Resources
Office Moving & Furniture Installation Glossary
A plain-English glossary of the terms used in commercial office moving, furniture installation and reconfiguration, and warehousing and storage. If you have ever read a moving quote and wondered what "decant," "FF&E," or "COI" actually means, this is for you. Definitions are grouped by service so you can find what you need quickly.
Commercial Office Movers
The vocabulary of relocating a working business — offices, equipment, and people — with minimal downtime. See our office moving services →
- Commercial Move
- The relocation of a business, office, institution, or other commercial space, as opposed to a household. Commercial moves involve furniture systems, IT and equipment, records, and tight downtime windows, so they are planned and project-managed rather than simply loaded and driven.
- Move Management / Move Coordination
- The planning and oversight that keeps a move on schedule — site surveys, sequencing, labeling systems, floor plans, vendor coordination, and a single point of contact. Strong move management is the difference between a relocation you have to babysit and one the mover runs for you.
- Office Decommission
- Returning a vacated space to its required condition at lease-end — removing furniture, equipment, cabling, and signage, and dispositioning assets through resale, donation, recycling, or disposal. Decommissioning is often required to recover a security deposit or satisfy a lease's surrender clause.
- FF&E (Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment)
- Industry shorthand for the movable assets in a commercial space — desks, chairs, workstations, file cabinets, shelving, and equipment that is not part of the building itself. FF&E is the category most commonly inventoried, moved, installed, and stored during a project.
- Phased Move
- A relocation completed in stages — by floor, department, or date — rather than all at once. Phasing keeps part of the business operating while another part moves, and it often relies on short-term storage to hold furniture and equipment between phases.
- MAC (Moves, Adds & Changes)
- Ongoing internal changes to a workspace — moving an employee to a new desk, adding a workstation, or reconfiguring a team's area — without a full relocation. Many businesses retain a mover for recurring MAC work as they grow and reorganize.
- Certificate of Insurance (COI)
- A document proving the mover carries valid liability and workers' compensation coverage, usually required by a building's property manager before crews can work on site. Reputable commercial movers provide COIs quickly and can name the building owner as additional insured.
- Chain of Custody
- A documented record of who handled an asset and where it was at each step of a move or storage period. Chain of custody matters most for high-value, sensitive, or confidential items, where accountability and tracking are as important as the move itself.
- High-Value / Sensitive Equipment
- Items that require specialized handling — lab and medical equipment, servers and IT hardware, fine art, or precision machinery. These assets call for custom crating, climate control, extra insurance, and crews trained to move them, rather than standard furniture handling.
- Building Protection
- Temporary materials installed to protect a property during a move — Masonite floor runners, door-jamb and corner guards, elevator pads, and wall protection. Protecting both the origin and destination building is standard practice and is often required by the property manager.
- Loading Dock & Freight Elevator
- The dedicated access points crews use to move large volumes in and out of a commercial building. Dock availability, freight-elevator reservations, and approved move-in windows directly shape a move's schedule, which is why they are confirmed during the site survey.
- After-Hours Move
- A move performed evenings, overnight, or on weekends so a business can keep operating during normal hours. After-hours work is common for active offices and typically carries a scheduling premium over standard business-hours rates.
Furniture Installation & Reconfiguration
The terms used when assembling, installing, and reconfiguring office furniture systems and workstations. See our installation services →
- Systems Furniture
- Modular office furniture built from interchangeable components — panels, work surfaces, storage, and power — that connect to form workstations and cubicles. Because it is modular, systems furniture can be reconfigured and reused as a workspace changes, but it requires trained installers to assemble correctly.
- Workstation / Cubicle Reconfiguration
- Disassembling and rebuilding existing systems furniture into a new layout — changing footprints, densifying a floor, or converting individual cubicles into collaborative space. Reconfiguration reuses furniture you already own instead of buying new.
- Panel System
- The connected vertical panels that form the walls of a cubicle or workstation and carry work surfaces, storage, and power. Panel height, width, and electrical configuration determine a station's privacy, footprint, and installation complexity.
- Demount / Demountable
- Taking apart systems furniture or demountable walls so they can be moved, stored, or reconfigured. "Demountable" describes partitions and wall systems designed to be disassembled and reused rather than demolished.
- Knock-Down & Build-Up
- Industry terms for disassembling furniture at the origin (knock-down) and reassembling it at the destination (build-up). Most systems furniture must be knocked down to move safely and built back up to manufacturer specification on the other end.
- Punch List
- A final walkthrough list of small items to correct or complete after an installation — a misaligned panel, a missing keyboard tray, a drawer that sticks. Closing the punch list is what marks an install truly finished.
- Glass Stacker
- A glass panel that mounts on top of a workstation panel to add height and light while preserving openness. Glass stackers add installation steps and precision, which is part of why complex stations cost more to install than basic ones.
- Base Feed / Power Whip
- The electrical connection that brings building power into a furniture system's internal wiring. A base feed (or power whip) is installed by an electrician and ties into the panel system, letting workstations deliver power and data at the desktop.
- Manufacturer Standards
- The published assembly specifications a furniture brand requires for an installation to be correct and warrantable. Installers certified to standards for systems like Herman Miller, Steelcase, Haworth, Teknion, Knoll, and Allsteel build to those specs so the furniture performs and stays under warranty.
- Day-Two Service
- Furniture support after the initial install is complete — adjustments, small reconfigurations, additional workstations, and repairs as a business grows or changes. Day-two service is the ongoing relationship that follows the first project.
- Workstation Footprint
- The floor area a single workstation occupies, commonly described as dimensions such as 6x6 or 8x8. Footprint drives how many stations fit on a floor and is a primary variable when reconfiguring for higher or lower density.
Warehousing & Storage
The language of holding, tracking, and staging office assets in a managed warehouse between or beyond moves. See our storage & asset management →
- Decant Storage
- Temporarily removing the contents of a space so work can happen there — a renovation, construction phase, or buildout — and returning them when the space is ready. Short-term decant storage is what makes phased moves and in-place renovations possible.
- Asset Tagging & Inventory Tracking
- Labeling each item with a unique tag or barcode and recording it in a system so its location and status are known at all times. Inventory tracking turns a warehouse full of furniture into a searchable, accountable record you can retrieve from on demand.
- Asset Management
- Managing a business's furniture and equipment over time — knowing what you own, where it is, its condition, and what is available to redeploy. Good asset management reduces unnecessary purchasing by reusing what is already in storage.
- Pallet Racking
- The industrial shelving system used to store palletized furniture and equipment vertically in a warehouse. Racking keeps assets organized, protected, and accessible by forklift, which is why managed storage looks nothing like a self-storage unit.
- Staging
- Holding and organizing furniture or equipment so it can be delivered and installed in a planned sequence. Staging lets a buildout or large install proceed in the right order, with the right items arriving exactly when crews need them.
- Receiving & Inspection
- Accepting incoming deliveries — often new furniture shipped from a manufacturer — and checking each item for damage, count, and completeness before it is stored or installed. Catching freight damage at receiving prevents it from surfacing on install day.
- Short-Term vs. Long-Term Storage
- Short-term storage holds assets for days to a few months, typically between move phases or during a renovation. Long-term storage holds furniture and equipment for the foreseeable future — surplus inventory, seasonal assets, or items kept for redeployment — usually with tracking and scheduled access.
- Will-Call / Retrieval
- Pulling specific items out of storage and delivering them back to a site without moving everything. At a managed warehouse, partial pulls and scheduled retrievals are standard, so you can take only what you need when you need it.
- Climate-Controlled Storage
- Storage that maintains stable temperature and humidity to protect sensitive items such as electronics, wood furniture, artwork, and documents. Climate control prevents the warping, corrosion, and mold that ordinary storage can allow.
- Decommission Storage
- Holding furniture and equipment removed during an office decommission until it is redeployed, resold, donated, or disposed of. Pairing decommission with storage gives a business time to make disposition decisions instead of rushing them at lease-end.
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