Picture Monday morning at the new office. Desks are assembled, the kitchen is stocked, and twenty people are standing around holding laptops because the internet circuit is scheduled for Thursday. Nobody forgot the internet. Somebody just ordered it the week of the move.
An office move is a construction project with an IT project hidden inside it. The IT part has hard lead times, and most of them start the day the lease is signed, not the week before you move. This checklist walks through them in order.
The one date that drives everything: internet installation
In our experience, business internet takes about 7 business days from order to installation. That sounds manageable until you add the things that eat into it: a landlord who needs to approve the riser path, a building contact who is out, an install window that doesn't line up with your electrician. Treat seven business days as the floor, not the plan.
Rule of thumb: order internet the week the lease is signed, and order a backup at the same time. A second provider or a cellular backup keeps you working if the main line is late, and it stays useful as failover long after the move.
Your timeline, working backwards from move day
4 to 6 weeks out
- Walk the new space with an engineer. Where does internet enter the building? Where will the network closet go? Is there power and ventilation there?
- Order internet and a backup connection. Get the order numbers and install dates in writing.
- Start moving your phone numbers. Number porting timelines depend on the carrier, so start early and don't cancel the old service until the port is confirmed.
- List everything that plugs in: desks, printers, access points, cameras, door access, conference rooms, TVs. This list becomes your cabling and network plan.
3 to 4 weeks out
- Install cabling. Run at least two data drops per desk and a dedicated drop for every access point, camera and printer. Cat6 carries 10 Gb/s only up to about 55 meters, and less in tightly bundled runs; Cat6A carries it the full 100 meters and is the safer choice for longer runs and for access points you'll upgrade later.
- Label both ends of every cable and match the labels to a floor plan. Unlabeled patch panels are how a 10-minute fix becomes a two-hour one.
- Prepare the closet: a rack, a dedicated circuit, a UPS, and a way to get heat out. A closed closet with a firewall, switches and a small server in it gets hot fast.
2 weeks out
- Size the switches, including PoE power. Access points, desk phones and cameras draw power from the switch. Standard PoE (802.3af) supplies up to 15.4 W per port, PoE+ (802.3at) up to 30 W, and PoE++ (802.3bt) up to 60 or 90 W. Add up what you'll plug in and compare it to the switch's total PoE budget, not just the port count.
- Plan access point placement for the new floor plan. Walls, glass, elevator cores and filing cabinets all change coverage. Plan access points by where people sit and meet, not one per room. (Here's why office Wi-Fi gets slow when this step is skipped.)
- Pre-configure the firewall (we deploy both FortiGate and Meraki; see our Fortinet vs. Meraki comparison) with your rules, VPN and the new internet details, so moving it is a swap, not a rebuild.
1 week out
- Test the new internet line. Confirm speed, static IPs if you have them, and that the ISP's equipment is in the closet where you expect it.
- Stage and label equipment so everything goes to a known spot on move day.
- Tell staff what to bring and what not to touch. Laptops go home with their owners; desktops get labeled by desk number.
Move weekend
- Network first: firewall, switches, access points. Confirm internet and Wi-Fi before anything else arrives.
- Servers and storage next, then printers and conference rooms.
- Workstations last, desk by desk, against the label list.
Day one
Before staff arrive, someone should sit at a desk and test like a new employee (this is where on-site support earns its keep): log in, browse, print, join a video call, connect to the VPN, open the line-of-business app, make and receive a phone call, and walk the floor on Wi-Fi. Anything that fails this test gets fixed before 9 AM, not reported at 9:15.
The week after
- Update your network documentation: diagram, IP ranges, Wi-Fi names, closet photos.
- Cancel the old circuits and phone service, but only after everything is confirmed working.
- Retire or wipe equipment you're not bringing along.
The mistakes we see most often
- Ordering internet late. Seven business days goes quickly when approvals are involved.
- No backup connection. One circuit means one point of failure on the most important day. A second line with SD-WAN failover fixes this permanently.
- A closet with no cooling. Equipment that ran fine in the old office overheats in a closed room.
- Not enough PoE. The switch has enough ports but not enough power for every access point and phone.
- Cabling by guesswork. Too few drops, no labels, and no drop where the access points actually need to go.
Printable checklist
- Internet ordered (plus backup), install dates confirmed
- Phone number port started
- Device list and cabling plan done
- Cabling installed and labeled, closet powered and ventilated
- Switch PoE budget checked, access point locations planned
- Firewall pre-configured
- New line tested the week before
- Move-weekend order: network, servers, printers, desks
- Day-one test completed before staff arrive
- Documentation updated, old services cancelled
Sources
- Power over Ethernet standards and wattage (FS.com)
- Category 6 cable: 10GBASE-T distance limits (Wikipedia)
Vendor details checked September 2026. Licensing and product features change; confirm current terms with the vendor before you buy.
