What Is an RTM (Ready-to-Move) Warehouse?

An RTM warehouse, short for ready-to-move warehouse, is a storage or warehouse building that is built complete off-site, moved to its site in one piece and set on a prepared foundation, rather than framed where it will stand. The term borrows from RTM homes, and it carries the same trade-off: a building that travels whole has to fit on the road in a single load.

Warehouses are not among the buildings Herauf lists. What Herauf does build the ready-to-move way is on the commercial modular buildings page: storage buildings, site offices, washrooms and institutional buildings, delivered finished and set in days. The rest of this article is what a ready-to-move building can practically be, and where storage fits.

What does ready-to-move mean?

Ready-to-move describes how a building is delivered, not what it is used for. The whole structure is built complete away from the site, travels on a truck, and is set on its foundation when it arrives. The glossary definition is written for homes, but the method is the same for a commercial building. Many RTMs are framed outdoors in a builder's yard. A Herauf building is framed and finished indoors, meets or exceeds CSA A277 and the National Building Code, and leaves the plant finished, inspected at every stage of production.

How big can a ready-to-move building be?

A one-piece building is capped by what can move down a highway in a single load, and every kilometre adds cost and constraint. That limit matters more for storage than for most uses, because a warehouse is usually wanted as one wide, open floor. When a layout is wider than a road can carry in one piece, it is built as finished sections that are joined on the foundation instead. Herauf's published commercial sizes run from a 30' × 14' safety office up to an 80' × 36' wellness centre, which gives a fair sense of the scale this method suits.

What storage buildings does Herauf build?

Food storage, equipment storage and industrial storage buildings, engineered for remote and northern sites. Delivered examples include an industrial storage facility in Yellowknife, built off-site and hauled north, and a food storage facility for an oil and gas camp near Whitecourt, delivered directly to the site. Food storage was also part of the NAIT forestry campus, alongside 14 dormitory buildings and three classrooms, installed on a roadless bush site.

Storage rarely stands alone on a working site. The same production line builds a 40' × 18' site office, a 30' × 14' safety office and nine barrier-free washroom configurations, and the full list is in the commercial catalogue.

When should a storage building sit on a skid?

When the project it serves will move. A steel skid is a welded frame, built in Herauf's own shop, that lets a building be set on prepared ground, lifted, and moved again without a poured foundation. With plumbing, electrical and HVAC self-contained, the building is working within days of arriving, and it goes with the crew to the next lease or camp. The relocatable workforce housing article covers how the skid model works in more detail.

How long does it take?

Most Herauf builds are manufactured and delivered in roughly 16 weeks, up to 50% faster than conventional construction, because the site is prepared while the building is on the production line. Send the use, the size and the site through the commercial quote form and Herauf will come back with a written quote, usually within one business day, with no obligation.