Key takeaways
- The cost of moving office IT is driven by the number of desks, the number of network drops the new space needs, whether you have a server, and how much is being replaced rather than moved.
- Cabling and internet installation are usually the two largest line items, and both belong to the new building, not the move itself.
- For a small Dallas office, the IT labor to disconnect, reconnect and test is typically one to three days of technician time.
- Weekend and after-hours work costs more per hour but is often cheaper overall because nobody loses a business day.
- I quote every move as a fixed project price after walking both spaces, so you know the number before anything is unplugged.
How much does it cost to move office IT in Dallas?
For a small Dallas office of roughly five to thirty people, the IT side of a move is usually a few thousand dollars in labor plus whatever the new space needs in cabling, internet installation and replacement equipment. The labor is the smaller and more predictable piece. The building costs are the ones that swing the total, and they swing on facts you can check before you sign the lease.
I am Anthony Omini, and I run office moves and new-office IT setups for businesses across Dallas–Fort Worth as a small, owner-led company: I walk the spaces, write the quote and am onsite for the move myself. I do not publish a price for moves because two offices with the same headcount can be very different jobs. What I can do is show you exactly what drives the number, give you typical market ranges to sanity-check any quote, and tell you how I arrive at mine. Every figure below is a typical range for the Dallas market, not my price. My price comes after a walkthrough of both spaces, as a fixed number.
Who does the work is the other half of the question. Movers move furniture. An IT company or technician handles internet, cabling, servers, computers, phones and the Monday-morning fixes. For a small office, one company can handle all of it, and the person who quotes it should be the person who plans it and shows up on the day.
What actually drives the cost of an office IT move
Every quote I write starts from the same handful of questions. If you can answer them, you can predict the size of your bill before anyone visits.
- How many desks? Each one is a computer to disconnect, label, transport, reconnect and test. Headcount sets the base labor.
- How many network drops does the new space need? A drop is one cable from the IT room to one wall jack. A desk usually needs one or two, plus printers, conference rooms, TVs, access points and reception. If the new suite has none, or the old ones are untested, cabling becomes the biggest line.
- Do you have a server or NAS? A server adds a clean shutdown, a verified backup, careful transport and a reconnect that has to be right before anyone can work. It roughly doubles the care, though not the hours.
- What is the phone system? Cloud phones move by plugging in. An on-premises phone system is a second server with its own vendor.
- What is being replaced? A move is the natural moment to retire an old server, firewall or switch. The equipment cost is separate from the move, but it changes the move.
- Weekend or weekday? After-hours labor costs more per hour and less overall, because staff keep working.
- How far and how many trips? Across the street in Downtown Dallas and out to Frisco are different days.
Notice that the questions about the new building, drops and internet, are the ones with the widest range. That is why I always ask to see the new space before quoting, even for a small office.
Typical market ranges for the pieces of a move
These are typical ranges quoted in the Dallas market for small commercial offices. They are here so you can judge a quote, not so you can add them up and expect my number. Cabling in particular varies with ceiling type, building rules and whether the work happens before drywall.
| Item | Typical Dallas market range | What moves it up or down |
|---|---|---|
| Cat6 network drop, installed and tested | Roughly $150 to $300 per drop | Open ceiling vs hard lid, plenum-rated cable, distance from the IT room, after-hours building rules |
| Rack, patch panel, switch, firewall, access points | Low thousands for a small office, more with a bigger switch or several access points | Reusing sound equipment vs buying new; port count; Wi-Fi coverage needed |
| Business internet installation | Often free to a few hundred dollars with a term contract; fiber construction can run into thousands if the building is not lit | Whether fiber already reaches the building; contract length; carrier promotions |
| IT labor to disconnect, move and reconnect | Roughly one to three technician days for five to thirty desks with one server | Server present, phones, printers, license re-activation, distance |
| After-hours premium | Commonly 1.5x the business-hours rate | Whether the move must happen on a weekend or evening |
| Decommissioning the old office | A few hours to a day | Data wiping, equipment disposal, removing cabling if the lease requires it |
If a quote lands far outside these ranges, ask why. Sometimes the reason is good, such as a building that only allows union labor or after-hours access. Sometimes it is padding. Either way, a clear answer is the tell. My own hourly rates for small pieces of work are published on the pricing page; the move itself is quoted as a project.
Why cabling and internet are usually the biggest line items
The move itself, carrying and reconnecting what you own, is bounded by your headcount. The new building is not. A suite that was last cabled for a tenant with six desks will need new cable for your fifteen, and an address that has never had fiber may need the carrier to build it.
Cabling cost depends on things you can see on the walkthrough. A drop ceiling with tiles that lift out is fast. A hard ceiling with no access means surface raceway or drilling, both slower. A fresh build-out with open walls is the cheapest moment there will ever be to run cable, which is why I try to be in the room with the general contractor before drywall. I go into the details in what structured cabling costs for a Dallas office.
Internet cost depends on what already reaches the building. If a fiber carrier is already in the riser, install is quick and often discounted with a term. If not, you are choosing between cable internet, fixed wireless, or waiting and paying for a fiber build. The lead time matters as much as the price: a carrier that quotes a great rate but cannot install until three weeks after your move is not a bargain. I explain the choices in getting internet into a new office.
The practical advice is simple. Before you sign, ask the landlord two questions: which internet carriers serve the building, and what cabling is in the suite now. The answers move the IT budget more than anything else in the lease.
What costs extra, and what people forget to budget
The surprises on an office move are rarely the big items. They are the small ones nobody put on the list.
- Software license re-activation. Some older practice management, accounting and CAD programs tie their license to a hardware ID or network address. Moving them can mean a call to the vendor and, occasionally, a fee.
- A server that does not survive the truck. Old drives sometimes fail after a ride. A verified backup makes this an inconvenience; without one it is a disaster. The cost is in the replacement hardware and the restore time.
- Two months of double internet. The old office contract keeps billing until canceled with notice. The new one starts when installed. Overlap is normal; three months of it is a planning failure.
- Number porting. Moving your phone number to a new carrier is usually cheap, but it takes weeks and a signed form. Rushing it does not help.
- Building rules. Some Dallas office towers require after-hours moves, freight elevator bookings and their own low-voltage contractor. Ask the property manager early.
- Old cabling removal. Some leases require the tenant to remove abandoned cable when they leave. It is a real cost and it is in the fine print.
- Extra monitors, docks and cables for a new seating layout. Cheap individually, easy to forget in bulk.
I put all of these on the checklist at the walkthrough so they are in the quote, not on a second invoice. The full timeline is in the office move IT checklist.
How to keep the cost of an office IT move down
You cannot change the size of your office, but there are several decisions that shrink the bill without adding risk.
- Order internet the week you sign. It costs nothing extra and removes the most expensive failure mode, which is a temporary connection or a delayed move.
- Cable before drywall if the space is being built out. The same drops cost noticeably more once the walls are closed.
- Retire before you move. Do not pay to move a server, printer or switch you will replace in six months. Replace it now and move the new one, or set the new one up at the new site and skip the transport entirely.
- Move to cloud files and cloud phones first if that was already the plan. A Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace office moves with laptops and a Wi-Fi password. I handle those migrations under Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace support.
- Let the movers carry monitors and desktops in proper packing, and reserve technician time for the server, network and reconnect.
- Give the technician the seating chart early. A labeled move is a fast move. Guessing which desk gets which computer is billable time.
- Remote configuration. Firewall, switch and access points can be configured from my desk before they reach your building, so onsite hours are spent plugging in.
The one place not to save is the backup. A tested backup before the move is a few hours of work. A failed drive without one is the most expensive thing that can happen on a move.
Hourly or a project price for a move?
Both models exist in the Dallas market. Hourly is honest when the scope is uncertain, and it is how I bill small pieces of work such as a Monday-morning printer fix or a single workstation setup. My hourly rates for business hours and after hours are on the hourly support page.
For a whole move I prefer a fixed project price, and I think you should too. A move has a known scope once both spaces have been walked: this many desks, this many drops, this server, this phone system, this weekend. Quoting it as a project means the risk of it taking longer is mine, not yours. It also means you can put one number in the budget next to the movers and the furniture.
The project price covers the plan, the pre-move backup and documentation, the disconnect, transport of the server and network gear, the reconnect, testing from every desk, and being onsite the first Monday. Cabling and internet are quoted separately because they belong to the building and they depend on what the walkthrough finds. Replacement equipment is quoted at cost with the model numbers, so you can compare.
What changes a project price after it is signed: a new floor plan, more desks, a building rule nobody mentioned, or a decision to replace equipment mid-move. I flag those before I do them, in writing.
How I quote an office move
The process is short. You send me the address of both spaces, a floor plan or a sketch of the new one, your headcount and the move date. I walk the old office to see what you have and the new one to see what it needs. For most small offices in Dallas, the walkthrough takes under an hour per site, and I can often do the new site with the general contractor or property manager present so the cabling and internet questions get answered on the spot.
You get back a written quote with three parts: the move labor as a fixed project price, the cabling and IT room work as a separate fixed price if the new space needs it, and a list of any equipment I recommend replacing with the reason and the cost. Internet is ordered in your name; I coordinate it, you pay the carrier directly.
If you are also weighing whether to keep me on after the move, the managed IT plan is month-to-month, and businesses that start with a move often stay on it because I already know every cable in their office. There is no obligation either way.
Ready for a number? Send me the two addresses and the date, and I will schedule the walkthroughs.
Questions people ask
What is a typical cost to move office IT for a small business?
For a small office of five to thirty people, the labor to disconnect, move, reconnect and test is typically one to three technician days. Cabling for the new space is commonly quoted in the Dallas market at roughly $150 to $300 per drop, and internet installation ranges from free with a contract to thousands if fiber must be built. These are market ranges; I quote a fixed price after a walkthrough.
Who does the IT part of an office move?
An IT company or technician, not the moving company. The IT side includes ordering internet at the new address, cabling, backing up and shutting down servers, labeling and disconnecting computers, reconnecting everything, testing from every desk and fixing what surfaces on the first Monday. For a small Dallas office I plan it, quote it and am onsite for it myself, with my team on the reconnect and testing, so there is one point of contact accountable for the whole plan.
Why does cabling cost so much more than the move itself?
Because the move is bounded by your headcount and cabling is bounded by the building. Each network drop is a cable pulled from the IT room through the ceiling to a wall jack, terminated and tested. Hard ceilings, long runs and after-hours building rules all add time. Cabling a space before the drywall goes up is much cheaper than cabling it afterwards.
Is a weekend move more expensive?
Per hour, yes. After-hours and weekend labor is commonly billed at about 1.5 times the business-hours rate in the Dallas market. Overall, a weekend move is often cheaper because nobody in your office loses a working day. For most small businesses the cost of staff sitting idle on a weekday outweighs the after-hours premium on the technician.
Does Cross River Tech publish a price for office moves?
No. Two offices with the same headcount can be very different jobs depending on the new building, the number of network drops, whether there is a server and the phone system. I quote each move as a fixed project price after walking both spaces, with cabling and any replacement equipment listed separately. My hourly rates for small jobs are published on the pricing page.
What should I ask a landlord before signing to control IT costs?
Ask which internet carriers already serve the building and whether fiber reaches the suite, what network cabling is in the space now and whether it was tested, where the IT closet is and whether it has dedicated power, and whether the lease requires you to remove cabling when you leave. Those four answers move the IT budget more than anything else in the lease.
