Every piece of manufacturing equipment has a life expectancy. Though, the actual equipment life varies, depending on usage cycles and maintenance practices. You can easily recycle, sell, or dispose of smaller pieces of equipment such as hand tools, motors, shop tables, and jigs when they’re no longer useful to operations. However, when much larger equipment and machinery reach the end of life or you’re planning to replace them with newer equipment, the removal and disposal process can present challenges. 

Those challenges can include pulling staff from their regular production or maintenance jobs to handle the teardown and removal. Staff may also be tasked with finding a buyer or location to recycle or dispose of the equipment. What accommodations must you make to remove heavy machinery? Having to handle commercial equipment and machinery removal in-house can disrupt operations that drive revenue and it may just be too big for you to safely handle. When you’re faced with the need for commercial equipment removal, what’s the best approach? 

The Most Efficient Method of Commercial Equipment Removal 

Whether you’re a major manufacturer or have a small fabrication shop in the San Francisco Bay Area, your time and resources are best spent on meeting your production schedules. When it comes time to remove aging or no-longer-useful manufacturing equipment, or you are trying to clear out a warehouse to sell a property, the most efficient method is to let professionals handle the project—start to finish. Here are five reasons a professional commercial equipment removal service can be the best option:

1. There’s no need to temporarily redirect staff away from vital production or maintenance responsibilities.
2. You may not have the proper equipment, tools, or skills needed for the equipment teardown and removal.
3. You’d prefer it be handled by insured professionals.
4. The safe transport of heavy (multi-ton) equipment will be delegated to experienced professionals.
5. Professionals can ensure the equipment is disposed of or recycled in compliance with Cal/OSHA and EPA guidelines.

A well-planned and efficiently executed teardown and removal process allows you to quickly reclaim valuable production space—a costly asset—considering Bay Area real estate prices. By outsourcing the responsibility for equipment teardown and removal to an experienced provider, you get the job done more efficiently, safely, and often at a lower cost in comparison to handling the project yourself. That’s one less headache for you. One quick way to reclaim productive space.

Scheduling Commercial Equipment Removal

When you contact a local service provider they’ll schedule an on-site visit at your convenience to assess the project requirements. Access to the equipment and infrastructure that can facilitate or impede teardown and removal is part of the assessment. If the scope of teardown and removal is relatively simple, you could receive a quote the same day. Complicated or large-scale commercial equipment teardowns and removals require a few extra calculations, but you’ll receive the quote within two days. 

The quote will include the estimated number of hours or workdays and list any special services that may be needed to complete the project. You can work with the provider to determine a start date convenient to your schedule. If weekends better suit your schedule, in terms of less impact on daily operations, that’s also an option.

Comprehensive Commercial Equipment Removal 

A competent commercial equipment removal service will handle all aspects of machinery teardown, from the nuts and bolts of dismantling the equipment and the task of safely transporting it from your facility to final cleanup of the shop floor. Machinery and materials will be sold or recycled to the greatest extent possible. Any unusable materials will be disposed of in accordance with Cal/OSHA and EPA guidelines. The result? Clean, usable shop space that you can immediately use for more productive purposes. 

Just Pick Up Your Phone, We’ll Do the Rest

If aging or unused equipment and machinery is occupying floor space that could be better used for more productive uses, a call to Industrial Metal Service is the fastest way to remedy that problem. We have experience in efficiently handling any of the types of equipment listed below: 

lathe drill press milling grinding hobbing boring

hydraulic press gear cutting broaching plasma cutter welding material handling

mechanical shear sawing compressor storage tank conveyor workholding column

conveyor pressure vessel heat exchanger generator fume hood tombstones

If your equipment is not listed, please contact us to discuss your teardown and removal needs.

And if you have a warehouse or yard full of unused machinery, we’re happy to tackle that project. We’ve worked with many companies that simply want equipment removed in preparation for selling the property. With a clean, empty facility, prospective buyers can more easily envision a property’s commercial potential.