Machine Movement Portsmouth

Machine movement in Portsmouth and across Hampshire

We provide machine movement in Portsmouth for engineering firms, marine businesses, hospitals and building owners across the city and county. The work covers single machines and full production lines: installing new equipment, relocations between sites, internal moves and re-layouts, removal and disposal, loading and transport, storage, and breakdown replacement. Portsmouth sits almost entirely on an island reached by three road crossings, so the route onto it is settled early in any plan.

We cover Portsmouth, Hilsea, Cosham, Portchester, Fareham, Gosport, Havant and Waterlooville, and out to Chichester and Petersfield. Most enquiries get a price the same working day from a desktop survey.

What a machine move involves

Each move goes through the same stages. The machine is disconnected and made safe, then rigged and extracted, transported, positioned, levelled and set down on its mounts. A move between units might need a crane and a low loader, while a re-layout can be done with jacks, skates and gantries. Which kit we bring comes down to the machine’s weight and the way out of the building.

What we move in Portsmouth

Equipment	Where it usually is	How it moves
CNC machining centres, presses and fabrication plant	Engineering units at Hilsea, Portchester and Fareham	Lifted on jacks, run out on skates and loaded by crane or gantry
Marine workshop and boatyard equipment	Yards and workshops around the harbour and at Gosport	Craned onto a trailer, with the tide allowed for at the water’s edge
Production, packing and assembly lines	Manufacturing units at Havant and Waterlooville	Split into sections, labelled and rebuilt in order at the new position
Laboratory and medical equipment	Hospital and healthcare buildings across the area	Air skates or a compact gantry, placed to marked positions
Chillers, boilers and air handling units	Plant rooms and roofs across the city	Brought down by crane or taken out through the plant room door on skates
Transformers, switchgear and standby generators	Substations and switchrooms around south east Hampshire	Low loader to the nearest hardstanding, then jacked and skated in

Tell us what the machine weighs and where it is going, and we will say how we would move it. The machine movement service page sets out each stage in more detail.

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 Portsmouth

Our Portsmouth machine moves come from right across the local economy.

Engineering and manufacturing on the estates

Hilsea, Portchester, Fareham and Havant hold the area’s engineering, manufacturing, fabrication and trade firms. New machine tools arrive, older ones are sold on, and firms outgrowing a unit move their whole shop floor a few miles up the road. See our industrial sector page.

Marine engineering and boatbuilding

Boatbuilders and marine engineers work along both sides of the harbour and at Gosport. Their CNC routers and moulding equipment sit in sheds a few metres from the water, and a crane on a quay means checking the ground and the tide before the date is set. See our maritime sector page.

Hospitals and healthcare

The area’s hospitals and clinics need scanners and lab equipment installed or swapped out while patients are still being seen. The route through the building and the hours we can work are agreed with the estates team before anything moves. See our healthcare and pharma page.

Colleges and public buildings

Colleges and council buildings replace workshop machinery and catering kit during the holidays, when corridors are empty and a lorry can wait in the car park. See our education sector page.

Building services across the city

Chillers and air handling units across the city are replaced as they reach the end of their life. Old units come down from roofs by crane or leave through the plant room door in pieces. See our HVAC sector page.

Construction and development

On new residential and commercial schemes we set plant skids and generators into buildings still under construction. Deliveries are timed to the site’s booking slots. See our construction sector page.

Access and planning for a machine move in Portsmouth

Points we check on most Portsmouth jobs:

Getting loads in and out. Heavy loads reach the area on the M27 and A27, with the A3(M) running north past Waterlooville. We check bridge heights and weight limits before we quote.
The crossings onto the island. Everything bound for the city comes over at Hilsea, on the Eastern Road or down the M275. We pick the crossing to suit the load and book arrivals outside the rush hour.
Floors and ground. Older workshops and commercial buildings can have floors of unknown strength, and ground near the waterfront can be soft. We check what will carry a skate route or crane outrigger and spread the load with plates.
Working hours. Early starts and weekend moves keep lost production down, and we agree the shutdown with you so you know when the machine will be running again.
Road closures. If a load-out needs part of a street or footway, we can arrange the traffic management, parking suspensions and road closure with Portsmouth City Council or Hampshire County 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 Portsmouth, heavy loads head out on the M275 to the M27, or along the A27 to the A3(M) for routes north.

Postcodes and areas we cover

We cover every PO postcode and the districts around the city:

Portsmouth: city centre, Old Portsmouth, Southsea, Fratton, Hilsea, Cosham and Paulsgrove
Harbour and west: Portchester, Fareham, Titchfield, Stubbington, Gosport and Lee-on-the-Solent
North and east: Wickham, Waterlooville, Havant, Emsworth and Hayling Island
Further afield: Chichester, Bognor Regis, Selsey, Petersfield and the Isle of Wight

We also move machinery right across the UK.

Why Portsmouth firms choose Synergy Lifting for machine movement

Checked before it is quoted. We check the floors and the lifting points before we fix a price.
Used to buildings that keep working. Hospitals and factories that carry on running while we work are normal for us, and we plan deliveries and walkways around your staff.
One firm from start to finish. The crane outside and the skates, jacks and gantries inside are ours, along with the 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

A Portsmouth machine move can call for other services too:

How a machine move works

Tell us what the machine weighs, its size, where it is now and where it needs to go, with your dates. Photos help.
We price it from a desktop survey, the same working day in most cases. Larger or more complex moves may need a site visit first.
We write the method statement, risk assessment and lift plan.
On the day we rig and extract the machine, then transport it and position it.
It is set down and levelled, ready for your engineers to reconnect and commission it.

Common questions

Can you move machinery out of a workshop by the water?

Yes. We check the quay or yard surface where the crane will stand, and where the tide affects access we time the lift around it. Send us photos and we will tell you what works.

We are moving from the island to a unit on the mainland. Can you handle the whole relocation?

Yes. We plan the order the machines leave in, pick the crossing and arrival time for each load, and set everything down in the order your engineers want to reconnect 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 a stopped machine means stopped production. Call us with the details and we will give you a firm attendance time on the call.

Get a quote for machine movement in Portsmouth

Phone: 023 9388 2296
Email: portsmouth@synergy-lifting.co.uk

Tell us the weight, the size and the two addresses, and add photos if you have them.

We also provide machine movement in Southampton, Bournemouth, Brighton and Reading. See all the machine movement locations.