Our crews are used to working when things are tight. Spaces, timelines, the margin for error–we know how to operate and excel when there isn’t a lot of room to spare.

Woodinville Whiskey, an award-winning small-batch distillery in Woodinville, Washington, was in the midst of a major expansion of their facility. In partnership with Wilcox Construction, an expert commercial developer in Washington state, the distillery was increasing their production capacity by installing new tanks, a boiler, an air compressor, and two new silos.

But upgrading capacity means upsizing equipment, and that’s where our industrial machinery moving crews came into play. Wilcox construction asked our Seattle-based machinery moving specialists to assist with the removal of the old equipment, and the installation of the new, upgraded equipment — in a tight space, on a tight timeline. We were more than happy to oblige.

New Foundations, Same Footprint

The first step for our machinery moving crews was to remove the old equipment. We took out the old tanks, boiler, compressor and silos to make way for the larger pieces of equipment that could expand Woodinville’s volume and capacity.

Wilcox Construction had built new foundations for the new tanks, as there would be more of them, and they would be notably larger. Our team had to work carefully to negotiate moving in the larger tanks and boiler. The space was already rather tight, and since we’d be working inside of the same footprint, we needed to be extra careful and aware of how we moved the equipment in.

A Little Teamwork Goes a Long Way

Using our Hyster S155 forklifts, 60-ton boom trucks and 160-ton Liebherr crane, our team moved all of the machinery without any problems. The Liebherr crane was especially critical in moving the two silos. The silos needed to be set at the back of the facility, and then moved up and over the building to be set in the proper location.

There was quite a bit of teamwork to be proud of, as well. When one of the load cells on the new alcohol storage tanks was not reading properly, a member of our millwright team properly levelled out the load cells to ensure they read correctly. And when the job was done, we transported the old equipment to Woodinville Whiskey’s facility in Quincy, WA.

Our machinery moving and crane services crews worked fast and well to get the equipment placed and installed. We’re happy to report that both Wilcox Construction and Woodinville Whiskey were extremely pleased with our efforts. We’re grateful for the opportunity to support both of these fantastic companies in this exciting endeavor.