Nobody puts the real number in the quote.
You get a figure for the work — the joinery, the flooring, the lighting, the services. It is a big number and you study it carefully. What you do not get is the other number, the one that decides whether the project was worth doing: what it costs you for every day the space is not earning.
A showroom that takes eleven weeks instead of seven has not simply run late. It has lost four weeks of trading, in a location you are paying rent on either way. For most commercial spaces that quietly exceeds the difference between the cheapest quote and the best one.
How long does a commercial fit-out actually take?
Long enough that the schedule, not the design, is usually the thing worth negotiating hardest. The honest answer for any specific space depends on three things: how much of the services work is being changed, whether the landlord’s approvals are in hand before work starts, and whether the sequence was planned around long-lead items or around optimism.
What almost never causes an overrun is the visible work. Painting, flooring and furniture move fast and are easy to resource. What causes overruns is everything underneath — electrical load that turned out to be insufficient, HVAC that needs rerouting, a fire strategy that changes when the layout changes, a landlord approval that arrives four weeks after it was assumed, and a piece of imported equipment quoted at “six to eight weeks” that nobody ordered until week three. None of those appear in a mood board. All of them appear in the handover date. This is why a contractor who asks awkward questions about your services and your lease in the first meeting is usually the one who finishes on time.
The number nobody calculates
Before you compare quotes, work out one figure: your cost per closed day.
It is not complicated. Take your monthly rent, add fixed staff cost, add your typical monthly revenue from that space, divide by the days you would normally trade. That is what a day of delay costs you. Write it at the top of the page.
Now read the quotes again. A difference of a few percent in the price looks very different next to two weeks of that number. This is the single most useful thing an owner can do before signing, and hardly anyone does it, because the fit-out conversation is framed around design and price rather than around time.
What actually delays a fit-out
| Cause | When it should have been caught |
|---|---|
| Landlord approval not obtained before start | Before the contract, not after demolition |
| Electrical load insufficient for the new layout | Survey, before the drawing is signed |
| HVAC rerouting discovered mid-works | Services survey, week one |
| Long-lead items ordered late | Day one, against a written lead-time list |
| Client decisions pending | A decision calendar issued at the start |
| Statutory or fire requirements triggered by the new layout | At concept, when the layout is still cheap to change |
Look at that list again. Five of the six are decided before anyone picks up a tool. That is the real finding: a fit-out is won or lost in the first two weeks, in a room, with a survey and a lead-time list — not on site.
Can we stay open while the work happens?
Sometimes, and it is worth asking early because it changes the whole plan rather than being a detail bolted on later.
Phased working — splitting the space so part of it trades while the rest is built — keeps revenue alive but almost always costs more in total and takes longer overall. You pay for hoarding, for repeated setup, for restricted working hours, and for the inefficiency of a team that cannot spread out. Whether that is worth it is exactly the calculation above: compare the extra cost of phasing against your cost per closed day.
For a small office, phasing is often not worth the disruption. For a trading showroom or a gym with paying members, it frequently is. There is no general answer, only your number.
The related question is working hours. Night and weekend working can compress a programme significantly, and many landlords and buildings restrict it. That restriction belongs in the conversation on day one, not in week four.
What to put in the contract about time
Price gets negotiated hard. Time usually does not, which is strange given which one costs more when it goes wrong.
- A dated programme, not a duration. “Ten weeks” starts whenever someone decides it started. Real dates with named milestones do not drift quietly.
- A written long-lead list in week one — every item with a lead time longer than two weeks, with its order-by date. This single document prevents more delay than anything else.
- A client decision calendar. Half of all delays are owner-side. If you know your finish selections are needed by a specific date, you make them. If nobody tells you, you do not.
- Stage-linked payments, so money follows completed work rather than elapsed weeks.
- A defined snagging period with a closing date, so the last five percent does not take a month.
None of these cost anything to agree at the start. All of them are difficult to introduce halfway through.
Who pays when it overruns?
The honest answer is that it depends on the cause, and that is precisely why the causes need to be written down at the start.
A delay caused by a late client decision is not the contractor’s to absorb. A delay caused by an unordered long-lead item is not the client’s. Without a programme and a decision calendar, every overrun becomes an argument with no evidence, and the relationship gets damaged over something that was foreseeable.
Agree the shape of that answer before work starts. It is a ten-minute conversation that prevents a very expensive one.
Where we are not the right fit
If you want the lowest quote and you are happy to manage the sequence, the approvals and the long-lead ordering yourself, you do not need us for that and we will say so.
Where we fit is a business that cannot afford surprise weeks — a showroom, a gym, a bar, an office move with a lease date attached — and wants the survey, the approvals and the lead-time list dealt with before anyone starts knocking down a wall.
Questions we get asked
What is the first thing we should do?
A services and site survey, and a copy of your lease. Both tell you what is actually possible in the space before any money is spent on a design that may not be buildable.
Can a fit-out be done faster if we pay more?
Up to a point, and mostly through extended working hours and paying to expedite long-lead items. What money cannot compress is a landlord approval or a statutory requirement. That is why the early weeks matter more than the budget.
What is a realistic snagging period?
Shorter than most projects allow, if it is defined. An open-ended snag list drifts. A dated list with a closing date gets closed.
How do we avoid the cost creeping during the works?
A written variation process. No extra work begins until the price for it is agreed in writing. Verbal changes on site are how a budget grows quietly while every individual decision looks small.
Should we phase the work or close completely?
Compare the extra cost of phasing against your cost per closed day. If phasing costs less than the revenue it protects, phase. If not, close and finish faster.
Where to go next
If you have a space and a date you need to be trading by, the useful first step is a survey and a lead-time list, not a design.
Talk to our team about your space and your deadline, or see the sectors we work in — showrooms, gyms, bars and offices.