Offices fit-out specialists

Office environments we work in

We deliver fit-out trades to UK commercial offices across the full sector: Cat A landlord shell-and-core completion to a lettable standard; Cat B tenant fit-out from raised floor to handover; refurbishment of occupied office floorplates with the tenant working around the trade sequence; and industrial-envelope office insertion where office and meeting space sits within a wider operational envelope. Our role is as a specialist subcontractor to the principal contractor, fit-out specialist or direct office client; the architect's drawings, the tenant brand fit-out manual and the principal contractor's master programme drive specification.

The office sector runs through one of the most defined two-stage processes in commercial construction. Cat A delivers the shell-and-core to a lettable standard: raised access floor, suspended ceiling grid (typically a 15 mm exposed grid with mineral fibre tile or perforated metal plank), perimeter trims, basic services distribution, finished walls and floors to a neutral specification. Cat B delivers the occupier's specification on top: partition layout, glazed offices, board rooms, breakout, brand fit-out, finishes, AV and IT integration. The two stages run on separate procurement routes with different decision-makers, on different timescales, and often with different contractors.

Sector challenges

Cat A and Cat B sequencing is the defining structural feature of office fit-out and the source of most of its programme risk. Cat A is typically larger area, lower specification per square metre, longer programme and procured by the landlord against a letting deadline. Cat B is smaller area, higher specification per square metre, compressed programme and procured by the tenant against a move-in date. The transition between Cat A and Cat B (what the landlord delivers, what the tenant inherits, what the tenant changes) is one of the recurring scope-management questions on every office project.

Open-plan and cellular layout is the architectural challenge. Modern office floorplates combine large open working zones with cellular meeting rooms, executive offices and board rooms; partition specification has to support both layouts under one programme. Acoustic specification across the floorplate combines absorbent ceiling tile across the open zones with acoustic-rated partition assemblies at the cellular boundaries: both required to deliver the working environment the brief calls for.

Compressed Cat B programmes (typically six to twelve weeks from contractor commencement to handover for a standard floorplate) require trade sequence discipline: dry lining first, ceiling grid, M&E second-fix above ceiling, ceiling tile, glazed partitions, taping and jointing. Sequencing the trade scope under one site supervisor across all of those scopes is the most reliable way to hold the move-in date.

Our approach

We work for principal contractors, fit-out specialists and direct office clients across the UK on Cat A, Cat B and refurbishment programmes. We deliver the full fit-out trade scope, covering suspended ceilings, partitions, dry lining and taping and jointing, under one site team, which means the trade sequence is run by one supervisor and the move-in date is held by one contractor. Crews are direct-employed and time-served. Supervisors are in-house. Crews mobilise from our Derby HQ for delivery to any location in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Recent office work includes the Cat A office ceiling specification at Pioneer Park Dock 2 in Leicester (Class A office floorplate with perforated metal plank and acoustic backing) and the Glenair Mansfield industrial fit-out where the office and meeting rooms within the wider operational envelope used Zentia Ultima OP tile on the 15 mm Silhouette grid as the higher-specification ceiling. The Aston Student Union project, while education rather than office, sits in the same trade-scope category: combined ceiling, partition, dry lining and feature work delivered as one fit-out package.

If you are scoping an office fit-out, whether Cat A, Cat B, refurbishment or industrial-envelope insertion, we would be glad to discuss the brief. Send drawings, the architect's specification or the tenant's brand fit-out manual with the form on this page and we will come back with a clear next step within one working day.