A data center build is a parade of heavy, expensive, schedule-critical equipment: generators, UPS modules, switchgear, cooling units, and racks that show up loaded. We rig it off the truck, through the building, and onto its pad or floor — without cracking a raised floor or taking down the hall next door.
Quick answer: Data center rigging is the specialized moving and setting of critical infrastructure — generators, UPS modules and battery cabinets, switchgear, PDUs, CRAH and chiller units, and loaded server racks — in new builds and operating facilities. Badass Logistics plans each move around floor loading, clean handling, and live-facility rules, then rigs, sets, and levels the equipment on schedule with the build.
Data center equipment is heavy in ways that surprise people. A UPS module or battery cabinet can concentrate thousands of pounds on a small footprint. Switchgear arrives in long shipping splits. A loaded rack can weigh far more than the floor tile it has to roll across. And all of it has to go into a building where dust, vibration, and an unplanned power event are unacceptable — often right next to halls that are already live.
We plan data center moves around those constraints. Every piece is checked for weight and footprint against the path it takes: dock levelers, corridors, freight elevators, slab-on-grade, and raised floor. Paths get plated where they need it. Equipment is handled clean. Moves in operating facilities are scheduled with the site's change windows and escort rules, not around them.
On new builds, the challenge is sequence. Equipment arrives in phases as rooms become ready, and a generator that lands before its pad is cured is a problem. Our project freight team can receive and stage equipment, and our rigging crews set it as each space is released.
Standby generator sets and enclosures set on pads and in generator yards. See generator rigging.
UPS modules, battery cabinets, and battery racks moved into electrical rooms.
Switchgear shipping splits, PDUs, RPPs, and transformers set and aligned.
Cooling units into white space and chillers onto roofs and pads. See chiller rigging.
Loaded and empty racks moved across raised floor and slab with the right protection.
Modular power and cooling skids and e-houses set with crane or jacking and skidding.
The rigging methods are the same ones we use everywhere. The rules around them are stricter:
Raised floor systems, tiles, and elevated slabs have load ratings that concentrated equipment can exceed. We check ratings along the path and plate or bridge where the load needs to be spread.
Packaging is removed in designated areas, wheels and skates are clean, and debris doesn't travel into white space.
In operating data centers, moves follow change-management windows, security escorts, and restrictions on work near energized equipment.
Build schedules stack trades on top of each other. Rigging is planned with the general contractor so equipment is set when the room is ready and out of the way when it's not.
A lot of data center rigging happens outside: generators into yards, chillers and condensers onto roofs, transformers onto pads, and prefab skids onto foundations. Those are crane lifts or jacking and skidding jobs, planned with ground bearing, pad readiness, and the delivery sequence.
When equipment is coming from multiple manufacturers on different timelines, we can manage it as project freight — receiving and staging equipment off site and delivering it on the day the crew and the space are ready.
Transformers, generator sets, switchgear, and turbines — jacked, skidded, craned, and set on their foundations.
Transformers & Generators // riggingChillers, boilers, cooling towers, rooftop units, and air handlers — craned in, skated down, or rebuilt to fit.
Chiller & Boiler // riggingCrane lifts planned, rigged, and signaled by our crew — rooftop units, machine picks, and critical lifts.
Crane & Rigging // project freightProject cargo and project freight — container to warehouse, crating, and dedicated lanes managed as one plan, never one-off loads.
Project Freight // riggingEngineered lifts, machine setting, and heavy moves — from a few hundred pounds to 200,000 lbs and beyond.
Industrial RiggingSend the equipment schedule and the site. We'll plan the rigging around the build.
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