Reception counters, break rooms, display fixtures and cash wraps. Most of this work is judged from about a foot away by people who have nothing else to look at while they wait, which is a harder audience than a kitchen ever gets.
A reception counter is one of the few pieces on a project that justifies the top grade, because it is the piece visitors stand at with time to examine it. Tolerances that nobody would notice on a storage run are visible here, and so is every joint that does not line up.
It also carries a requirement most office joinery does not. A section of the counter has to be usable by someone seated, which in practice means a run at around thirty four inches with clear knee space under it rather than a cabinet.
Getting that section to look deliberate instead of bolted on is the design problem, and it is much easier solved on a drawing than on site, where the options narrow to whatever the carcass in front of you happens to allow. See the commercial hub, casework grades and built-ins.
Recent work
How it works
How a Fit-Out Is Run
Walk the space trading
We visit while the business is running, because that shows where customers queue, where staff actually stand and which wall cannot be closed off for a week.
Draw it, then get it approved
Shop drawings for the counters and fixtures, reviewed before fabrication. Brand finishes get confirmed here too, since a late finish change is what usually moves a date.
Build offsite
As much as possible made and finished in the shop. That is what converts a long disruptive site programme into a short one, and it is the main reason to plan early.
Install outside trading hours
Evenings, weekends or phased zones, agreed before we start rather than negotiated on the night. The business opens the next morning with the area clean and usable.
Trading around it
The Shop Stays Open While We Work
Retail and office fit-outs rarely get an empty building. The work has to happen around staff, customers and whatever else is on the programme, which changes how a job is planned rather than how it is built. Every hour of noise and dust in a trading space costs the business something, so the plan is built around keeping both of them short.
The lever is how much gets made offsite. Carcasses, counters and fixtures built in the shop and brought in finished turn weeks of site work into a few nights of installation. Evening and weekend fitting is normal on this kind of project and is planned in from the start.
Break rooms are the other half of the scope and are quietly the hardest working millwork in a building, because a staff kitchen is used harder than any domestic one. See multi-unit work, hardware and finishes.
How we fit
Other commercial work
The Rest of Our Commercial Work
Fit-outs are one kind of commercial job. These are the others.
Counters, fixtures, trading hours and how the work is sequenced.
Yes, and it is planned rather than improvised. Most of the build happens in the shop, and installation runs in the evening, at weekends or in phased zones agreed in advance.
A high grade of finish, because visitors examine it at close range, and a section usable by someone seated at around 34 inches with clear knee space. Your local code sets the exact figures.
Reception and service counters, cash wraps, display cases, shelving systems, break room cabinetry and feature walls. Retail fixtures and office millwork use the same shop and the same drawings process.
Usually yes, and it is best confirmed at the drawing stage. A finish change agreed late is one of the more common causes of a fit-out date slipping.
Earlier than most people expect. Drawings need review before fabrication starts, and fabrication is typically four to eight weeks after that. Early involvement is what buys back time.
They are used considerably harder. A staff kitchen sees more traffic in a year than a domestic one sees in several, so hardware ratings and edge details matter more than they do at home.
We work to the programme and around the other trades, and we would rather be brought in early than handed a slot. Late involvement compresses fabrication, which is the part that should not be rushed.
Bring us in before the dates are fixed and most of the build moves into the shop, which turns a long disruptive site programme into a few nights of installation.
