In short: the priority is avoiding downtime
Refurbishing an office, a shop or a clinic is planned around how the business runs: backwards from opening day, with an early decision on whether to close completely or stay open and work in phases. Noisy work moves to permitted off-hours, work zones are separated from customers, and escape routes and access keep working.
For a business owner, the quote is only part of the cost. Every day closed means revenue, salaries and rent running with no income. So a good refurbishment plan for commercial premises is first of all about cutting the days the business cannot trade.
Close or stay open during the works
Closing completely almost always gives the shortest overall programme and the lowest build cost: the crew works across the whole floor at once, there are no live areas to protect and no furniture to move several times. The downside is zero revenue for that period.
A phased refurbishment with the business open takes longer and costs more per square metre: protective screens, night shifts, repeated moves. In return, customers keep coming. There is a middle way: temporarily move part of the operation to nearby premises or remote working and do the works in one go. The choice depends on what a day of closure costs your business, and that is worth calculating before the quote.
Start from opening day and work backwards
Name the day the premises must be trading and build the schedule backwards. Legalising the activity and connecting utilities. Installing equipment and IT. Finishes. Long-lead items: bespoke furniture, special doors, climate equipment, signage. The works permit. The design.
It often turns out that furniture and equipment decisions are needed before demolition, or the opening date cannot be met. Add slack for things the contractor does not control: town hall timescales, suppliers, the electricity company. If the premises are leased, negotiate a fit-out period with the landlord before full rent kicks in.
The business brief: what the contractor needs to know
The contractor needs to understand how your business actually works. How customers and staff move, where their paths cross and where they must not. What is stored and in what quantity. Where the server or data cabinet, tills, printers, alarm and cameras go. Which equipment connects to power, water and extraction, and at what load. How the premises are cleaned.
Add the brand elements: colours, materials, signage, window display lighting. And future plans: if you expect twice the headcount in two years, the electrics and network are sized for that now. A two-page brief saves weeks of rework.
Noise, dust and neighbours
Commercial premises are nearly always in a building with residents or next to other businesses. Hours for noisy work are limited by municipal rules and those of the comunidad de propietarios, and you need to know them before the schedule is set, not after the first complaint. A skip on the street needs a municipal permit, and deliveries in central Barcelona need loading windows.
Dust travels further than you think. Live areas are sealed off with tight temporary partitions, ventilation grilles are covered, and crew and customer routes are kept apart. If the business stays open, the site is cleaned every evening so that in the morning customers do not see a building site.
Phased works: how not to disrupt customers
In a phased refurbishment, each phase is planned as a small project of its own: which area closes, where workstations move temporarily, how customers get through, where the temporary entrance is. Escape routes and access for people with reduced mobility have to work at every phase, not only at the end.
Critical switchovers, such as electrics, network, alarm and water, are done outside trading hours: at night or at weekends. After each one, the systems are tested before opening. A till that does not work on Monday morning costs the business more than an extra night shift for the electrician.
An example, and how we run these projects
We fitted out the 250 m² child psychology centre in the Eixample over six months, from January to June 2026. The project included 24 concealed doors, a climate system with heat recovery and the legalisation of the healthcare activity. The opening date set the sequence: first the decisions affecting legalisation and services, then the finishes.
On commercial projects one person is responsible for the job, our own crew works on site, specialist trades are handled by subcontractors we trust, and payment follows the contract in stages. We work in Russian and Spanish. We reply to every enquiry within an hour: send us the address, floor area, type of business and your target opening date.