If you have been quoted anywhere from £40 to £150 per square foot for an office fit out, you are probably wondering how the same job can vary so wildly. The honest answer is that it depends on the condition of the space, the specification you choose and what is hiding above the ceiling tiles. This guide breaks down realistic UK figures so you can budget properly before you sign a lease or brief a contractor.
For most UK commercial projects, a basic refresh sits around £40 to £60 per square foot. That covers redecoration, new flooring, some partitioning and lighting upgrades in a space that is already in reasonable shape.
A mid range fit out, which is what most Dorset businesses actually commission, tends to fall between £60 and £100 per square foot. At the top end, a high specification project with bespoke joinery, feature ceilings, upgraded air conditioning and premium finishes can run from £100 to £150 or more. London prices push higher still, and being outside the capital works in your favour here on the south coast, where labour and logistics cost less.
Landlords and contractors talk about Cat A and Cat B, and mixing them up is the most common budgeting mistake we see. Cat A is the landlord grade shell: raised floors, suspended ceilings, basic mechanical and electrical services, painted walls. If you are taking a Cat A space, everything that makes it yours is on top of that.
Cat B is the fit out that turns the shell into a working office: partitions, meeting rooms, kitchens and tea points, furniture, data cabling, branding and finishes. The per square foot figures above are Cat B costs. If your building needs Cat A works as well, perhaps because it is an older Bournemouth or Poole property that has never been modernised, add £25 to £45 per square foot for that layer.
Two offices of identical size can differ in cost by 50 per cent or more. Meeting rooms are the biggest driver, because each cellular room needs partitioning, doors, acoustic treatment and often its own ventilation and cooling. An open plan layout with one or two rooms is far cheaper per square foot than a space divided into eight offices.
The state of the existing services matters just as much. If the air conditioning, distribution boards or fire alarm need replacing, that money is spent before anything looks different. Older buildings around the town centre and Lansdowne can also throw up asbestos surveys, uneven floors and single glazed facades that all add cost. Finally, specification choices compound quickly: carpet tiles at £20 per square metre against engineered timber at £80, standard LED panels against designer pendant lighting, and so on.
Work backwards from your total space. A 3,000 square foot office at a mid range £75 per square foot gives a working budget of around £225,000, then allow a contingency of 10 to 15 per cent for the unknowns that surveys cannot always catch. Furniture is sometimes excluded from headline quotes, so always check whether desks, chairs and storage are in the figure or on top.
Get at least two itemised quotes rather than lump sums, and be suspicious of any figure given without a site visit. A contractor who has walked the space, lifted a ceiling tile and looked at the electrical intake can price accurately. One who quotes from a floor plan alone is guessing, and guesses tend to become variations later. It is also worth asking your landlord about contributions, since many will fund some works in exchange for a longer lease term.
Yes, noticeably. Projects in Dorset and the wider south coast typically come in 15 to 30 per cent below London equivalents, mainly because labour rates, parking and logistics are less expensive.
Not always, so check every quote. Some contractors include loose furniture in a Cat B price while others list it separately, and it can add £10 to £20 per square foot depending on quality.
A straightforward 2,000 to 5,000 square foot fit out usually takes six to twelve weeks on site, plus four to eight weeks beforehand for design, landlord approvals and ordering materials. Complex mechanical works or listed buildings extend that.