Fitouts and refurbishments are two terms that are often used interchangeably. However, there are a number of clear and important differences between them. Thames Contracts, who specialise in office fitouts and refurbishments in and around North London, including Barnet, Edgeware, Watford, St Albans and Hitchin, look at the differences between both types of work and the advantages they bring.
What is a Fitout?
Put very simply, a fitout transforms an open space so that it can be used for a specific work purpose. This often means working from scratch, taking the empty shell of a building and bringing it up to a standard which is either ready for occupation or for a tenant to add its own specific touches such as partitioning of rooms and decorating.
What is a Refurbishment?
While a fitout takes an empty space and gets it ready for a specific purpose, a refurbishment changes or improves an existing area or workplace. This could include things such as installing new furniture and technology, changing company branding, as well as other decoration such as lighting, flooring, wall colourings, etc.
Advantages of a Fitout
A fitout provides the opportunity to do almost anything you can imagine with a building. Many older buildings, including disused and dangerous buildings, can be transformed into modern and state of the art office and factory spaces that meet all the latest health and safety regulations.
Predesigned and competed spaces provide limitations and restrictions; perhaps some of your equipment doesn’t fit properly, or teams you want to keep together are divided. A fitout doesn’t just allow you to plan the building and layout specifically for your immediate needs, it also provides the opportunity to effectively plan for the future. This allows you to build in features that will help you to expand or downsize if needed, and to work more cost effectively in the long term.
The last and perhaps most important advantage of a fitout is the effect it can have on your staff. Not only are you providing them with better conditions that will help them to work more effectively, you are boosting their morale by showing you are willing to invest in them and their workspace. This will help inspire existing staff and help to attract the highest quality new employees.
Advantages of a Refurbishment
A fitout has a lot of great advantages, but what if you want to make a significant change to your business place, but you have limited time? Perhaps you need to be ready before the next season arrives, you are going through a quick rebranding/takeover, or you are just about to enter the next round of seed funding. Even if you only have a very limited time window, it is amazing what can be achieved in just a few days.
Because a refurbishment can be done much more quickly, this limits disruption to your customers and staff. Not only does this minimize potential losses, it is also much less stressful for staff, who know that the disruption is only for a short time and that after their working conditions will be significantly better.
Refurbishment is also a much cheaper option, which is very useful if you have a limited budget to work with. It may also be the best option if you rent your premises because perhaps the landlord wants the building to be returned to them exactly as you received it, they have recently completed a fitout themselves at great expense, or are content with the premises as it is.
Refurbishments and Fitouts from Thames Contracts
Thames Contracts specialise in high-end refurbishments and office fitouts in North London. However, our work has also seen us also travel outside the capital to successfully complete fitouts and office refurbishments in places such as St Albans and Hitchin. Our work is not just limited to the office sector, we have completed projects in the leisure, marine and retail sectors too.
Whether you opt for a fitout or refurbishment, we pride ourselves on being on time and on budget, giving you peace of mind that not only will you get the office, shop, or restaurant of your dreams, but that it doesn’t break the bank either.
If you would like to know more or want to begin planning your fitout or refurbishment get in touch by completing our online contact form, or give us a call directly on 020 8368 0045.
