Office renovation: stages, low-voltage systems and fire safety

The order of stages

This is how the “Office” route is laid out in the app:

1. Landlord and building management approvals.
2. Planning.
3. Demolition and partitions - if needed.
4. Low-voltage systems.
5. Fire safety.
6. Plumbing, electrical, air conditioning, ventilation.
7. Rough finishing, floor preparation and screed, waterproofing.
8. Ceilings, tiling, wall finishing.
9. Stretch or suspended ceiling - if planned.
10. Flooring and final installation.
11. Fire safety testing.
12. Furniture and appliances, final acceptance.
13. Office move and launch.

The office-specific stages are a draft for now: a builder is checking them, and the items may change.

Approvals: before any work

The first stage answers the question of whether you can start at all. Its items:

• The lease. Make sure it allows renovation, and record how permanent improvements are accounted for. Without this, your renovation investment stays with the landlord when you move out.
• The business centre's rules. Ask building management for the rules: noisy work hours, passes, the freight elevator, waste removal. In business centres, noisy work is often allowed only at night and on weekends - that changes the schedule straight away.
• Accepting the space with a certificate. Inspect the space with the landlord's representative and record its condition. Photos taken at handover protect you when you have to return the space.
• The design. The layout and engineering sections are approved with the landlord and building management, and the fire alarm and ventilation separately. According to the route's hint, this takes 2-6 weeks.
• Power. Find out how much is allocated to the space and whether it can be raised. A server room and a staff kitchen noticeably increase consumption.
• Contractors. Building management gets a list of contractors with their permits and insurance policies. Many business centres require contractors to be SRO members and carry liability insurance - check this before choosing a crew.
• Passes and deliveries. Find out the freight elevator size before ordering materials.
• The schedule. It should fit the rules and the move date, with slack: building management inspections push deadlines back.

Planning and demolition: what changes for an office

Planning an office is the same as planning an apartment, with route adjustments:

• next to the furniture on the plan, you decide on office equipment and kitchen appliances - outlets and dedicated lines depend on them;
• layout change requirements are checked with the landlord;
• office furniture, glass partitions and the internet provider are ordered right away: the move is tied to the lease date. According to the route's hint, furniture takes 3-8 weeks to arrive, partitions 3-6 weeks to make, and a provider can take up to several weeks to connect.

At demolition, the first item is protecting the business centre's elevators, lobbies and corridors as building management requires: the business centre bills the tenant for damaged lobby finishes. Waste is removed according to the rules - check the time and route in advance.

Low-voltage systems

The cable network is the most expensive thing to redo later. The stage's items:

1. Design the network: the number of ports per workstation, the rack location, the cable routes. Plan spare ports.
2. Prepare the server room: a room or a spot for the rack with ventilation, a dedicated power line and a UPS. A rack without cooling fails in summer.
3. Run the cables in trays and conduit before the walls and ceilings are closed, and photograph the routes: you'll need the layout whenever workstations move.
4. Label and test the lines with a tester; ask for the test report and the cable log.
5. Accept the stage: check the network at the workstations and get the as-built drawings. The as-built cable plan gets lost more often than any other document - keep it in the app.

Wi-Fi access points, video surveillance and access control go in later, during the final installation. Cameras that look into shared corridors are agreed with building management.

Fire safety: before the ceiling

A new layout almost always means reworking the fire alarm. That is why the “Fire safety” stage comes before the ceilings:

• the requirements for the space's systems come from building management;
• fire alarm and voice alarm cabling is run to suit the new partitions before the ceiling is installed;
• if the building has sprinklers, they are moved under the new ceiling to the design - also before the suspended ceiling;
• structures are treated with fire-retardant coating, and cable penetrations through walls are sealed; keep the certificates for fire protection materials - they get checked.

Fire alarm work is done by a company licensed by the fire authority (MChS), not by a general crew. Which systems your space needs, building management and the design will tell you.

Detectors and sounders go in during the final installation, after finishing: a detector covered in renovation dust gives false alarms. Then comes a separate “Fire safety testing” stage: evacuation plans, signs and extinguishers, and testing the alarm together with the building management engineer. Without a test certificate, the space won't be cleared for use.

Office move and launch

The last stage replaces moving in:

• a move plan: the date, the order in which departments move, and who is responsible;
• transport and a freight elevator time agreed with the business centre;
• internet and phones - connected and checked before the move;
• a data backup before the servers are moved;
• cleaning after construction, ventilation included, before the furniture goes in;
• a walk-through of every workstation: outlets, network, lighting, furniture;
• completion certificates signed with building management.

Which documents to keep

The route gives a list of papers you'll need for inspections, rearrangements and returning the space:

• the space acceptance certificate and photos of its condition;
• the approved design;
• the test report and cable log, the as-built drawings;
• certificates for fire protection materials;
• the fire safety test certificate;
• completion certificates.

In the app, they go on the “Documents” tab, and photos of the routes go with the stage items. What else to keep after a renovation is in Which documents to keep after a renovation, and for how long.

Checklist before work starts

• The lease allows renovation, and permanent improvements are described.
• You have the business centre's rules, and the noisy hours are in the schedule.
• The space is accepted with a certificate, and photos are taken.
• The design is approved, with the alarm and ventilation approved separately.
• The power allocation is confirmed.
• The contractors are approved by building management.
• Furniture, partitions and the provider are ordered.

After that, the work inside goes as in an apartment - see Renovation stages in order. How to choose who does the work is in How to choose a renovation crew and vet a contractor. When you create a property in the app, choose the “Office” type - the route will be built from these stages.