11 May 2023
If you’re trying to make a new space perfect for your team, you’ll need an office fitout. This process can alter your area to make it fit for use. Any business that’s moving office spaces, or anyone who wishes to maximise the use of their commercial space, should consider hiring a professional team for their fitout needs.
But, not every type of fitout is the same because not every space requires the same level of work. Some offices already have furnishings, but they could use a redesign to make them far more suitable for the team working in them. On the other hand, some office spaces are completely bare and require all-new lighting, furnishings, appliances and more.
It’s best to understand the terminology before you do anything to better understand everything happening. It’s your office space, and you want it to be perfect for you and your hardworking team.
A ‘fitout’ refers to the process of altering or readying a space for use. If you’ve just gotten a new commercial space for your business, it may need some work before your team can officially move in.
It’s best to rely on a professional team with experience and training to conduct your fitout for you, with your input, of course. The first thing you should do after deciding your space needs work is to get in contact with a fantastic design team that has experience with workplace projects. This will reduce any chances of mistakes and ensure fantastic results.
There are four main types of office fitouts, and each is suitable for different situations depending on the state of your office space pre-fitout, which are:
Shell And Core. This refers to when the space is fully empty and not yet fit for use for any purpose. The building that the commercial space is in may look completed on the outside, but the rooms inside may be bare and void of any lighting, heating and cooling systems, flooring and more.
So, this type of fitout is meant to prepare your space for future, more extensive designing and work. This base can let businesses customise the basic shape of their space. A shell and core fitout will lay down the foundation for future developments to occur.
Cat A. ‘Cat’ in this instance is short for ‘category.’ This is a basic type of fitout that involves installing standard essential utilities like lighting, heating and cooling, electrical outlets, plumbing, fire detection systems and more. These installations will make the space more usable, especially when compared to a shell and core fitout.
A Cat A fitout will get the space ready for generally any type of business, regardless of what they do.
Cat B. Most people think of a Cat B fitout when they imagine getting their office professionally serviced to make it ideal for their specific company. This fitout is meant to turn a generic, ordinary space into an office that is truly special.
A Cat B fitout can involve everything from adding new partitions to create rooms or creatively placing decor, plants and art around the office to make it more visually pleasing. If you’re moving into an office space that already has all of its required utility systems installed, you’re most likely going to need a Cat B fitout.
It’s at this stage that you and your design team can work on melding practicality and aesthetics. Office staff members can truly benefit from amazing interior design and spaces that are meant to make them feel comfortable and welcome. Consider speaking about your company’s goals, the type of work you do every day, how you envision your dream office’s appearance and more.
Cat A+. This type is more extensive than a Cat A type but not as involved as a Cat B type. It’s typically used to make a space much more appealing but doesn’t go as far as altering an area for a specific company. Cat A+ fitouts are usually requested by landlords who wish to make their spaces more appealing because an office that has only the bare necessities may not be very attractive to renters who know they’ll need to pay more money to make their new office better.
A Cat A+ fitout can include furnishing meeting rooms, completing workstations, adding furniture and so on. The renter can then make further alterations to the space, if the landlord allows, once they have moved their business there.
Does your commercial space need improvements? Contact Fitout Solutions, where we help New Zealanders upgrade and customise their spaces with our efficient, professional services. We won’t just make your space look nice – we’ll make it ideal for your unique company.
We invite you to visit our site to see our past successes on our projects page. Here, you can see plenty of examples of what we could do for you.
Interested? Call our team at +64 9-218 4546 for more information.
Work with Fitout Solutions to give your commercial space the treatment it needs to shine.