Specialty heavy items
Tool & equipment movers
in Vancouver
A loaded rolling tool chest is not a chest of drawers. Tool chests, shop equipment and job-site gear moved on proper equipment by an insured crew — quoted once we know what you have, not by the hour.
- Liability insurance
- $2MLiability insurance
- Moves completed
- 500+Moves completed
- Google, 90+ reviews
- 5.0Google, 90+ reviews
Construction tool moving in Vancouver covers a wider range of people than the phrase suggests: a homeowner emptying a garage shop, a woodworker or mechanic with a bench setup, a tradesperson moving a van's worth of gear to a new yard. What they have in common is a small number of very heavy, very valuable, very awkward items and no safe way to move them alone. Operating out of Kitsilano since 2017 — 9 years, 500+ moves, 5.0 on Google across 90+ reviews, licensed in BC, $2M liability insurance and WorkSafeBC compliant.
Not a Buddy With a Truck
Most tool chests get moved by three friends and a rented van, and most of the time that works out. The times it does not are expensive in a way that is hard to unwind: a cabinet tipped on a ramp, a drawer full of sockets emptied down a staircase, a back injury to somebody who was doing you a favour and has no coverage for it.
None of that is about strength. A loaded cabinet is heavy, but the problem is that the weight sits high, moves when the item tilts, and is held in by drawer slides engineered to release at a touch. Handled with the right equipment it is a routine item. Handled by lifting one end and hoping, it is the item most likely to go wrong on the entire move.
What We Move, and Where the Line Is
In scope: rolling tool chests, top chests and side cabinets, workbenches, shop and bench equipment, compressors, welders, generators, shelving and racking, job-site gear, and heavy hand and power tools. The test is a simple one — if a crew moves it with dollies, straps, blankets and manpower, we move it, and Metro Vancouver plus Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton is the area we cover.
Out of scope, and we would rather write it down than let you find out: anything needing a forklift, a pallet jack, a crane or machinery rigging. Industrial machines, warehouse installations, plant equipment bolted to a floor and forklift-tier loads are not work we do or hold the equipment for. We are a moving company with an excellent set of dollies, not a rigging contractor, and the two are genuinely different trades.
If you are not sure which side of that line your equipment falls on, ask us and we will tell you straight. It costs you one phone call and it is a much better outcome than a crew standing in your shop discovering the answer together with you.
How the Job Runs
Six stages, two of which are yours rather than ours.
Tell us what you have got
A list and a couple of photos beat any web form. What matters is the heaviest single item, roughly what it weighs, whether it rolls and what is underneath it at each end — a concrete garage floor, a wooden deck, a set of back steps. A 72-inch loaded cabinet leaving a basement shop is a different job from the same cabinet leaving a ground-floor bay, and the difference shows up in the crew, not in the truck.
We quote it once we understand it
This is not booked against the hourly card. What the work involves depends on the equipment and the access, so the quote is put together after those are known rather than guessed from a dropdown. If something on your list is outside what we do, you hear that at this point rather than on the day.
You empty the drawers, drain the fuel
Two things need doing before we arrive and both are yours. Drawers come out empty or near it — loose hand tools in a cabinet that is being tilted are the single most common way a move like this goes wrong. And anything with a fuel tank or a fluid reservoir needs to be drained and made safe by you; we do not handle, transport or dispose of fuel, oil or coolant, and a generator that still has gas in it does not travel.
Everything gets closed, strapped and padded
Drawers are taped or locked shut, lids are strapped down, loose parts and hardware are bagged and kept with the item they belong to. Painted and machined surfaces are blanket-wrapped, because a tool chest is a piece of furniture as far as its finish is concerned and it will pick up a scratch on the way through a doorway like anything else.
On proper equipment, with the crew sized to the item
Heavy items travel on appliance dollies and straps rather than on their own casters, which are made for a flat shop floor and not for a ramp, a threshold or a lawn. The crew is sized to the load, not to the room, and the load order is set so the heaviest items are secured against the bulkhead first and are not resting on anything that will not take them.
Set where it goes, not inside the door
Equipment is placed where you want it standing, which for a shop usually means against the wall it will live on, with enough clearance to open. That is the step people skip when they move it themselves, and it is the one that costs an afternoon of shuffling a thousand pounds around a garage a foot at a time.
What Makes It a Specialty Item
Four reasons this is not booked like an ordinary piece of furniture.
The weight is in the wrong place
A loaded rolling cabinet carries most of its mass high and forward, in drawers that want to open. That is what makes it dangerous rather than the number on the scale — the same weight in a low, solid crate is a far easier item. Emptying the top drawers and strapping the rest shut changes the job more than adding another person to it does.
Drawers that roll open mid-lift
Ball-bearing slides are built to run at the lightest touch, which is exactly what you do not want while a cabinet is tilted on a dolly. Every drawer is taped or locked before the item leaves the floor. A drawer that opens on a stair turn takes the balance with it, and there is no good way to recover from that once it starts.
Worth more than it looks
A serious tool chest plus what is in it is frequently the most valuable thing in the house after the car, and unlike the car nobody thinks to insure it for a move. That is the actual reason to put an insured crew on it rather than borrow a truck and call in favours — not the lifting, the exposure.
Insured, and the crew is covered too
Licensed in BC with $2M liability insurance and WorkSafeBC compliant. On a heavy awkward item going down a set of stairs that second half matters as much as the first: an injury to somebody helping you as a favour is a problem that does not end when the item reaches the truck.
How It Is Quoted
There is no hourly figure on this page, deliberately. Tell us what you have and we quote it — that is the whole model. Two garages with the same floor area can hold wildly different jobs depending on whether the heaviest item is a workbench or a thousand-pound cabinet at the bottom of a set of stairs, and a published rate that ignored the difference would be a guess with a dollar sign in front of it.
What is never added afterwards: fuel, stairs, elevator or mileage. Protective gear — moving blankets, straps, tape and dollies — arrives with the crew and leaves with them, at no charge on any job.
Send the details through the form below or call (604) 726-9828. A request that mentions tools or equipment is read by a person rather than answered automatically, so what comes back is a real quote instead of a number that would need revising.
The Other Specialty Items
Pianos and pool tables are the other two items handled outside the ordinary hourly booking, and both are reviewed by a person for the same reason this one is. They price differently from each other and from this, so read each on its own terms: piano movers Vancouver and pool table movers Vancouver. For a single ordinary heavy item — a fridge, a sofa, a wardrobe — see furniture movers, which is a straightforward hourly booking instead.
Frequently Asked Questions — Tool & Equipment Moving
Can you move a heavy tool chest or rolling cabinet?
Yes — that is the most common request on this page. Full-height rolling cabinets, top chests, side lockers and combination units, loaded or empty. We ask that the drawers are emptied or close to it before the day, and everything gets taped or locked shut and blanket-wrapped before it moves. The item travels on an appliance dolly with straps rather than rolling on its own casters, which are made for a flat shop floor and will not survive a ramp or a threshold.
Do you move shop equipment and job-site tools?
Yes. Bench grinders, drill presses, bandsaws, table saws on stands, compressors, welders, parts washers, workbenches, shelving, and the general run of heavy hand and power tools that come with a working shop. Bolted-down equipment needs to be unbolted before we arrive — we will not cut or drill anything at either end. Anything with a fuel tank or a fluid reservoir has to be drained and made safe by you first; we do not carry fuel, oil or coolant.
How do you price tool and equipment moving?
It is quoted after an assessment, not off the hourly card, and there is no price on this page for that reason. The work depends on the heaviest item, how many there are, and what the access looks like at both ends — three things a form cannot tell us reliably. Send a list and a few photos, or call, and you get a real figure rather than an estimate that would have to be revised once somebody actually sees it.
Is my equipment too heavy or too big to move?
Sometimes, and we would rather tell you straight than find out on the day. The honest boundary is this: if it moves with dollies, straps and people, it is our job. If it needs a forklift, a pallet jack, a crane or proper machinery rigging — an industrial machine, a warehouse installation, anything bolted to a plant floor — that is outside what we do and we are not equipped for it. Ask before you book. If your equipment is a fit we will say so, and if it is not we will say that too rather than take the job and hope.
Do you bring the equipment to move it safely?
Yes, and it is never a line on the bill. moving blankets, straps, tape and dollies come with the crew and leave with the crew — reusable gear we own rather than a supply charge passed to you. Appliance dollies and ratchet straps are what actually carry a heavy chest; the blankets are what keep the finish on it. You do not need to buy or rent anything, and there is nothing to decline.
Can you move my tools as part of a full house move?
Yes, and it is worth saying so when you first get in touch rather than mentioning it on the day. A loaded shop changes the crew and the time the rest of the move needs, so it is scoped as its own piece of work inside the larger job. Told in advance it is straightforward; discovered in the driveway it is the thing that puts a move into the evening.
Request a tool & equipment quote
List the heavy items and roughly what the access looks like at both ends — photos help more than anything. Or call (604) 726-9828 — 7am to 10pm, 7 days a week.