The number nobody quotes upfront
A 50-person Boston office move costs between $80,000 and $250,000, all in. The spread is enormous because most quotes only cover the truck and the boxes. The other 60 percent of cost lives in furniture disassembly, IT coordination, building fees, downtime, and the inevitable fit-up corrections at the new space.
Here is how a representative 50-person move actually breaks down.
Line items most quotes miss
Movers and trucks: $15K to $40K. This is the part everyone quotes. It is roughly 25 percent of the real number.
Furniture disassembly and reinstallation: $10K to $30K. Workstations, conference tables, and storage often need a furniture installer, not a moving crew. If you skip this, you find out when the trader desks arrive in pieces.
IT decommission and reinstall: $8K to $25K. Cabling, monitor mounting, AV in conference rooms, network drops at the new space.
Building fees and certificates of insurance: $2K to $8K. Loading dock reservations, freight elevator overtime, COI requirements at both buildings.
New furniture or fit-up adjustments: $15K to $80K. The old furniture rarely fits the new floor plate cleanly. Conference rooms grow or shrink. Reception flips. There is always something.
Soft costs and downtime: $15K to $50K. Lost productivity during the move days, packing time, boxes, signage, address updates, communication.
Where the savings actually are
Three line items hide most of the cost reduction.
Plan the floor before the move, not after. A space plan delivered three weeks before move day cuts fit-up adjustments by 60 to 80 percent. Most overage comes from discovering on move day that the conference table is too long for the new room.
Phase the move. Doing 50 people in one weekend is expensive and risky. Splitting across two weekends, or moving department by department, lets you reuse the same crew and prevents the worst-case scenarios from compounding.
Decide what you are not bringing. Old furniture often costs more to move than it costs to replace with quick-ship product. Resale, donation, or recycling through a lifecycle program recovers value on what you leave behind. We use RESEAT for this on every move.
What to ask any mover
Before you sign a moving contract, force three numbers into the quote:
- ›Furniture disassembly and reinstall, line-itemed by category. - COI and building fee allowance for both buildings. - A fit-up contingency of 10 to 15 percent on the new space, written in.
If those are not in the quote, the quote is going to grow. The question is by how much.
