26 questions, answered properly

For most commercial clients, a binding not-to-exceed. It sets a ceiling you cannot go above and still lets the invoice fall if the shipment weighs less than estimated. A straight binding estimate is better when finance needs one immovable number; a non-binding estimate only makes sense when the inventory is genuinely unknown at quote stage.

On a non-binding interstate estimate, the carrier may collect no more than 110 percent of the estimated charges at delivery. The balance is billed later, typically after 30 days. It protects your cash flow on the day, not your budget over the project.

Local work inside the Houston area is charged on crew hours plus truck, portal to portal. Interstate shipments are priced from a published tariff on net weight against a mileage band, then discounted. The dividing line is who carries the risk of a slow day: on hourly work that is you, on a tariff shipment it is the carrier.

The billable clock starts when the truck leaves our Milwee Street yard and stops when it returns. Inside Beltway 8 that is typically 45 to 75 minutes across the job; The Woodlands and Clear Lake can reach two hours. We state the figure in the scope before you book.

Not if the survey was done properly. Stair carry above the first flight, long carry beyond 75 feet and shuttle service are all identified at survey and written into the scope. If we miss something, that is our error to absorb, not your invoice to grow.

For projects above roughly $10,000 we take a scheduling deposit that holds the crew, the trucks and the elevator windows. It is credited against the final invoice. Smaller hourly jobs are invoiced after completion on approved commercial terms.

Twelve weeks for anything above 50 seats. The constraint is rarely our crew availability, it is the freight elevator: downtown Houston towers are commonly booked four to six weeks out, and in peak lease-turnover months that stretches further.

Usually yes. Most Houston tenants under about 40,000 square feet move Friday evening to Sunday afternoon and open Monday. Larger footprints are phased across consecutive weekends by floor or by department.

Freight car dimensions and hours, dock height and truck limits, door widths, the distance from truck to lift at both ends, stair flights, floor loading where equipment is involved, seat counts, linear feet of filing, and every item that is not a desk or a chair.

The project manager who surveyed your space. They write the scope, run the move window, walk the punch list and sign it. There is no handover to a dispatcher you have never spoken to.

The shipment goes into storage in transit at our warehouse under the same move paperwork, rather than a separate contract. If the delay runs long we convert it to a permanent storage agreement in writing, and we tell you when that line is being crossed.

Within 24 hours of receiving the building's requirement. Send us the insurance schedule from the property manager and we will return a certificate with the exact additional insured wording, which leaves time for a rejection and a reissue before the five-business-day deadline most Houston towers apply.

Commercial general liability at $1,000,000 each occurrence and $2,000,000 aggregate, automobile liability at $1,000,000 combined single limit, statutory Texas workers compensation with a waiver of subrogation, employers liability at $1,000,000 each accident, and a $5,000,000 umbrella. Higher limits can be arranged for towers that require them.

Masonite over finished floors, ram board in corridors, corner guards on every turn, door jamb protection at both ends, and elevator pads hung by the building engineer. We photograph the protection before the first item moves and again after the last.

Every mover on our payroll is background checked before their first shift. That is what allows crew rosters to be accepted at campuses, hospitals and contractor sites without a late rejection on move night.

No. Every crew member is our employee, covered by our workers compensation, trained on our labelling and protection standards and carried on the roster we submit to building security.

Each one is logged by asset tag and serial, bagged, closed with a numbered tamper-evident seal and signed for at every transfer between origin, vehicle and destination. Seals are verified and recorded before anything goes back into a rack, and the log goes into your project file.

No. Racks and appliances move in a dedicated air-ride load, both for shock protection and so custody is not mixed with general contents. Temperature is kept inside operating range for the whole transit.

Your IT team. They own the shutdown, the testing and the go or no-go call. We own the physical handling, the destination elevation, the cabling to the port map and the custody record.

No. Reagents, solvents, compressed gas cylinders, aerosols and hazardous waste are cleared by a licensed contractor or hand-carried by your own staff under your own procedures. We say this at survey because it is the most common surprise in a laboratory relocation.

Yes, under a written method statement with a measured route and a floor loading check at destination. Safes up to about 1,200 pounds can go on a stair run with a powered climber; above that we look at elevator access or an external lift. Imaging units are rigged by us and recommissioned by the manufacturer's engineer.

Five business days after the move by default, which gives staff a working week to unpack. Extensions are billed at the weekly crate rental rate, so book the collection date realistically rather than optimistically.

Nine months from delivery to file in writing. The carrier must acknowledge within 30 days and pay, decline or make a firm settlement offer within 120 days. File as soon as you find something, including concealed damage, rather than waiting until month eight.

Anything not finished when the crew stands down: a monitor arm short of a bracket, a door that needs rehanging, three crates in the wrong zone. Each line has an owner and a date, and the project manager closes it out rather than leaving it with you.

We can. Decommission is quoted as a separate scope covering abandoned furniture removal, cabling pull, tenant signage, data destruction, broom-clean finish and the landlord handback walk, with a weighed landfill diversion report at the end.

Yes. Releases are scheduled and picked by barcode, staged in the order your installers need, and delivered to site. One large release costs less than six small ones because each delivery carries its own transport charge.