Office fit-out sequencing: the order that keeps a programme on track

Why sequence beats speed

Every fit-out has the same trades. The ones that finish on time are the ones where each trade arrives after the work it depends on and before the work that covers it. Get that wrong and you pay twice for the same wall.

The order that works

1. Strip-out and hacking. Everything noisy and dusty, done first and done together.
2. Partition framing. Studs up so the M&E trades know where walls will be.
3. First fix. Electrical, data and pipework inside the framing and above the future ceiling line.
4. Boarding and ceiling. Only once first fix is signed off and cut-outs are agreed.
5. Plaster and skim. Then a real drying window, not an optimistic one.
6. Painting. After skim is dry, before final fittings go on.
7. Second fix. Accessories, fittings, doors and ironmongery.
8. Flooring and snagging. Last, so nothing is dragged across it.

The two most expensive mistakes

Boarding a ceiling before the M&E cut-outs are confirmed, which means opening it again. And painting over skim that has not dried, which means doing the whole wall twice.

Most fit-out delays are not slow trades. They are trades arriving in the wrong order.

What a realistic programme looks like

For a 4,000 sqft office with a full ceiling and partitions, six to eight weeks of daytime working. Restricted-hours buildings add roughly half again. Anyone quoting three weeks for that scope is either leaving something out or planning to skip a drying window.