Office Renovation — Process Notes

A 260 m² renovation carried out in a working office, with staff still on site. This page is about process rather than pictures: which decisions we took and why, where we changed the plan, and how long each stage actually ran.

1. 01 Duration: 1 week

   Survey and findings

   The first issue the survey turned up was that the wiring above the suspended ceiling did not match the drawings. The plan showed three separate socket circuits; on site they all ran off a single one. As it stood, the desk layout planned for the open-plan area could not be built.

   We put two options to the client: rewire completely, or re-plan the desk layout around the existing circuits. They chose the rewire. We set out the cost and schedule impact of that decision in writing before any work started.

2. 02 Duration: 2 weeks

   Strip-out and services

   Because the office stayed open, the strip-out ran in two phases rather than one. Half the floor was closed off with a temporary partition; a dust barrier and separate ventilation protected the side still in use. Noisy work moved outside office hours.

   Power and data were fully renewed, and the ceiling was dropped 8 cm for the new lighting. When the old pipework in the wet area was opened up, an unexpected damp trace appeared; the waterproofing there was renewed even though it was not in the scope.

3. 03 Duration: 4 weeks

   Installation

   Carpet tile was chosen for the floor: the joints do not read, and a damaged area can be replaced tile by tile. Acoustic seals were fitted to the glass partitions of the meeting rooms, which is where the problem of speech carrying in from the open-plan area was actually solved.

   Lighting was split across three circuits instead of one general switch: workstations, meeting rooms and circulation. That makes it possible to work late without lighting the entire floor.

4. 04 Duration: 3 days

   Handover and checks

   Before handover every circuit was labelled and the client was given a services drawing. Any future work can locate a run without opening up a wall.

   Two snags were fixed under warranty in the first month: a door frame that had settled and started to catch, and a lighting driver replaced in a meeting room.

In a working office the hard part of a renovation is not the build; it is that people can sit down at their desks the next morning.