Contents
Lift and shift in Milton Keynes and across Buckinghamshire
We provide lift and shift in Milton Keynes for warehouse operators, data centre builders, manufacturers and main contractors across the city and north Buckinghamshire. We move, lift, lower, turn and position 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, machinery repositioned inside factories, tanks and process skids, and delicate items such as display cabinets and laboratory equipment.
We work across Milton Keynes, Bletchley, Wolverton, Kingston and Newport Pagnell, and out to Buckingham, Aylesbury, Bedford and Northampton. Most jobs are priced the same working day.
What lift and shift covers
It is the work that starts once an item is off the lorry: raising it, turning it through a doorway, carrying it along a route and setting it down on its base, using gantries, skates, rollers, jacks and toe jacks. Where a crane lands the item at the door, our crew takes over from there.
What we lift and shift in Milton Keynes
| Item | Where it usually is | How it moves |
|---|---|---|
| Transformers and switchgear | Switchrooms in office and business park buildings | Jacked onto skates, turned inside the room and lowered onto the plinth |
| Boilers and air handling units | Plant rooms reached by a goods lift or a stair core | Split into sections for the lift car and rebuilt on the base |
| Standby generators and UPS | Enclosures and service yards behind distribution sheds | Rolled into the acoustic housing and levelled on mounts |
| Production machinery and presses | Factory floors being rearranged for a new line | Skated down the aisle past running machines, then shimmed level |
| Tanks and process skids | Process areas in manufacturing units | Gantry lift over pipework and bunds |
| Display cabinets and laboratory equipment | Showrooms, galleries and test rooms | Padded rollers over covered floors |
Tell us the weight, the footprint and where it has to end up, and we will set out the method. Our lift and shift service page has more detail.
Contact us
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 Milton Keynes
Our lift and shift work here comes from these buildings.
Distribution sheds
The big sheds keep switchgear and generators in plant rooms far from the dock doors, and some machinery up on mezzanines, so most items travel the length of the building. See our industrial sector page.
Data halls and electrical rooms
In a data centre our part is the last stretch: switchgear panels and UPS cabinets taken from the loading bay through airlocks to the electrical rooms, where door widths and turning space decide the method. See our data centre infrastructure page.
New buildings before handover
New offices and apartment blocks need their plant placed once the building is closed in, and we carry it from where the crane leaves it to rooms that scaffold has made hard to reach. See our construction sector page.
Factory floors
Engineering firms on the industrial estates move machines to make room for new equipment. Each one is lifted off its feet, skated to the new bay and set level while the rest of the unit keeps working. See our automotive sector page.
Offices and healthcare buildings
Chillers in central offices and laboratory equipment in healthcare and university buildings are moved with staff still inside. See our HVAC and healthcare and pharma pages.
Substations and switchrooms
Substation doors are sized for the equipment and little else, so the old transformer is jacked out on skates and the new one brought in the same way. See our power and renewables page.
Access and planning for a lift and shift in Milton Keynes
Points we check on most Milton Keynes jobs:
- Tight plots on new schemes. New buildings here often sit on plots squeezed between a grid road and a roundabout, with little room for a lorry. The item may come off well away from its room, so we plan a longer skate route.
- Floor loading. Upper floors and raised access floors are not built for point loads. We check each one on the route and lay steel plates or mats where the figures call for it.
- Headroom and the route. We measure every door, lift car, corner and ceiling between drop-off and base, with the item on the equipment.
- Working inside a live shed. We agree a route across the distribution floor that crosses as few forklift lanes as possible, and a banksman stays with the load.
- Road space. If a delivery needs a lane or footway closed, we arrange it with Milton Keynes City Council.
Getting it where it needs to go
Some jobs take new plant in and others clear old plant out, while many do both in one visit. Plenty never go indoors: a transformer moved across a yard, a tank set onto a plinth, a generator shifted between two buildings, or a unit placed on a roof.
The obstacles here come from modern buildings. Dock doors sit well above the yard, shed mezzanines have only small goods lifts, office lift cars are smaller than the plant, and data halls have raised floors with ramps at the doors. Gantries and jacks handle the level changes, with skates and rollers for distance. If it still will not fit, a door frame comes out and is made good, or the item goes through in sections.
Postcodes and areas we cover
We cover every MK postcode and the districts around the city:
- Milton Keynes: Central Milton Keynes, Wolverton, Stony Stratford, Shenley, Bletchley, Kingston and Blakelands
- North and east: Olney, Newport Pagnell, Woburn, Cranfield and Bedford
- South and west: Buckingham, Winslow, Aylesbury and Leighton Buzzard
- Wider area: Northampton, Rugby, Luton, Bicester and Hemel Hempstead
We also lift and shift right across the UK.
Why Milton Keynes firms choose Synergy Lifting for lift and shift
- Planned back from your handover date. New buildings and data halls work to dates that cannot slip, and we book the crew to meet them.
- The crane lift and the move inside on one plan. The team that lands the item at the door carries it the rest of the way.
- Clear answers from photos. A method and a price come from photos and drawings, and we say early if a visit is needed.
- 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 often sits inside a larger project, so we also offer:
How a lift and shift works
- Send the weight, the dimensions, both positions and photos of the route.
- We price it the same working day from a desktop survey, visiting first if the route is tight or the floors unknown.
- A method statement, risk assessment and lift plan are drawn up and floor loadings checked.
- Our crew lifts the item, moves it along the route and positions it.
- It is set down, levelled and handed over to you.
Common questions
Can you get plant up onto a mezzanine in a distribution shed?
Yes. A gantry at the edge or a crane through a roller door lifts it up, and skates take it across the deck. We check the deck rating before quoting.
There is nowhere for a lorry to stand on our new site. Can you still get the plant in?
Yes, in most cases. The lorry stops on the nearest suitable road under traffic management, and the item travels on skates over temporary tracks to the building.
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 Milton Keynes
- Phone: 01908 538 235
- Email: miltonkeynes@synergy-lifting.co.uk
Send us the weight, the dimensions and photos of the route for a method and a price.
We also provide lift and shift in Northampton, Luton, Oxford and Cambridge. See all the lift and shift locations.