Planning to relocate lab or medical equipment in Ottawa that is too heavy for a dolly? Rigging-Busters is a lab moving company built around rigging. Our crew takes the heavy end of laboratory relocation services and medical equipment moving across Ottawa, Kanata and the Ottawa Valley: steam sterilizers, environmental and plant growth chambers, emptied lab freezers, process skids, cleanroom production tools, and the generators and switchgear in hospital plant rooms.
Ottawa has very different kinds of labs: the hospital and research buildings on Smyth Road, university campuses, federal science labs in the greenbelt and the technology firms of Kanata North. Each comes with its own move rules, and we plan the rigging around them for facilities managers, lab managers, general contractors and specialist lab movers.
- Heavy equipment only: units moved on skates, gantries or jack-and-roll. Benchtop instruments, samples and office contents go with a lab mover.
- One crew from rig-out to the levelled unit: rigging, transport, set-in-place and millwright installation.
- Quotes within 2–4 business hours, and estimates are free.
- Service area: Ottawa, Kanata, Nepean, Orléans and the Ottawa Valley.
Need a ballpark before a site visit? Our Heavy Lifting & Moving Calculator gives an instant, rough price range.
or give a call +1-613-699-2692
Expertise in Heavy Laboratory & Medical Equipment Moving in Ottawa
Heavy laboratory equipment is usually sensitive equipment as well. A stability chamber or a pass-through sterilizer can weigh more than a tonne, yet it has to leave the lab without marks on the cabinet, cracks in the floor or damage to the door frames. Our lab equipment movers are industrial riggers, so the job is planned like any heavy lift: weight, centre of gravity, route and floor loading come first.
Most laboratory moving companies are packing crews that box instruments, glassware, computers and samples. We take the units that are too heavy or too awkward for a dolly, and we slot into your lab mover’s timetable.
Moving medical equipment demands a unique set of abilities. In Ottawa healthcare facilities our medical equipment movers handle the heavy side of hospital moving: steam sterilizers and washer-disinfectors in sterile processing departments, and the mechanical and electrical rooms that keep a hospital running, from generators and transformers to switchgear and chillers.
What We Move for Ottawa Labs and Hospitals
- Steam sterilizers, autoclaves and washer-disinfectors
- Environmental, stability and plant growth chambers, and large incubators
- Large lab and ultra-low freezers, emptied before the move
- Cleanroom production tools and test equipment for semiconductor and photonics firms (rigging only; your team or the manufacturer handles hook-up)
- Bioreactors, process skids, tanks and pharmaceutical production equipment
- Hospital plant: generators, transformers and switchgear, chillers and UPS units
- Heavy medical equipment removal: old sterilizers, chambers and plant units rigged out and loaded for the buyer or the disposal contractor
Lab Relocation Services in Ottawa: Where Our Crew Fits
A lab relocation in Ottawa usually involves several teams. A specialist lab mover packs instruments, chemicals and samples, your facilities team or general contractor prepares the new space, and your trades disconnect and reconnect the services. Our part is the heavy units: rigging them out of the old room, trucking them across town, and setting and levelling them in the new one.
Universities and hospitals run lab moves to their own procedures. The University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Science, for example, asks for a signed move notice and an equipment decommissioning form, and its sample lab move schedule moves the major equipment about three weeks after notice, once research has stopped. Its biosafety decommissioning form also requires a biosafety cabinet to be decontaminated by authorized people before it is moved. We fit our dates into that kind of plan.
Specimen and cold-chain transport, biosafety cabinet certification, instrument recalibration and diagnostic imaging installs stay with the specialists and the manufacturers, so each heavy unit reaches the new lab with as little disruption to your work as possible. Linear accelerator (LINAC) work is covered on our LINAC rigging in Ontario page.
or give a call +1-613-699-2692
How We Move Heavy Lab & Hospital Equipment in Ottawa, Step by Step
Seven steps take a heavy unit from its old room to its new one:
- Your list and photos: make, model, weight and footprint of each unit, both addresses, floor levels, freight elevator and door sizes, and any move paperwork your institution needs.
- Walk-through: our riggers check corridors, ramps, docks and floor loading, and agree how finished floors, walls and door frames will be protected.
- Plan and permits: method, crew, schedule and site rules. If the load is over-dimensional, we apply for the City of Ottawa and MTO permits and plan around the downtown rush-hour bans.
- Your side prepares each unit: the lab empties and decontaminates it, your licensed electricians disconnect the power, and your plumbers or the manufacturer cap the water, steam, gas and drain lines.
- Rig-out: each unit is jacked onto skates or picked with a hydraulic gantry, then braced for the trip.
- Transport: the trailer is chosen for the unit’s height and weight, and the route avoids posted roads and the NCC parkways.
- Set-in-place: we position each unit on its marks in the new room and level it, then hand over to your trades for hook-up and to your team or the manufacturer for recommissioning.
Equipment Our Crew Uses
- Machinery skates and low-profile dollies for corridors and finished floors
- Hydraulic gantries where a lab or plant room has no overhead crane
- Jack-and-roll gear to raise heavy units in small steps and roll them into position
- Heavy-capacity lift trucks at docks and in yards
- Trailers matched to each load
- Crane lifts, when a job needs one, through licensed crane partners
Lab Equipment Transport and Permits in Ottawa
Most single lab units travel within legal dimensions, but a tall chamber on a trailer, a process skid or a production module can go over. In Ottawa, a vehicle and load that meets or exceeds 4.15 m in height, 2.6 m in width, 21 m in length or 63,500 kg needs a City of Ottawa over-dimensional vehicle permit under By-law 2003-497, and a single-trip permit takes about three business days to process. Over-dimensional moves are not allowed in the downtown core from 7 to 9:30 a.m. or from 3:30 to 6 p.m., and the permit is not valid on roads or bridges with posted load limits or during load-restriction periods.
Highways 417 and 416 are provincial highways, so an oversize load there needs an MTO oversize/overweight permit, requested at least 5 business days ahead. The National Capital Commission does not allow commercial vehicles on its parkways, so our routes stay on City streets and highways. If you only need the truck work, see heavy equipment loading and unloading in Ottawa.
Set-In-Place, Levelling and Reconnection
In the new room our millwrights set each unit on its marks, level it and anchor it where the manufacturer calls for it. Ontario requires electrical work done for hire to be carried out by a Licensed Electrical Contractor (O. Reg. 570/05), so your licensed electricians handle the power hook-up, while water, steam and gas lines go back on with your plumbers or the manufacturer. Requalification, calibration and biosafety cabinet certification stay with your team, the manufacturer or your certifier.
Comprehensive Moving & Equipment Relocation Services, Plus Storage
As a laboratory moving company with an industrial rigging crew, we go beyond lab and hospital moves and medical moving services. The same Ottawa crew offers equipment relocation services for the rest of your facility: heavy equipment and machinery moving, industrial rigging services in Ottawa, millwright work, and factory and plant relocation services in Ottawa when the lab is part of a larger facility relocation. For machinery moving services on production equipment, see our heavy machinery and equipment movers in Ottawa.
Lab Equipment Movers for Research, Pharma and Production Equipment
Some Ottawa labs sit next to production: pharmaceutical and biotech firms with mixers, filling lines and process skids, and technology companies in Kanata North with cleanroom tools and environmental test chambers. For pharmaceutical equipment relocation and line moves, we label every connection before it is undone, move the units in rebuild order and set them back on their marks. Your validation or quality team requalifies the line before production restarts.
Need storage? If the new lab or plant room is late, skidded or crated units can wait in storage between the two moves, short or long term. Samples, reagents and anything that must be kept cold or powered are not stored with us; they stay with your team or your lab mover.
or give a call +1-613-699-2692
Why Choose Us for Your Heavy Lab & Medical Equipment Relocation in Ottawa?
What our crew brings to a heavy lab or medical equipment move in Ottawa:
- Tools for tight buildings: low-profile skates and hydraulic gantries for corridors and plant rooms, jack-and-roll for the heaviest units, and licensed crane partners for the rare lift that needs a crane.
- One team accountable from the walk-through to the levelled unit, including millwright installation.
- Schedules built around clinics and research: after-hours, weekend and shutdown-window moves in buildings that stay open.
- Permits handled: City of Ottawa and MTO permits and route planning for over-dimensional loads.
- Quick answers: quotes within 2–4 business hours.
- Insured: liability and workers’ compensation insurance (WSIB in Ontario), with a certificate of insurance on request.
A good fit: a single sterilizer or growth chamber, a production line, a plant room, or the heavy part of a whole lab relocation, for hospitals, university and government labs, pharmaceutical and technology firms, general contractors, lab moving companies and medical movers who need a rigging crew.
Not a fit: packing benchtop instruments, glassware and chemicals; specimen and sample transport; patient transfers; deliveries from an Ottawa medical supply store; hospital beds and home medical equipment; treadmills and other gym equipment; medical, dental or office moves; and diagnostic imaging installs, which the manufacturer’s installer handles.
Whether you are moving laboratory equipment or a hospital plant room, we treat each unit as the expensive, hard-to-replace asset it is.
or give a call +1-613-699-2692
Exceptional Customer Service & Quality Commitment
One team handles your move from the first call to the hand-over in the new room, with updates as the plan firms up and answers to your facility’s questions before the crew arrives.
Hospital, University and Government Labs: Site Rules We Plan For
Ottawa labs come with very different rules. Hospitals set infection-control measures for contractors and often want work done after clinic hours. University labs follow their own move and decommissioning forms. Federal science labs bring their own security and biosafety rules: the CFIA’s Ottawa Laboratory on Fallowfield Road, for example, sits on about 2,000 acres of greenbelt land with a working farm and runs level 2 and level 3 biocontainment facilities. Tell us the rules when you ask for a quote, and we build them into the plan and the price.
Lab and medical equipment is critical to your work, so the whole plan is built to minimize downtime and disruption.
or give a call +1-613-699-2692
Lab Equipment Moving Cost in Ottawa: What Affects the Price
We price each Ottawa job individually, after reviewing your photos and specs or walking the site. These are the cost drivers:
- The units themselves: weight, size and centre of gravity
- The route out and in: doors, corridors, freight elevators, docks, ramps and floor loading at both ends
- When we can work: after-hours shifts in hospitals and the downtown bans on over-dimensional moves
- How each unit is lifted: skates, gantry, jack-and-roll or a partner crane lift (crane time is included in your quote)
- Distance and permits: trips across the city or to Kanata, Gatineau or Kingston, and permits or escorts for oversize loads
- The season: City permits are not valid during load-restriction periods, so a heavy spring move may need another date or route
- Extras: crating, dismantling and reassembly, set-in-place and millwright installation
Ask each bidder to price rigging, transport and set-in-place together, and to say who handles disconnects and decontamination. Estimates are free, and the Heavy Lifting & Moving Calculator gives an instant ballpark.
Lab Relocation Service Area: Ottawa, Kanata & the Ottawa Valley
Our crew works across the city of Ottawa: the hospital and research buildings on Smyth Road, the downtown and university labs, Nepean and Barrhaven, Orléans and Gloucester in the east, and the Kanata North technology park and the business parks of Stittsville in the west. Beyond the city we cover Arnprior, Carleton Place and Kemptville, haul equipment to and from Gatineau, and take longer runs to Kingston and the rest of Ontario. Service en français : déménagement de matériel de laboratoire et médical à Ottawa.
Towns and Cities We Serve Around Ottawa
| City | Province | Country |
|---|---|---|
| Ottawa | Ontario | Canada |
| Almonte | Ontario | Canada |
| Arnprior | Ontario | Canada |
| Aylmer | Quebec | Canada |
| Buckingham | Quebec | Canada |
| Carleton Place | Ontario | Canada |
| Casselman | Ontario | Canada |
| Embrun | Ontario | Canada |
| Gatineau | Quebec | Canada |
| Greely | Ontario | Canada |
| Kanata | Ontario | Canada |
| Kemptville | Ontario | Canada |
| Richmond | Ontario | Canada |
| Rockland | Ontario | Canada |
| Russell | Ontario | Canada |
| Stittsville | Ontario | Canada |
| Thurso | Quebec | Canada |
Contact Us Today: What to Send for an Exact Quote
Planning a lab or medical equipment move in Ottawa? Estimates are free, and a quote request with these six items gets you a firmer price, faster:
- The equipment list: make, model, weight and footprint of each unit, with a photo of the nameplate
- Both sites: addresses, floor levels, freight elevator size and capacity, door and corridor widths, and the dock
- Your institution’s paperwork: decommissioning forms, contractor rules, security sign-in and infection-control requirements
- Who does the disconnects: your electricians and plumbers, the manufacturer or a contractor, and when the units will be emptied and decontaminated
- Your window: the last day of use, the date the new room is ready, and any after-hours limits
- Photos of the route from each unit to the truck, including tight turns, ramps and thresholds
or give a call +1-613-699-2692
Other Services in Ottawa
Our Ottawa crew also handles the work below. For the full list, see all our services in Ottawa.
- Heavy Equipment & Machinery Movers in Ottawa, ON
- Heavy & Industrial Rigging Services in Ottawa, ON
- Forklift Moving Service in Ottawa, ON
- CNC Machine Movers in Ottawa, ON
- Electrical Transformer Moving Services in Ottawa, ON
- Heavy Equipment Loading & Unloading in Ottawa, ON
Location of our sales office:
955 Green Valley Crescent, Ottawa, ON K2C 3K7, Canada 👇
Heavy Lab & Medical Equipment Moving in Ottawa: FAQ
Anything heavy enough to need rigging: steam sterilizers and autoclaves, washer-disinfectors, environmental, stability and plant growth chambers, emptied lab freezers, bioreactors and process skids, cleanroom production tools, and the generators, transformers, switchgear and chillers in hospital plant rooms. In Ottawa, small instruments, glassware, chemicals and samples go with a specialist lab mover, whose schedule we can share.
Only the heavy part. In an Ottawa lab relocation, a specialist lab mover packs the instruments, chemicals and samples, and your facilities team readies the new rooms. Our riggers take the sterilizers, growth chambers, freezers and skids out of the old lab and set them in the new one, on dates that fit your institution’s move procedure.
Heavy lab and medical equipment should never be lifted by hand. We start with the weight, centre of gravity and lifting points, the route through the building and the floor loading. Then we rig with rated slings, roll or lift the unit with skates, a hydraulic gantry or jack-and-roll, brace and strap it on the trailer, and level it on arrival.
There is no flat rate, because two Ottawa lab moves are rarely alike. The price follows the weight and size of each unit, the doors, elevators and docks at both ends, after-hours shifts, the distance, oversize permits, and extras such as crating or millwright work. Estimates are free, and our Heavy Lifting and Moving Calculator gives a quick range.
Plan in weeks, not days. The heavy lifting is usually the short part; most of the time goes into stopping research, emptying and decontaminating units and booking disconnects. The University of Ottawa sample schedule, for example, runs about 30 days, with the major equipment moved in week three. A City of Ottawa single-trip permit takes about three business days to process, and MTO asks for at least five.
Only when the load is over-dimensional. On City of Ottawa roads, a vehicle and load that meets or exceeds 4.15 m high, 2.6 m wide, 21 m long or 63,500 kg needs a City permit under By-law 2003-497, and Highways 417 and 416 need an MTO permit. Downtown, these moves are banned from 7 to 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 to 6 p.m. We apply for the permits.
Yes. We work to the site contractor rules: sign-in and escorts, protected floors and doors, after-hours or weekend shifts, and the infection-control or biosafety measures the facility sets. Your lab decontaminates equipment before it leaves a containment area, and a biosafety cabinet is decontaminated by authorized people before it moves. Send the site rules with your quote request, and we plan around them.
If the new lab or plant room in Ottawa is not finished when the old one must be emptied, skidded or crated units can be stored between the two moves, short or long term. Give us the sizes, weights and dates up front. Cold or powered items, samples and reagents are not stored with us and should stay with your lab team or lab mover.
No. We are not a medical supply store, a patient transfer service or a home medical equipment company, so we do not deliver supplies, hospital beds or patient lifts, and we do not move treadmills or other gym equipment. In Ottawa we move heavy lab, pharmaceutical, research and hospital plant equipment that needs rigging, from a single sterilizer to a plant room.
The whole city of Ottawa, from the Smyth Road hospitals and downtown labs to Nepean, Barrhaven, Orléans, Gloucester, Kanata and Stittsville, plus Arnprior, Carleton Place and Kemptville in the Ottawa Valley. We haul equipment to and from Gatineau and take longer moves to Kingston and across Ontario. Send both addresses with your quote request, and we confirm the crew and route.
