CMV LLC provides the right derrick for the picks mobile cranes can’t make — equipment, steel, and materials lifted on, through, and over existing buildings. If your pick doesn’t fit a crane, it might fit a derrick.
Every year, solid projects stall on a single lift. The equipment is bought, the crew is ready — and then someone asks how a six-ton unit gets to the fourteenth floor. These are the calls we get:
A chiller or HVAC unit needs to land on a high-rise roof. The street below is too narrow for a mobile crane, and the freight elevator tops out at a fraction of the weight.
Adaptive reuse means threading structural steel through an existing structure. There is no mobile crane that picks from the inside.
The tower crane finished its job. Now it has to come down — but there’s no room to set up the mobile crane that would dismantle it.
Power lines, zero lot lines, a street you can’t close. The pick is two hundred feet up, and the ground is not an option.
A derrick is a compact, high-capacity crane that sets up where the work is — on the roof itself — no street closure, no massive setup footprint, no two-hundred-foot reach from the ground. It picks exactly where the work is.
Most people have never seen one, because derricks are rare specialty equipment — a small pool of machines serving the jobs nothing else can touch. That’s the gap CMV LLC fills: we source and coordinate the right derrick for your pick — certified crews, an engineered lift plan, and one point of contact from first call to final pick.
4-to-17-ton capacity. Through-building picks. Dismantles. Rooftop placements a mobile crane physically cannot make. If the job needs lifting where cranes can’t be set up, start here — not with a helicopter quote.
Talk through your pick| Mobile crane | Helicopter | Cut it apart | Derrick | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No street closure needed | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Works in tight urban sites | ✕ | ~ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Lifts 4-17 tons | ✓ | ~ | ✕ | ✓ |
| Not weather-grounded | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Keeps equipment warranties intact | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✓ |
| Cost per pick | $$ | $$$$ | $$ + risk | $$ |
HVAC units, chillers, cooling towers, generators, and electrical gear landed on existing high-rise roofs — the number-one derrick call.
Threading structural steel up through an existing building for office-to-residential conversions and repositionings.
Taking down tower cranes on tight sites where no mobile crane can set up to do the job.
Penthouses, amenity decks, and vertical additions — steel and materials placed stories above the street.
Trees, soil, and pavers for rooftop gardens on towers a crane can’t reach.
BMUs, davit arms, and facade-access equipment don’t fly themselves to the roof. Derricks place, replace, and remove them where cranes can’t reach.
Screen walls, facade panels, and rooftop structures in blocked-access conditions — the heavy picks facade crews can’t make by hand.
Scaffolding companies get asked to do strange things on roofs. When the ask is really a lifting job — steel, equipment, materials at height — that’s a derrick call. We’d rather partner than compete: send us the rooftop work that isn’t scaffolding.
Plenty of picks get helicopter quotes by default. Many are cheaper, calmer, and more schedulable with a derrick — no weather holds, no aviation permits, no street closures. Helicopter operators: send us the lifts that don’t need rotors.
Weight, height, roof access, and what’s in the way. Photos and drawings help — a phone call works too.
The right derrick, an engineered lift plan, and certified crews — coordinated around your schedule.
The derrick goes up on your roof, the picks get made, the derrick comes back down. No street closure, no drama.
A derrick. It is a compact, high-capacity crane that is assembled on the roof itself, so it picks exactly where the work is - no street closure, no setup footprint at ground level, and no long reach from the street. CMV LLC sources and coordinates the right derrick, certified crews, and an engineered lift plan for the pick.
In most cases, with a derrick assembled on the roof. The unit is picked from street level or a staging area and landed directly on the roof, without cutting the equipment apart or relying on a freight elevator rated for a fraction of the weight. Mechanical replacement - HVAC units, chillers, cooling towers, and generators on existing high-rise roofs - is the most common derrick call we get.
Lifting equipment, steel, and materials on, through, and over existing buildings where a mobile crane cannot be set up - rooftop placements, through-building picks for adaptive reuse, tower crane dismantles, and rooftop additions on tight urban sites.
A derrick is assembled on the roof or structure and takes the tower crane down piece by piece. It is the standard answer when there is no room to set up the mobile crane that would normally do the dismantling.
The derricks we coordinate fall in the 4-to-17-ton capacity class, which covers most rooftop mechanical units, structural steel picks, and dismantle work. If a pick falls outside that class, we will tell you straight.
CMV LLC is based in Southern California and serves the West Coast. The process starts with the pick: tell us the weight, the height, the roof access, and what is in the way - photos and drawings help, and a phone call works too. From there, we coordinate the right derrick, an engineered lift plan, and certified crews around your schedule.
Tell us what needs lifting and what’s in the way. We’ll tell you straight whether a derrick is the answer — and if it isn’t, we’ll tell you that too.
Every inquiry gets a real response from someone who knows the equipment.