Office build-outs and TI work, planned around your move-in date

The lease says rent starts on the first of the month. The furniture truck is booked for the week before. Somewhere between those two dates, the ceiling grid has to close, the data has to be tested and the paint has to cure. That is the whole shape of an office build-out from the tenant's chair: a move-in date, and everything the space has to do before it. We run the job backward from that date.

Start with the floor plan people will actually use

Before a wall is framed, the plan has to answer how this company works. How many enclosed offices against open desks. How many rooms that seat six versus rooms that seat twenty. Where the quiet work happens and where the noise is allowed. A layout copied from the last tenant, or from a generic template, produces a space the staff quietly works around for the life of the lease. We ask these questions in the first walk, with the principal who will run the construction standing in the empty shell with you, because the answers change the framing plan, the electrical drops and the mechanical zoning all at once.

The systems behind the ceiling decide the schedule

Paint and carpet are the last week. The weeks that matter are mechanical, electrical and data. A modern office pulls far more power and data to each desk cluster than the shell was built for, HVAC has to be rezoned when private offices become open floor (or the reverse), and a break room or wellness room adds plumbing runs the base building never planned. Everything in that list gets harder and costlier the day the ceiling closes. So the rough-in is sequenced first, inspected early and walked by the owner before drywall goes up. Fixing a data drop in an open ceiling takes ten minutes. Fixing it after the tile is in is a change order.

Second-generation space: keep what works

A suite a previous tenant built out is a different job from a raw shell. Existing grid, light fixtures and duct distribution may be fine to keep if they line up with the new plan and pass inspection. Our estimate separates what stays from what goes, line by line, so you can see what reuse buys you in both dollars and weeks. Sometimes the answer is that most of the ceiling stays and the schedule shrinks by a month. Sometimes the old layout fights the new one and demolition is the honest answer. Either way, you know before you sign.

Building next to people who are still working

Most office TI happens on a floor, or in a building, where other tenants are at their desks. Noise, dust, corridor access, freight elevator windows and after-hours work all have to be planned with the property manager, and the plan has to be kept. Our crews for framing, drywall, millwork, paint and glazing are our own employees, which is what lets us hold to a quiet-hours schedule without renegotiating it with a different subcontractor every week. The neighbors on the other side of the wall notice the difference, and so does your landlord.

The last week before the keys

Move-in is not a single day; it is a sequence. Final inspections, certificate of occupancy, systems commissioned, then furniture. We handle FF&E installation with our own crews: receiving, staging on the floor, installing workstations and conference tables, and walking the punch list with you after. The person you walk it with is the owner who priced the job, and the list has an end.

Rent does not pause for construction, which is the whole reason the schedule is built from the lease date backward instead of from the start date forward. If you have a suite under negotiation or a lease already signed, send over the plans and the move-in date. A principal of the company will look at both and tell you what the space needs and when it can be ready.