We have moved offices for law firms, medical practices, assisted living communities and shops around St. Petersburg and Clearwater since 2004, and the pattern holds: the physical move takes a weekend, the IT part takes eight weeks of small decisions. Here is the list in the order the decisions have to be made, with the one thing to do first at each step.

The Short Version

Order the internet the day you sign. Walk the space with a floor plan and mark every drop before the cabling contractor comes, and have the cabling done before the furniture. Back up everything and test a restore before the truck. Bring the network up before the people. Then spend the first week fixing printers, Wi-Fi and the addresses you forgot to change.

Eight Weeks Out: The Decisions With Lead Times

• Order the internet first. It has the longest lead time of anything on this list, and it is the one thing nobody can work around on Monday morning. Ask what is actually available at the address (fiber, cable, fixed wireless), order the business tier, and get the install date in writing. If the building needs a fiber build, you want to know now, not in week seven.
• Walk the space with a floor plan. Mark every desk, printer, copier, conference TV, wireless access point and camera, and count the network drops each one needs. Two per desk is the normal answer. This map is what the cabling contractor quotes from; without it you get the number of jacks the last tenant wanted.
• Pick the network closet. Somewhere lockable, with power, air that moves, and room for a rack or a wall cabinet. A closet that is also the mop closet is where equipment goes to die. If there is no good spot, decide now where the wall cabinet goes.
• Decide what moves and what gets replaced. A move is the cheapest moment to replace anything out of support, because the downtime is already on the calendar. Any computer still on Windows 10, any server past its warranty, any printer nobody can find drivers for: replace before the move, not after. See Still on Windows 10? and repair or replace.
• Start the phone number port now. If the phone system is changing, the number port runs on the carriers' schedule, not yours, and a port that lands mid-move leaves the phones dead. If the system is staying, confirm it will work at the new address and over the new internet.
• Ask the landlord about the rules. Low-voltage work usually needs building approval and sometimes a licensed contractor on file. In Florida that work is done by a licensed low-voltage contractor; we bring in A Plus Cable Runners for ours and stay the point of contact. Find out about after-hours access for the move weekend while you are asking.

Four Weeks Out: Build the New Space

Move Weekend: Network First, People Last

1. Friday: final backup, then shut down in order. Workstations first, then the server or network storage, then the network, then the UPS. Confirm the final backup completed before the first plug comes out.
2. Photograph every cable before unplugging it. The back of the rack, the back of each desk, the printer. Thirty seconds with a phone saves an hour on Monday.
3. Label and pack computers upright and padded. Monitors face to face with cardboard between. The server and any drives ride with a person, in a car, not on the truck.
4. Saturday: the network goes in first. Modem, firewall, switches, access points, in that order, then test the internet from a laptop in every room before a single workstation is unpacked.
5. Sunday: workstations, printers, phones, cameras. Each gets its drop, its power, and a sign-in test by the person who will use it. Printers get new addresses and get reinstalled on every machine, or they will be Monday's first call.
6. Forward the old office phone and set the auto-replies if anything is not ready, so Monday is quiet instead of chaotic.

The First Week: What Breaks, and the Chance Nobody Takes

Expect three things: a printer that is still looking for its old address, a Wi-Fi dead zone the floor plan did not predict, and one computer that did not enjoy the truck. The drive monitoring on every maintenance plan usually flags that last one before it fails outright. Fix the dead zone with an access point, not a repeater; our Wi-Fi dead zones guide explains why.

Then take the chance a move gives you and almost nobody uses. Everyone who had a key, a door code or a Wi-Fi password at the old building still has it. Change the Wi-Fi password, retire the old door codes, and run the offboarding checklist for anyone who left during the last year and was never fully removed. Turn on multi-factor sign-in for every account while people are already expecting things to be different. A new office is the easiest day of the year to raise the security bar, because nobody is attached to how it was.

Quick Self-Check

Frequently Asked Questions

How far ahead should I order internet for a new office?

Eight weeks is comfortable for a standard business connection in Pinellas. If the building has never had fiber, the provider may have to build to it, and that can take longer than the lease allows. Order first, before the furniture, and ask for the install date in writing.

Should we move the old server or replace it?

A move is the cheapest moment to replace anything that is out of support, because the downtime is already scheduled. If the server is on supported hardware and software, move it with a tested backup in hand. If it is not, migrate to the replacement before the move and carry the old one as a spare.

The new space already has network jacks. Do we need new cabling?

Test them first. Jacks in an older suite are often untested, unlabeled, or wired to a closet nobody can find, and some are not even Cat5e. A certified test of every drop costs less than one afternoon of troubleshooting a printer that will not connect. Add drops for the desks, printers, access points and cameras the test did not cover.

Can our staff work from home during the move?

Yes, if email and files are in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and the plan says so in advance. The office network can be down from Friday afternoon to Monday morning without anyone noticing, as long as the phones are forwarded and the one person who needs the server knows it is offline.

Related guides

All guides →

📞 727-579-4335  ·  ✉️ support@baygeeks.com  ·  Privacy Policy  ·  Terms of Service