Machine Movement Edinburgh

Machine movement in Edinburgh and across the Lothians

We provide machine movement in Edinburgh for trade and engineering units, hospital and university plant rooms, businesses around Leith and energy work across the Forth. A job can be one machine or a complete line: new installations, relocations to another site, moves within a building, transport, storage, and removal of old plant for sale or scrap. In the Old and New Towns, setts and listed frontages mean the way out of the building gets agreed first.

We work across Edinburgh, Leith, Sighthill, South Gyle, Musselburgh, Dalkeith and Livingston, and out into Fife, West Lothian and the Borders. Most enquiries are priced the same working day from a desktop survey.

What a machine move involves

Each move runs from disconnection and making safe, through rigging, extraction and transport, to positioning, levelling and setting down on mounts. A crane and low loader come in when the machine leaves the building. Inside a unit we use jacks, skates and gantries. The weight and the route out set which kit we bring.

What we move in Edinburgh

Equipment	Where it usually is	How it moves
Machine tools, lathes and CNC centres	Engineering and trade units at Sighthill and out towards Livingston	Jacked up, set on skates and taken out to a waiting trailer
Process and packing lines	Manufacturing units across the Lothians	Split into sections, labelled and rebuilt in order at the new site
Chillers, air handling units and generators	Office roofs and plant rooms at Edinburgh Park and South Gyle	Craned to or from the roof, then skated across the plant deck
Laboratory, research and imaging equipment	Hospital, university and life science buildings	Air skates over protected floors, set down on marked positions
Heavy components and fabricated assemblies	Energy and fabrication work across the Forth in Fife	Craned onto a low loader and delivered to a prepared set-down area
Cargo handling and yard plant	Dockside and logistics businesses at Leith	Low loader and crane, with mats where the quayside ground needs them

Tell us the weight and size, and where it is going from and to, and we will say what the move needs. There is more on our machine movement service page.

Get In Touch

Please leave a few details and a member of our machine movement team will be in touch to discuss your requirements in more detail.

Where we work in and around Edinburgh

Our Edinburgh machine movement comes from six areas of work.

Edinburgh Park, South Gyle and Sighthill

The office campuses and trade estates on the west side of the city give us steady work. New machines go into trade units and old ones come out. When a firm outgrows its unit we move the whole workshop. See our industrial sector page.

Offices, hotels and shops in the centre

Central buildings keep their chillers, air handling units and generators on the roof or down in a basement plant room. Swapping one means a crane in the street or a skate route through the building, done out of hours if the occupiers need it. See our HVAC sector page.

Leith and the Waterfront

Leith has a working port with logistics businesses around it and regeneration along the Waterfront. Moves there are planned around cargo movements and the ground at the quay edge. See our maritime sector page.

Hospitals, universities and life sciences

The city has a large hospital, university and life science estate. Laboratory and imaging kit and plant room units are moved while patients and staff carry on around us, on routes agreed with the estates team. See our healthcare and pharma and education pages.

Energy across the Forth

Renewable energy manufacturing and infrastructure in Fife puts heavy components and fabricated sections on a programme the rest of the project depends on. See our power and renewables page.

Tram, rail and construction

Rail and tram equipment moves inside a booked possession, with overhead line clearances settled beforehand. On new schemes we deliver and set down the plant that goes into the building. See our rail and construction pages.

Access and planning for a machine move in Edinburgh

Points we check on most Edinburgh jobs:

Getting loads in and out. The A720 city bypass links the M8, A1, A7 and A702 and keeps heavy loads out of the middle. We check low bridges and weight limits before we price.
The World Heritage centre. Setts, steep streets, bus routes and listed frontages limit where a trailer or crane can stand. We fix the standing position and the route out at survey.
Floors and ground. The centre sits on rock in places and on made ground and old cellars in others, and much of the Leith waterfront is reclaimed. We confirm what a floor will carry before setting a skate route or crane position.
Working windows. Shutdowns and weekend work are agreed at the start. The August festival makes central access harder, so book early for that month.
Road closures. Where a load-out needs part of a road or pavement, we can arrange the traffic management and road closure with the City of Edinburgh Council.

Moving large or heavy machinery by road

A vehicle and load over 44,000kg gross, 2.9m wide or 18.65m long is an abnormal load. Up to 80,000kg the highway and bridge authorities need two clear working days’ notice through ESDAL, rising to five above that, when the police need notice too. Loads over 2.9m wide or 18.65m long also need two clear working days’ notice to the police. Above 150,000kg or 6.1m wide a Special Order is needed, applied for about ten weeks ahead. We handle the notifications ourselves or with your haulier. From Edinburgh, heavy loads pick up the A720 and leave on the M8 to the west or the A1 heading south.

Postcodes and areas we cover

We cover every EH postcode, across the city and the Lothians around it:

Central and north: Old Town, New Town, Stockbridge, Leith, Granton, Newhaven and Portobello
South and west: Marchmont, Newington, Morningside, Corstorphine, Sighthill, South Gyle, Liberton and Gilmerton
The Lothians: Musselburgh, Tranent, Dalkeith, Penicuik, Kirkliston and Livingston
Wider area: Bathgate, Falkirk, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Haddington and Galashiels

We also move machinery right across the UK.

Why Edinburgh firms choose Synergy Lifting for machine movement

Priced from the route out. We check the doorways and floors before quoting, so the plan holds on the day.
Moves fitted around your working week. Workshops and plant rooms are moved when you can release them, evenings and weekends included.
One firm from start to finish. We supply the crane, skates, jacks, gantries and transport, and our own people run all of it.
Qualified and accredited. CPCS and NPORS operators, lifts planned to BS 7121, equipment inspected under LOLER and PUWER, SSIP approved, Constructionline Gold Member, certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, and members of the Construction Plant-hire Association.

More than machine movement

An Edinburgh machine move can call for other services too:

How a machine move works

Send us the weight and dimensions, where the machine is now, where it is going and your dates. Photos help.
We price it, usually the same working day from a desktop survey. Complex moves may need a site visit first.
We prepare the method statement, risk assessment and lift plan.
On the day we rig, extract, transport and position the machine.
It is set down and levelled, ready for your engineers to reconnect and commission.

Common questions

Can you get a machine out of a building in the Old Town or New Town?

Yes, as long as there is a route out. We look at the street, the entrance, the doors and the stairs on the way. If the machine will not pass through whole, we take it apart into sections and rebuild it at the other end. Photos help us tell you early what will work.

We are moving from the city to a unit in West Lothian. Can you handle the whole move?

Yes. We survey both buildings, take the machines out, transport them and set them down in the new unit, with storage in between if the new floor is not ready. Tell us the order you need the machines running in and we will plan the move around it.

Who disconnects and reconnects the machine?

Mechanical disconnection and making safe is usually ours, and we position the machine precisely enough for commissioning. Electrical and control reconnection is coordinated with your own engineers or the machine manufacturer, and who covers what is agreed at survey stage.

Can you move a machine that has broken down?

Yes. Breakdown work is prioritised because production has usually stopped. Call us with the machine details and we will give you a firm attendance time on the call.

Get a quote for machine movement in Edinburgh

Phone: 0131 608 0165
Email: edinburgh@synergy-lifting.co.uk

Send us the weight, the dimensions and both locations, with a few photos if you have them.

We also provide machine movement in Grangemouth, Glasgow, Dumfries and Newcastle. See all the machine movement locations.