Office Fit-Out & Project Management

On our six full fit-outs with new furniture, we spent between about £3,900 and £9,900 per desk, averaging around £6,600. Without furniture it was about £2,900 to £6,900*. The spread mostly comes down to spec and how much meeting, breakout and support space you build in around each desk, so compare like with like. These are final costs in today’s money, excluding VAT, and we’ve counted desks rather than headcount.

Eight of our ten projects finished within 10% of the quote. Two went over by more than 20%. A 10% contingency would have covered eight of the ten, and 30% would have covered all of them*. I’d hold more if the quote leans on big provisional sums, for things like alarms, or if the building is old. Our four-storey period building came out at about £890 to £1,040 per m² (£83 to £97 per sq ft) including furniture and finished 21% over quote, because we found defects once the floors and plaster were opened up.

A provisional sum is an allowance for work that can’t be fully designed or priced yet, so you pay what’s actually spent. On our jobs they made up 3% to 23% of the quote. Individually they finished anywhere from 38% under to 48% over, and on one job the alarm and security allowance was exceeded by 261%*. So ask what’s provisional, how big those sums are against the total, and who decides the spec. The things we see missed most are fire alarm changes, ventilation for new meeting rooms, data cabinets and extra floor boxes, ceiling repairs, and asbestos surveys in older buildings.

Our ten projects took between 5 and 16 weeks*. Open floors usually went at 60 to 80 m² a week, cellular or multi-floor layouts at 35 to 50 m² a week, and our four-storey period building at about 25 m² a week. Furniture takes 4 to 6 weeks to make, so we order it early so it doesn’t hold up handover. Jobs ran longer when the client caused delays, existing equipment failed, or we found problems once the building was opened up.

Often, yes. We can phase the works so one area is completed while you work in another, and schedule noisy tasks for quieter times. Whether it’s practical depends on the scope. A full strip-out is usually quicker and cheaper with the space empty, and we’ll advise what suits your project before you commit.

The same project manager oversees your project from the first drawings to handover, using trades we know and trust. We project manage ceilings, partitioning, flooring, electrical and data, lighting, blinds, kitchens, bathrooms, storage walls and furniture, so you deal with one point of contact. At handover you receive full documentation and building maintenance manuals.

On the five projects where we could measure the partition lengths, partitioning including doors and decoration cost about £650 to £760 per linear metre for mostly solid walls, £1,190 to £1,320 where about half the run was glass, and £1,280 to £1,345 for mostly glass*. Each extra 10% of glass added roughly £100 per metre. We also build storage walls and mezzanine floors. A floor-to-ceiling storage wall was 12% of the final cost on one project.

Cat A is the landlord’s basic finish: floors, ceilings, lighting, services and fire detection. Cat B is the tenant’s work to make the space operational, including partitions, finishes, branding and furniture. Check your lease before you start, because tenants may have to remove or reinstate alterations at lease end (dilapidations). We’d advise getting landlord consent for the works first.

We provide free quotations for office fit-outs in Bristol, Bath, Swindon, Gloucester, Oxford, Cardiff and Taunton and the surrounding areas. Send us your floor plan or request a survey through the quote form, or call 0800 0197 309. We aim to respond to quote requests the same day.