Lift and Shift Cambridge

Lift and shift in Cambridge and across Cambridgeshire

We provide lift and shift in Cambridge for laboratories, healthcare and research buildings, technology firms, food producers and contractors across the county. The work is moving, lifting, lowering, turning and positioning heavy or awkward items where a crane cannot reach or cannot do the final placing: transformers and switchgear into switchrooms, chillers, boilers, air handling units and generators in and out of plant rooms and basements, machinery repositioned inside a factory, tanks and process skids, and delicate items such as display cabinets and laboratory equipment.

We cover Cambridge, Trumpington, Cherry Hinton, Milton and Histon, and out to Ely, St Ives, Huntingdon, Newmarket and Saffron Walden. With details and photos, we can price most jobs the same working day.

What lift and shift covers

In a lift and shift, the item is raised, lowered, turned or carried on gantries, skates, rollers, jacks and toe jacks, then set down on its base. A crane outside may bring it to the door, and our crew takes it from there.

What we lift and shift in Cambridge

Item	Where it usually is	How it moves
Switchgear and transformers	Switchrooms in office and research buildings	Skated through a double door, then jacked down onto the frame
Boilers and chillers	Basement plant rooms under older buildings in the centre	Lowered through a floor hatch on a gantry, then rolled
Laboratory and medical equipment	Upper-floor labs reached by a goods lift	Checked against the lift rating, then moved on padded skates
Presses and machine tools	Workshops and factory units across the county	Raised on toe jacks and rolled to a new bay
Standby generators and UPS	Basements and server rooms in office buildings	Rolled off the tail lift, skated in and levelled on its mounts
Display cabinets	Galleries and shops in the centre	Hand-moved on padded rollers over protected thresholds

Give us the weight, the size and both positions, and we will set out the method. Our lift and shift service page has more on how we work.

Get In Touch

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

Where we work in and around Cambridge

Our Cambridge lift and shift work comes from these kinds of building.

Clinical and research buildings

Healthcare and pharmaceutical buildings need chillers and laboratory equipment changed with wards and labs working either side of the route, on timings agreed with the estates team. See our healthcare and pharma page.

Offices and labs on the business parks

Business parks north and west of Cambridge hold research and technology firms. Their UPS and switchgear sit on raised floors, and heavy instruments arrive in crates too big for the corridor. See our data centre infrastructure page.

Listed buildings in the centre

Plant rooms in the historic centre sit in cellars and roof spaces never planned for a boiler. Everything comes in on hand equipment from a lorry in a narrow street, with stone steps protected.

New schemes around the edge of the city

Residential and commercial schemes in the growth areas to the north west need switchgear and air handling units set on their bases once the building is weathertight, usually with room for a crane alongside. See our construction sector page.

Stations and lineside equipment

Equipment rooms beside the track around Cambridge are small, and the possession fixes the time on site. Transformers and cabinets go in on skates and jacks within that window. See our rail sector page.

Packing and processing sites

Food businesses across the Fens reposition tanks and process skids when a line changes, inside a short shutdown. See our food and beverages page.

Access and planning for a lift and shift in Cambridge

Points we check on most Cambridge jobs:

Instruments next door. Cambridge research buildings are full of equipment that reacts to vibration and shock, some of it beside our route. We agree times with the users and move at a steady pace with no sudden drops.
Floors and voids. Lab floors can be suspended over service voids, and older central buildings have cellars. We check what the slab will carry and spread the load with mats or steel track.
Headroom and the route. We measure clearance with the item on the equipment, plus every door, corner, step and goods lift on the way.
People in the building. Labs and clinical buildings carry on while we work, so the route is barriered and marshalled, and moves can run at a weekend.
Standing the lorry. Vehicles in the centre compete with bikes and buses for very little road, so we settle where ours stands before the day. For part of a road or pavement we arrange the traffic management and road closure with Cambridgeshire County Council.

Getting it where it needs to go

A Cambridge job can run into a building, out of one, or be a swap with the old unit leaving on the same visit the new one arrives. Some stay outside: a transformer skated across a yard onto its plinth, a tank moved between buildings, a generator set on a new slab, or an air handling unit taken along a roof.

Inside, expect a basement stair, a goods lift in a lab block, a mezzanine, a ramp or a raised floor. Gantries, jacks, rollers and skates get past most of these, with a crane where it helps. If nothing fits, we strip back a door frame and make it good, or take the item through in sections.

Postcodes and areas we cover

We cover every CB postcode and the Cambridgeshire districts around it:

Cambridge: city centre, Chesterton, Arbury, Newnham, Romsey, Cherry Hinton and Trumpington
Around the city: Great Shelford, Sawston, Milton, Histon, Waterbeach, Cottenham and Linton
North and east: Ely, Soham and Newmarket
Wider area: St Ives, Huntingdon, St Neots, Royston, Saffron Walden, Haverhill and Bury St Edmunds

We also lift and shift right across the UK.

Why Cambridge firms choose Synergy Lifting for lift and shift

Kit matched to the route. Our own low-headroom gantries, toe jacks, skates and rollers let the method suit the building.
Crane and shift on one lift plan. When a crane sets the item at the door, the same team runs the move to its base.
Booked into your fit-out. On new schemes around Cambridge we fit our day into the main contractor’s programme.
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 lift and shift

A lift and shift in Cambridge is often one piece of a larger job, so we also offer:

How a lift and shift works

Tell us the weight, the dimensions and both positions, with photos of the route.
You get a price from a desktop survey, in most cases the same working day, or a site visit first for tight routes and unknown floors.
We draw up the method statement, risk assessment and lift plan, and check floor loading.
Our crew lifts, moves and positions the item.
It is set down on its base, levelled and handed over to your team.

Common questions

Can you replace equipment in a lineside room during a possession?

Yes. We stage the item and our kit as close as the site allows before the possession starts, so the hours on site go on the move itself.

Can you swap switchgear on a business park with only a short shutdown?

Yes. The new panels can be set beside the old before the outage, so the shutdown covers only the changeover, and the old ones come out afterwards.

How much headroom do you need?

Less than most people expect, but it decides the method. What counts is the gap between the top of the item and the lowest obstruction on the route once the item is on the equipment. Where it is tight we use a low-headroom gantry or jacks and lift in smaller steps.

Will you damage our floor?

Not if the route is prepared, and that preparation is part of the price. We spread the load with mats or tracks where the slab needs it, protect finished surfaces, and agree beforehand what gets covered and what gets made good.

Get a quote for lift and shift in Cambridge

Phone: 01223 790 068
Email: cambridge@synergy-lifting.co.uk

Send us the weight, the dimensions and photos of the route from door to base, and we will come back with a price.

We also provide lift and shift in Peterborough, Luton, Milton Keynes and Northampton. See all the lift and shift locations.