On-site crating means the crate is built around the item where it stands, rather than the item being moved to a crating shop. It exists because some things cannot be moved safely until they are packed, and some things cannot be moved at all until a wall comes down. A crew arrives with lumber, tools and materials, surveys the item and the route out, and builds to fit. Here is how the process runs, what determines whether it is the right approach, and what changes when the location is a casino, a convention hall or an occupied building.
We have been doing this in Las Vegas for over 25 years, in casino back of house, on convention floors, in galleries and in industrial facilities. Our on-site crating service page covers what we offer. This covers how it actually works.
When Do You Need On-Site Crating?
Any one of these makes it the right call:
- The item will not fit through the door. Sculpture, tooling, oversized signage and machinery installed before the walls were finished. If it cannot leave uncrated, it certainly cannot leave crated, so the packing has to happen where it is and the route out has to be solved separately.
- Moving it uncrated is the risk. For fragile, high value or unstable items, the trip across the floor is more dangerous than the trip across the country. Packing first removes the most hazardous leg.
- It is fixed in place. Bolted, plumbed, wired or built in. Disconnection and crating are one job with one sequence.
- It has no lift points. Irregular objects with no safe place to put a strap need a structure built around them before anything touches them.
- The schedule will not allow a round trip. During show weeks or casino installs, sending an item out to be crated and back is time nobody has.
If none of these apply and the item can travel safely to a shop, shop crating is usually cheaper and faster. We will say so.
The On-Site Crating Process, Step by Step
Step 1: Consultation and Site Survey
It starts with a call and, for anything non trivial, a site visit. Two surveys happen at once. The first is of the item: dimensions, weight, center of gravity, bearing points, surfaces that cannot be touched, and how it comes apart if it does. The second is of the building, which is the part that gets underestimated.
What the site survey records:
- Door and corridor widths, ceiling clearance, turning radii, and every pinch point on the route out
- Elevator dimensions and weight capacity, or the absence of one
- Floor load capacity, especially on upper floors and raised or mezzanine decks
- Dock height, dock access, and where the truck can physically stop
- Whether rigging or hoisting is needed, and what that means for scheduling and specialist trades
- Power availability for tools, and any restrictions on noise, dust or hot work
- Access hours, badging, escorts and any site induction requirements
The route out is the constraint that decides the crate design. A crate sized correctly for the item and incorrectly for the doorway is a very expensive mistake to discover on build day.
Step 2: Design and Material Preparation
The crate is designed against the load, the route and the transport mode before anything is cut. Load weight selects the construction class, panel spans set thickness, and the destination determines whether ISPM 15 heat treated lumber is required. The engineering logic is covered in our post on how wood crates are engineered, and material selection in the crate materials guide.
Components are usually pre-cut at the shop and brought to site as a kit. This matters more than it sounds: cutting on a casino floor or in a gallery is slower, noisier, dustier and sometimes not permitted at all. The more that is prepared beforehand, the less disruption on site and the shorter the window you need.
Step 3: Building Around the Item
The crew assembles in sequence: base and skids first, since everything references off the base and it must be positioned for the forklift or pallet jack that will eventually lift it. Then the frame goes up around the item, internal blocking and cradles are fitted so the item cannot shift in any direction, cushioning is placed against bearing surfaces only, and the panels close it in.
Protection is chosen for the route, not by default. Vapor barrier bags with desiccant for ocean freight or long storage, heat shrink wrapping for large assemblies, and polyethylene or polyurethane foam cushioning matched to the weight and fragility of what it is supporting.
Step 4: Closing, Marking and Documentation
Screwed closures where the crate will be reopened, and a fastener pattern appropriate to the load where it will not. Then marking: gross weight, center of gravity, orientation arrows, fork entry points, lift and sling points, handling instructions, and destination details on multiple faces. Export shipments carry the ISPM 15 stamp, which in the United States is administered through USDA APHIS.
Photographs of the item before enclosure and of the finished crate are worth taking on every job. They cost nothing and they settle arguments later.
Step 5: Getting It Out of the Building and Onto the Truck
The step the original version of this post skipped. Moving a heavy crate along a route surveyed in step one is its own operation, involving machinery skates, pallet jacks, forklifts, sometimes rigging, and often protection laid down over finished floors. Then loading, securing and freight or white glove delivery, with warehouse storage if the destination is not ready.
What On-Site Crating Looks Like in Las Vegas Specifically
The building matters as much as the item here, and three site types dominate.
Casinos and Resort Properties
Expect access to be managed rather than open. Vendor badging, security escort through back of house, restricted routes that avoid the gaming floor, service elevators with their own dimensions and capacity, and load in windows that are often overnight because daytime disruption is not an option. None of this is a problem if it is planned for, and all of it is a problem if the crew turns up expecting a loading dock and a lift. We have worked properties including Wynn, Aria, Caesars, Hard Rock and Mandalay Bay, which mostly means we know what to ask for before the day.
Convention and Exhibition Venues
Las Vegas venues operate with defined labor jurisdictions, and the rules about who may perform which tasks on a show floor vary by venue and by show. Crating, material handling and booth work may fall to different trades, and exhibitors cannot always do their own. Check the exhibitor service kit and the venue’s rules for your specific show before assuming a crew can simply work in your booth. We coordinate around this as part of our convention and event service and trade show exhibition moving.
Galleries, Offices and Occupied Buildings
The constraints are noise, dust, floor protection and finished surfaces. Pre-cut kits matter most here. So does knowing that the client’s floor, walls and door frames are part of what you are responsible for not damaging. This overlaps heavily with art packing and installation and estate relocations.
On-Site or Shop Crating?
| Factor | Shop Crating | On-Site Crating |
|---|---|---|
| Best when | The item can travel safely to us uncrated | Moving it uncrated is the risk, or it cannot leave at all |
| Cost | Lower, controlled environment and full tooling | Higher, crew and materials travel, site time is billed |
| Speed | Faster per crate | Removes a round trip, often faster overall |
| Constraints | Requires safe transport to the shop | Access, power, noise, badging and site hours |
| Risk profile | Item is handled uncrated at least twice | Item is handled uncrated once, or not at all |
How to Prepare for an On-Site Crating Visit
- Send photographs of the item and of the route out, including doorways, before the survey.
- Have weight and dimensions if you know them, or say plainly that you do not.
- Identify who controls building access and what the badging or escort process is.
- Confirm the hours work is permitted, especially in occupied or gaming properties.
- Flag anything that must be disconnected first, and by whom.
- Say where it is going and by what mode, since export changes the lumber.
- Tell us if there is a fixed date. It changes sequencing more than anything else on this list.
A Note on Rigging and Heavy Loads
Some jobs require lifting, hoisting or rigging beyond ordinary material handling, and those bring their own licensing, engineering and safety requirements, including workplace safety obligations under OSHA. Floor load capacity on upper levels is an engineering question, not a judgement call. Where a job needs those specialists, the right answer is to bring them in and sequence around them, and any crating provider who waves that away is one to avoid.
Where We Have Built On Site
- The Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit. Museum grade works alongside oversized machine reproductions, each needing its own bracing geometry, built for repeated pack and unpack cycles across a traveling exhibition. Read the Da Vinci exhibit project.
- The Stargate movie prop. A large ring form with no flat faces and no natural bearing surface, cradled to its exact profile.
- A Formula 1 race car. Carbon fiber bodywork that marks on contact and almost no safe lift points, crated so load never passed through the body.
- Casino and resort work. Gaming equipment, signage, art and show assets, moved through back of house on schedules set by the property rather than by us.
The pattern in all of them: the item dictated the crate, and the building dictated the plan.
Book an On-Site Survey
Send photographs of the item and the route out, rough dimensions and weight if you have them, the address, where it is going, and any access restrictions or fixed dates. We will tell you whether on-site crating is genuinely the right approach or whether shop crating would serve you better, then quote it. Call 702-748-4973 or 1-833-801-9084 toll free, email contact@lasvegascrating.com, or request a quote online. See our on-site crating, custom wood crates and crate fabrication pages.