Plant & Machinery Installation

Positioning heavy plant and machinery isn't about raw lifting capacity - it's about control, precision, and protecting floors and finishes that can't be repaired once the building is handed over.

Generators, switchgear, air handling units, chillers, pumps, boilers - the mechanical and electrical plant that makes a building function is heavy, expensive, and almost always installed in locations that were not designed with the rigger in mind. Basement plant rooms, rooftop plantdecks, confined service corridors, and finished floors with strict load limits. The lift is rarely the problem. Getting the equipment to the exact position, without damage to the plant or the building, is where plant installation actually gets difficult.

Challenges

Precision placement with no margin for error

A generator that misses its anti-vibration mounts by 40mm has to come back up. In a basement plant room with 200mm of clearance on each side, that's a significant operation to repeat. Plant installation demands a combination of vertical lift and controlled horizontal movement, often simultaneously, in spaces where there is no room to manoeuvre. The rigging arrangement needs to account for the full travel path, not just the final drop onto the plinth.

Finished floors and structural load limits

By the time plant is being installed, the building is often in its final fit-out stage. Finished screed, raised access floors, waterproof membranes, and structural slabs with defined point load limits are all at risk from plant installation equipment that hasn't been selected with floor protection in mind. Load spreading, low ground pressure equipment, and the right combination of rollers and skates can be the difference between a clean installation and a floor that needs reinstatement before practical completion.

Low headroom inside buildings

Standard chain hoists and electric wire rope hoists assume overhead clearance that simply doesn't exist in most plant rooms. A 3-tonne chain hoist requires significantly more headroom than the hook height suggests once you account for the bottom block, the sling, and the lifting attachment on the plant itself. Low-headroom and ultra-low-headroom hoists exist for exactly this reason - but they need to be specified before the installation date, not sourced the morning the crane drops the equipment through the roof opening.

Equipment orientation must be maintained

Most mechanical plant has a defined orientation - pipe connections, access panels, electrical entries, and maintenance clearances are all position-dependent. A chiller that arrives on site on its side needs to be carefully turned before installation, not tipped upright on the spot with whatever rigging is to hand. The turning and positioning sequence is part of the lift plan, not an afterthought managed by the installation gang on the day.

What the regulations require

Plant installation lifting sits squarely within LOLER and PUWER, and often involves additional structural and building considerations that the lifting team needs to be aware of.

Key standards and guidance for plant & machinery installation:

■ LOLER 1998: all lifting equipment used for plant installation must be thoroughly examined and rated for the loads involved; complex or non-routine lifts require a written lift plan

■ PUWER 1998: all work equipment, including lifting accessories and machinery moving equipment, must be suitable for the task and maintained in safe working condition

■ BS EN 1492-2: specification for textile round slings used in plant and machinery lifting; WLL ratings must account for the actual sling angle in use

■ Structural load calculations: where lifting equipment bears on finished floors or existing structure, point loads must be calculated and verified against the structural engineer's load limits before the operation begins

■ CDM 2015: the principal contractor must coordinate plant installation lifting operations within the construction phase plan; where the building owner's structural engineer has defined floor load limits, those limits are a legal constraint on the operation

If you're installing plant into a live or partially occupied building, there may be additional requirements around out-of-hours working, dust and noise control, and access coordination that affect how the lifting operation can be planned.

Chain Blocks

Load Moving & Machine Skates

Gantry Systems

Toe Jacks

Pump & Pallet Trucks

Planning a plant installation and not sure what you need?

Tell us about the equipment weight, the installation location, and the access constraints and we'll put together the right lifting and positioning package. We'd rather sort the specification now than take a call when the delivery truck is outside.

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