, and the path from the room to the truck
or give a call +1-647-846-5179
Other Services in Oshawa
Related heavy work around Oshawa is listed below, or see all our services in Oshawa.
- Heavy Equipment & Machinery Movers in Oshawa, ON
- Heavy & Industrial Rigging Services in Oshawa, ON
- Factory & Plant Relocation Services in Oshawa, ON
- Forklift Moving Service in Oshawa, ON
- CNC Machine Movers in Oshawa, ON
- Printing Press Movers in Oshawa, ON
- Electrical Transformer Moving Services in Oshawa, ON
Location of our sales office:
50 Richmond St E, Oshawa, ON L1G 7C7, Canada 👇
Oshawa Lab and Medical Equipment Moving: FAQ
Heavy units that need rigging rather than a cart: steam sterilizers and washer-disinfectors, environmental and climate chambers, emptied ultra-low freezers, fume hoods, decontaminated biosafety cabinets, bioreactors and process skids, CMMs from automotive quality labs, and plant-room gear such as generators and switchgear. Glassware, small instruments, chemicals and samples go with your staff or a specialist lab mover.
Planning comes first: weight, centre of gravity, lifting points and the full route are checked before anything moves. Units travel on skates, gantries or jack-and-roll, never by hand, and are strapped and braced on a trailer matched to the load. Corridors and finished floors are protected, and each unit is set on its marks and levelled at the new site.
If your new space in Oshawa or elsewhere in Durham Region is not ready, units that are skidded or crated can go into storage until it is, and we deliver and set them in place once the room is finished. Samples, reagents and anything that has to stay powered or cold remain with your own team, not in storage.
Only for oversize or overweight loads. The City of Oshawa needs a moving permit when the vehicle and load are wider than 2.60 m, longer than 23 m, taller than 4.15 m or over Highway Traffic Act weights, and asks for 10 to 15 business days. Durham Region issues its permit first when a Regional road is used, and Highway 401 needs an MTO permit. We apply for them.
As soon as you know the dates. Loads under the permit limits mostly wait on your own approvals and our schedule, but an oversize move needs a City of Oshawa permit, requested 10 to 15 business days ahead, plus the ten business days Durham Region allows when a Regional road is involved. Hospital and campus moves also need time for site approvals and shutdown planning.
Yes. Hospital and campus work is planned around the site: contractor orientation, infection-control steps, protected corridors and elevators, and evening or weekend hours where patients, students or research must not be disturbed. Tell us the site rules with your quote request, and we will build them into the move plan and the schedule before the crew arrives in Oshawa.
We handle the rigging side of an installation: we bring the unit in, set it on its marks, level it and anchor it where the manual requires. The manufacturer or vendor commissions it, and your licensed electricians and plumbers make the connections. When you compare firms that provide hospital equipment installation on pricing and service, check that rigging, transport and set-in-place are quoted together.
Each move is priced on its own. The main factors are the weight and size of each unit, access at both buildings, working hours, the lifting method, distance, and any City, Region or MTO permits. Quotes come back within 2–4 business hours and estimates are free. For a rough range first, use our Heavy Lifting and Moving Calculator.
No. We rig and move heavy lab, hospital-plant and production equipment only. Hospital beds, home medical equipment, medical supply deliveries, treadmills and other gym equipment, computers, and office or household contents are work for a medical supply company or a general mover. If a sterilizer, chamber, freezer bank or process skid in Durham Region needs to move, that is our job.
All of Oshawa, from the north-end campus and Northwood Business Park to the Highway 401 industrial lands, plus Whitby, Ajax, Pickering, Clarington, Scugog, Uxbridge and Port Hope. For labs west of Pickering, see our lab equipment movers in Toronto. Send the site address with your quote request and we will confirm the crew and route.
