In an office fit-out, the technology and building services should be planned before the layout is signed off, not after. That means deciding where the comms cabinet goes, how many data and power points each area needs, which systems still use a phone line, and what the works mean for fire safety, building regulations and asbestos, while the design can still change at little cost.
The checklist below follows the order those decisions usually need to be made. Use it with your designer, landlord and IT provider at the start, and again before the contractor starts on site.
1. Confirm your legal duties as the client
If your business is paying for the work, you are a commercial client under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, and HSE is clear that client duties apply in full. You must make suitable arrangements for managing the project, give pre-construction information to every designer and contractor, and make sure a construction phase plan is prepared before work starts. Where more than one contractor is involved, you must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor.
Larger jobs also need to be notified to HSE. A project is notifiable when the construction work will last longer than 30 working days and involve more than 20 workers at any one time, or exceed 500 individual worker days. Notification is made on form F10.
2. Find out about asbestos before anything is drilled
HSE advises that if a building was built or refurbished before 2000, you should assume it contains asbestos. It can be hidden in wall cavities, ceiling voids and even fire doors, which are exactly where cable routes and new services go. HSE says installation or refurbishment work that disturbs the building fabric where asbestos could be hidden will require a more intrusive survey before work can start, so ask the landlord for the asbestos register early and arrange a refurbishment survey for the areas being altered.
3. Check which work needs building regulations approval
Building regulations approval is separate from planning permission. GOV.UK lists alteration work that may need approval, including replacing fuse boxes and connected electrics, putting in a fixed air conditioning system, installing or replacing a heating system and replacing windows and doors. Your designer or a building control body can confirm what applies to your scheme; leaving it until the end can delay occupation.
4. Plan the comms room and cabling first
The network is the hardest thing to change once ceilings and floor boxes are in. Agree early:
- Where the comms cabinet or room sits, with dedicated power, ventilation and secure access
- Cable routes from the cabinet to every desk, meeting room, wireless access point, printer and screen
- Spare capacity in containment and patch panels for future changes
- Wireless access point positions based on the final layout, including glass partitions and storage walls
- Where the broadband and any backup line enter the building, and lead times from the provider
5. Audit everything that still uses a phone line
Openreach gives 31 January 2027 as the date the traditional analogue network goes digital. GOV.UK guidance lists fire and other alarms, payment terminals, lifts and intercoms among the equipment that may rely on a landline, and notes that providers do not know which devices are connected to their lines. A fit-out is the right moment to list every one of them, agree replacements with the suppliers, and add battery backup for anything that must work in a power cut, because digital lines need mains power.
6. Coordinate power, heating, cooling and lighting with the IT
Desk layouts drive both power and data, so they should be drawn once and shared by the electrician and the IT installer. Meeting rooms with large screens and video conferencing need power and data at the screen position, not at skirting level on the opposite wall. Server and comms equipment adds heat, so make sure the cooling design accounts for it. If the heating or air conditioning is being changed, check whether the controls will sit on your network and who will manage them.
7. Review fire safety for the new layout
The responsible person must carry out and regularly review a fire risk assessment of the premises. Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service lists alterations to the building and changes to work activities among the reasons to review it. New partitions can affect escape routes, travel distances, detection and emergency lighting, so the assessment should be reviewed against the proposed layout, not after people move in.
8. Agree handover information
Ask for everything you will need to run the space from day one: as-built drawings, a cable schedule and test results, network diagrams and admin access, equipment warranties, and the health and safety file. On projects with a principal designer, CDM 2015 requires the client to make sure that file is prepared. Without this information, the first fault after handover often costs more to investigate than to fix.
How Apex helps
Apex Options delivers fit-outs and refurbishments as one programme covering the building works and the technology inside them, from surveys and cabling to Wi-Fi, AV and the move to digital lines. We work nationwide and remotely, with on-site delivery in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Greater Manchester and Cheshire. See our projects service or, for the network itself, our networks and connectivity service.
Sources
- HSE, Commercial clients: roles and responsibilities (CDM 2015)
- HSE, Find out if asbestos could be present in your building
- HSE, Introduction to asbestos safety: actions to take depending on your job role
- GOV.UK, Building regulations approval: when you need approval
- GOV.UK, Fire safety in the workplace: fire risk assessments
- Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, Fire risk assessments
- Openreach, The big switch off
- GOV.UK, UK transition from analogue to digital landlines
- GOV.UK, Moving landlines to digital technologies