How long does an office fit-out take?

I had a potential client contact me at the end of November a few years ago, and she said: “If you could do some basic plans for us before Christmas, we could get the renovation done during the 3 weeks staff are on annual leave over this Christmas/New Year.”

"Ummmm..." I said, "I don't think that's going to happen."

The reality is that any office fit-out that requires co-ordination of all the trades: builder, electrician, plumber, gib stopper, painter, glazier, cabinetry, flooring; will take at least 6 weeks on site. 

But before that, any good designer will follow a process for producing architectural plans, starting with briefing to get really clear on the requirements to be able to deliver a successful solution.

An office fitout takes time + planning... and it's the process of taking your time through each phase that will set you up with the strong foundations for a successful project.

Below is a breakdown of the planning, design + delivery phases with an explanation of what's involved during each stage, and an idea of realistic timeframes.

BRIEFING: 2 weeks minimum

If you are planning a full refurbishment or relocation, there’s no point spending all that money if you are just giving a facelift to outdated systems and an inefficient layout.

A well thought out office design supports it’s team in productive work practices, and the best way to establish what works, is by asking the users!

Our normal briefing process would include an online survey sent to all staff - open for a week to collect responses. Then we would ideally follow that with a staff engagement workshop to further discuss ideas, and and Executive Alignment session to discuss all the feedback and clarify the Design Brief for moving forward.

SPACE PLANNING + CONCEPT DESIGN: 10 days (with a clear brief)

With office design, careful consideration of a functional layout is key, so a space planning exercise to explore several different layout options, and then discuss why they do and don't work is extremely beneficial.

irst taking you through several space planning options and concept design/aesthetic direction presentation, and give you a chance to be sure of the best layout, and that you like the proposed aesthetic direction.

DEVELOPED DESIGN: 2-3 weeks

And then the same with developed design to make sure you are happy with everything before they start documentation. making even minor changes later takes a lot of time as one small change can affect things on lots of different drawing sheets, so you are best to take the time to explore all the options in the concept and developed design stages. which would normally take at least 6 weeks.

DOCUMENTATION

Then, depending on the scope of the proposed fit-out work, a Building Consent may be required. Not including the time to prepare the required drawings and architectural specification, this normally takes 20 working days for Council to process the application.

PRICING: 3 weeks

FIT-OUT: 6-12 weeks

You are not allowed to start any of the consent-able fit-out work on site until the Building Consent has been approved, but you can start demo.

And then, like I said at the beginning... any office fit-out that requires co-ordination of all the trades: builder, electrician, plumber, gib stopper, painter, glazier, cabinetry, flooring; will take at least 6 weeks on site. The main contractor also needs to be super organised and have all the trades booked in, in the right order, at the right time, to not be waiting for different trades; and needs to be booking in the required council inspections for the right times to avoid lengthy wait times.

TLDR - TIMEFRAME SUMMARY:

BRIEFING: 2 weeks minimum

SPACE PLANNING + CONCEPT DESIGN: 10 days (with a clear brief)

DEVELOPED DESIGN: 2-3 weeks

DOCUMENTATION (incl co-ordination of required consultant reports): 6-8 weeks

BUILDING CONSENT PROCESSING: 20 working days (without any RFI's)

PRICING: 2-3 weeks (during consent processing time)

FITOUT: 6 weeks absolute minimum, more realistically 8-12 weeks

Best case scenario, you could possibly complete a smaller office fit-out project in 4 months... but realistically you'd be better off allowing 6-9 months.

For more information on the office fitout planning, design + delivery process you can download our FREE Project Planning Pack here.

Or book a call to talk through where you're at and what your next best steps are with your office fit-out project - click here.