Moving my workshop

[Thomas L Carpenter]

I plan on moving several states away next year and am wondering about the best way to move my workshop. It's actually a 2 car garage that I need to clear out a month or so prior to the move and am wondering about renting a POD or whatever they call those things. Plan to put my stuff in the POD and then restore the garage to it's previous "luster" because its kind of a disaster after having a workshop in it for nearly 20 years. Am looking for suggestions on what to rent. Also wouldn't mind some thoughts on how to restore the floor of the garage to cover up all those spills that occur over the years. Thanks for any help.

[Jim Becker]

Since you have a period of time that will require storage, the "POD" type idea is a pretty good one. Obviously, the nature of your tools comes into play here.

On the floor thing...there are appropriate finishes available to put on a "garage floor" that should help cover up the aging "mishaps".

[Jerome Stanek]

Do you have a truck that could pull a large trailer. By the time you pay for the pod and having it moved you could buy a large enclosed trailer and then sell it when you move

[Peter Christensen]

We moved from the West Coast to the Prairies a few years ago. Had a company called Big Steel Box drop a 20' shipping container in the driveway and I loaded it and then a second. They picked them up and trucked them here and dropped them off on our property for $6000Can. There are similar companies everywhere that do the same. I spread the shop and household things in both containers with the tools and machines on the bottom and the lighter household stuff on top of them. I built "fences" every 5 feet or so into the corrugations of the container as I loaded it. They kept everything from moving as there were no where near enough tie downs in the containers.

[Bill Bukovec]

We used U Pack/ABF. They dropped off a 28 foot trailer at our house. Three days later they picked it up. They will store your trailer as well. It cost us $3500 to move from Minnesota to Tennessee.

[Gary Ragatz]

No experience with the various types of containers, but I'd suggest lots of moving blankets - Harbor Freight sells them for cheap.

Re: the garage floor - save your time and money. Stains on the garage floor aren't going to make the difference between selling and not selling, nor likely to have much impact on price. Put the money into making the bathrooms and kitchen prettier.

[Charlie Velasquez]

...... that I need to clear out a month or so prior to the move and am wondering about renting a POD or whatever they call those things.....
Thanks for any help.

First, I removed the motors from my unisaw, DeWalt radial arm saw, and my 15” drill press.
I did not want that weight stressing the mounts, trunions, arm as the trailer bounced up and down driving on the roads. Others have left the motors on with no ill effects. That is all the advice I have for the move.

Second. You didn’t say what month you’re moving, but according to weather undergound, Clayton, NC, can get pretty muggy some months. You may want to evaluate your current procedures to abate rust and moisture, then try to duplicate those within the constraints of a storage container. If you are one of the lucky ones that never have to worry about humidity, then nothing needs to be done. If not, ....

A few years back our school district rented some pods to store desks and classroom furniture during a summer construction project, only to discover in mid August that all the metal desks and file cabinets had rusted and all the wooden desks and organic materials had been overcome with mold from the summer humidity. Eight entire classrooms of new furniture, supplies, books.... it wasn’t pretty.

An extension cord and dehumidifier could go a long way to protect your investment.

[Thomas L Carpenter]

All good suggestions except for the truck - I don't have one. I am also inundated with ads for moving pods etc because I searched for them on google. Thanks again. I really liked the one about leaving the garage floor as is.

[Tim Bueler]

I'll throw my two cents in. We moved a few years ago and used ABF like Bill B above for our household. We had that 28' trailer loaded to the gills. It was very convenient on the pick up end. On the delivery end that trailer full our life's possessions was left overnight in an open lot behind a grocery store in town. It got delivered the next day fully intact but we were not happy.

All my heavy shop equipment I moved myself on a gooseneck trailer inside a used delivery truck box that I picked up cheap. That box is now used for storage. That part actually worked out better than I had planned. I made a few trips with our more delicate/sensitive items (400 mi one way) on that trailer, though only one trip with the box on...it was huge, fuel sucking sail.

Something to keep in mind is how are you going to load your heavy stuff. I had a tractor with forks at my old place and a bigger one at my new place. The ABF trailer is 3.5' off the ground and the deck on my gooseneck trailer is 3' off the ground. PODS or similar I think sit on the ground when delivered.

As to the floor, we had several buildings for our various vocations/avocations. All had spots of some kind on their respective floors (I lived there for 34 yrs, it's gonna happen). Didn't seem like it even registered on the buyers. In fact, they weren't even sure what they were going to do with it all. They were mostly interested in the 3 most important things in real estate...location, location and location.

Good luck on your move!

[Jim Becker]

Pods are at ground level, but still require a little bit of lift to get stuff into them, so that has to be a consideration....some kind of ramp with a reasonable slope or something that can actually lift heavy stuff like stationary tools.

[Bill Dufour]

Machine shop types say Pod floors are too lightweight for heavy machines. Consider buying a cargo container so you have it for a storage shed at the other end. You could buy a big trailer and resell afterwards. If you do that think about renting a big truck just to haul the trailer.
If you buy a truck or trailer and resell the price will not go down just because you add 1000 miles. The resale price may be higher or lower in your new location. If lower it may be cheaper to buy in the new location and drive round trip.
Bil lD.

[Thomas L Carpenter]

I don't have any monster woodworking machines, just the basic 110v table saw, 14 inch bandsaw, jointer, old timey lath, benchtop machines, and assorted tables, benches etc. Should be ok for a pod type storage system. I'm old and creaky so I would rather sell everything and start over rather than face the job of lifting everything into a trailer or truck bed. Also considering hiring someone to do it for me but that would be a little pricey I think.

[Jamie Buxton]

PODS and ABF both publish load limits for their containers. You can check, but I’m pretty sure you won’t be near it.

[Bill Dufour]

I don't have any monster woodworking machines, just the basic 110v table saw, 14 inch bandsaw, jointer, old timey lath, benchtop machines, and assorted tables, benches etc. Should be ok for a pod type storage system. I'm old and creaky so I would rather sell everything and start over rather than face the job of lifting everything into a trailer or truck bed. Also considering hiring someone to do it for me but that would be a little pricey I think.

Ask the local high school sports team to come by and move the heavy stuff for you. Stuff them with piazza as payment along with a cash donation to the department. Football and wrestling come to mind.
Bil lD

[George Yetka]

If you do go the trailer route(buying and selling) you could pull it with a uhaul. My buddy rented a large uhaul and a car trailer for not too much money from Kansas back to Jersey.

[Thomas L Carpenter]

Just a ton of options. Latest one is to trade in our CR-V and Odyssey and buy a SUV with a little muscle and tow a trailer for my workshop and whatever we can get in and rent some space for the time being. Thanks for all the great suggestions. Kind of nice to have all this time to plan.

[Lisa Starr]

Our move was local, but we paid a private mover to move the workshops. I took the fence rails and CI extensions off the table saw and did some blocking on the 15" planer. I also packed all the boxes of "small stuff". Hubby had a blast cabinet, small mill, motorcycle lift, 5HP compressor and various smaller things like floor standing buffers. He also had several boxes of the small stuff. They charged us $375.00 to load, move and unload all of this and put it exactly where we wanted each piece. It was worth every single penny.

[Jim Becker]

Be sure that insurance for moving is for ACV or Replacement Value (preferred) not the default "by weight"...heavy, but expensive items like tools get short-changed if there is damage or loss with the default by-weight insurance from movers/carriers.

[Thomas L Carpenter]

Good point that hadn't occurred to me, thanks.

[Tim Bueler]

Our move was local, but we paid a private mover to move the workshops. It was worth every single penny.

That's what we did for moving my folks many years ago. And it was indeed worth every penny. Didn't even have to unload the dressers, they just loaded the whole works and, like Lisa said, put it exactly where we wanted on the other end.

Jim also makes a good point. We talked to several moving companies. Some weren't what you would call completely legit. Basically two guys and a truck (in fact one company was named Two Guys and a Truck) with no insurance at all, let alone the kind that gets you full replacement value. Caveat Emptor!

[Thomas L Carpenter]

I've moved a couple of times over the years but this is my first time going it alone. The others were corporate sponsored so not only was it easy it was also cheap. This time will not be easy and it sure won't be cheap and I definitely will hire people to do it. My original plan was to just move the workshop using a POD or similar system so I can get the garage empty a few months prior to the move. My thoughts changed a little based on all the excellent suggestions but I think my original plan may be the best.

[Dennis Filer]

I know someone who purchased a shipping container for about $1500, filled it, then hired a truck to move it. The advantage to him was that it was all done on his timeline, he was moving away from the coast so he was able to sell the container for more than he paid after he got settled.