Office Fit-Out Dubai — Retail, F&B and Warehouse Spaces, on Milestones
A fit-out company in Dubai is judged on its programme: a commercial fit-out that overruns costs more in disruption than it does in construction. The bill of quantities and the milestone schedule exist so the programme can be planned against rather than hoped for.
- 01
Visit
- 02
Fixed BOQ
48h
- 03
Milestones
Four kinds of work, four different rulebooks
Office fit-out
Partitions in blockwork, drywall and demountable glazed systems; MEP re-coordinated to the new layout before ceilings close — sprinkler heads, detectors, lighting circuits and air distribution; raised access floors, carpet tile and vinyl laid to the furniture plan; pantry and washrooms including services; paint and finishes with washable grades where corridors and meeting rooms take daily contact. Large floors are released in sections so teams move once rather than twice.
Retail & F&B fit-out
A restaurant fit-out answers to Dubai Municipality before it answers to the designer, and DM sets the kitchen layout before you do: separation of raw and cooked zones, washable surfaces, coved junctions, hand-wash positions, extract and duct provisions and a correctly sized grease trap. A mall unit runs to operator fit-out guidelines and a landlord NOC; a street unit answers to the building owner and the authority directly. Signage carries its own permit, and in malls its own design approval. Non-slip, food-safe flooring and washable, inspection-ready wall finishes throughout. Your opening date goes into the milestone schedule.
Warehouse & industrial
A warehouse fit-out starts with the structure: mezzanines need stamped engineer drawings, a load calculation for the intended use and authority approval before fabrication, with column positions that work around your racking and forklift routes. Office-in-warehouse partitions in blockwork, drywall or modular systems, each behaving differently on cost and on how easily they come out again. Epoxy and resin flooring over a shot-blasted, moisture-tested slab. Three-phase distribution, DB upgrades, machine supplies and high-bay lighting sized to the connected load rather than the existing board.
External works & landscaping
External works start with levels rather than planting: falls set away from thresholds and loading doors, and surface water taken to channel drains and gullies rather than left standing across a car park. Build-ups are specified by load — compacted sub-base and bedding sand under footpaths and terraces, a deeper sub-base with concrete-bedded pavers or asphalt where delivery vehicles and forklifts turn — then kerbs, wheel stops and bay marking in road-grade paint. Car park shade structures need stamped structural and foundation drawings approved before fabrication. External lighting sits on its own circuits, armoured cable in buried ducts, switched by photocell and timer. Sub-base is compacted in layers and tested before anything is laid over it, because sand fill that settles takes the paving with it. Irrigation is zoned by planting type, with solenoid valves in accessible boxes, pressure-tested and commissioned zone by zone; planting is set in imported soil over the sand substrate in species that hold up to salt-laden air and a 45-degree summer. Valve chambers, hose points and maintenance routes are set out at the start rather than paved over.
The approvals are what delay an opening, not the build.
Dubai Municipality for food establishments, Civil Defense for detection, suppression and escape routes, the landlord or mall operator for fit-out guidelines and the NOC, and a separate permit for signage. Four different bodies, four different packs, four different timelines. We prepare and submit all of them, attend the inspections, and put each approval on the programme as its own line so it is visible rather than absorbed into a date nobody can explain.
Money follows finished work
Payment milestones
- 30–40%
- Materials & mobilisation
- 30%
- Midway milestone
- 20%
- On completion
You hold the last 10% until every snag is closed.
Milestones are written into the BOQ contract.
What a fit-out covers, and what it does not
Included
- Fit-out and MEP drawings, submitted to landlord, authority and Civil Defense
- Partitions, ceilings, doors, glazing and shopfront or facade works
- MEP coordination — sprinklers, detection, lighting and air distribution
- Flooring, wall finishes and joinery to the specification agreed
- Pantry, washroom and back-of-house build
- Approval coordination through to inspection and sign-off
- Phased handover by section or zone, with snag closure per phase
- External works — surface drainage, paving, car park marking, lighting and irrigation
Not included
- Furniture, workstations, seating and AV or IT active equipment
- Catering and specialist trade equipment, unless added to the BOQ
- Authority, landlord and licence fees and deposits, listed at cost
- Landlord base-build defects and shell-condition remediation
If we open something up and find damage nobody could see, we stop, show you, and re-quote that item before continuing.
Before the site visit
How long from empty unit to opening day?
A café or small shop is commonly six to ten weeks; a full restaurant with a commercial kitchen runs longer, and an office floor depends almost entirely on area and MEP complexity. The approvals rather than the build usually set the date, and the BOQ shows which milestones depend on an authority sign-off.
Who owns the approvals — you or us?
We do. Drawings, submissions, follow-up and attending inspection are ours to carry, for Dubai Municipality, Civil Defense and the landlord or mall operator alike. Fees appear on the BOQ at cost rather than inside a rate, so you can see what is a charge and what is a pass-through.
Can you work at night or around a running operation?
Yes, and in most malls it is compulsory rather than optional — the operator restricts noisy work and deliveries to the hours the centre is closed. In offices and warehouses we zone the site and phase the milestones so your desks, racking and loading bays stay usable. That sequencing is priced in from the start, not added later as a premium.
Do the external works and landscaping run on their own approvals?
Largely, yes, and on a separate timeline to the interior. Where the plot requires landscape and irrigation drawings, those are submitted in their own right; a car park shade structure is a structural submission with its own foundation design; and on a plot inside a master community the developer also reviews anything that changes the boundary or the external appearance. We establish which of those apply on the site visit rather than after the BOQ is signed, and each one sits on the programme as its own line with the fees shown at cost.
What is involved in getting a mezzanine approved?
Stamped engineer drawings and a load calculation for the intended use, then authority approval before fabrication rather than after. Adding a mezzanine also changes the fire compartment, detection layout, sprinkler coverage and escape routes, so Civil Defense runs alongside it. Anyone offering to put one up without that is building something you may be told to remove.
Planning a fit-out? Book a free site visit
WhatsApp