What is the difference between a Cat A and Cat B fit-out?

Cat A is the developer's base finish - raised floors, suspended ceilings, basic mechanical and electrical services, and finished common areas, but no layout. Cat B is everything that makes the space yours: partitioning, meeting rooms, joinery, branding, furniture, and the services alterations those changes require. Most occupiers take a Cat A space and commission a Cat B fit-out.

Do you take on refits of spaces we already occupy?

Yes. Refits of occupied floors are phased so that the business keeps running - we isolate the work zone, control dust and noise at the boundary, and schedule the disruptive trades outside operating hours.

Who handles landlord approvals and building management coordination?

We do. Landlord and building-management submissions, method statements, permits to work, and any statutory approvals are prepared and tracked as part of the programme, because approvals sitting in someone's inbox is one of the most common causes of delay.

Fit-Out

Commercial Fit-Out Contractors

We take a bare or half-finished space and hand it back fully alive - every wall, wire, and finish ready for opening day.

A fit-out is where a lease becomes a working building. Whether you are taking a bare shell, upgrading a Cat A space to your own specification, or refitting a floor you already occupy, the work is the same in character: a large number of trades, in a fixed sequence, inside a fixed programme, where one late trade delays every trade behind it. We manage that sequence as a single package.

Scope

What's included.

The disciplines this service covers, delivered under one contract and one point of accountability.

01
Bare-shell and Cat A to Cat B fit-out
Taking a developer-standard or entirely unfinished space through to a complete, occupiable workplace built to your specification.
02
Civil & structural works
Partitioning, flooring build-ups, ceiling systems, core alterations, and any structural coordination the layout requires.
03
Building services installation
Electrical distribution, HVAC, plumbing, fire detection and suppression, and data cabling - installed and commissioned as one coordinated package.
04
Bespoke joinery & finishes
Reception desks, storage walls, wall panelling, and detailed carpentry produced to drawing and installed by the same team that specified it.
05
Programme & trade sequencing
A milestone-based programme with defined quality gates, so trades arrive in the right order and progress is measurable rather than asserted.
06
Snagging, commissioning & handover
Systems tested and commissioned, defects closed out before handover, and documentation, warranties, and as-built drawings issued with the keys.

Approach

What a fit-out actually involves

A commercial fit-out is less a design exercise than a logistics one. Dozens of trades have to occupy the same space in a strict order - services in the ceiling void before the ceiling closes, floor boxes set before the raised floor goes down, joinery templated only once the walls are true. The design defines the destination; the sequence determines whether you arrive on the date you promised your business. That is why we hold the programme, the trades, and the design detailing in the same hands.

Where fit-out programmes usually slip

In our experience programmes rarely slip because a trade worked slowly. They slip because a drawing was ambiguous and nobody resolved it until the trade was already on site, because a long-lead item was ordered after the design froze rather than before, or because a services clash was discovered above a ceiling that had already been installed. All three are coordination failures, and all three are avoidable by resolving the detail before mobilising. We front-load that work deliberately.

Working to a fixed, transparent scope

Scope and budget are agreed at planning stage and governed through milestone reviews. Where a change is genuinely required, it is priced and approved before it is executed rather than appearing on a final account. The intent is that the number you approve at the start is the number you pay at the end, and that any deviation from it was a decision you made knowingly.

Questions

Commercial Fit-Outs, answered.

The questions we're asked most often about this part of the work.

Talk to our team

Cat A is the developer's base finish - raised floors, suspended ceilings, basic mechanical and electrical services, and finished common areas, but no layout. Cat B is everything that makes the space yours: partitioning, meeting rooms, joinery, branding, furniture, and the services alterations those changes require. Most occupiers take a Cat A space and commission a Cat B fit-out.
Yes. Refits of occupied floors are phased so that the business keeps running - we isolate the work zone, control dust and noise at the boundary, and schedule the disruptive trades outside operating hours.
We do. Landlord and building-management submissions, method statements, permits to work, and any statutory approvals are prepared and tracked as part of the programme, because approvals sitting in someone's inbox is one of the most common causes of delay.