Design and construction under one contract, so one party carries the price, the programme and the result. It is not always the right route, and this page will tell you when it is not.
Five questions. It will tell you whether design and build, traditional procurement or construction management fits the job — and, more usefully, what you give up by choosing it. It is perfectly capable of telling you not to use us for this.
The property management consultancy team at Fraser Bond delivers a highly professional and tailored commercial property management service, focussed on responsible property management. Our clients include developers, investors and occupiers in the public and private sectors — served from each of our UK regional and London offices.
Commercial fit-outs covers the building work itself, from a landlord Cat A through to an occupier Cat B and the reinstatement at the end of the term. Studio and space optimisation comes before that, and sometimes removes the need for it: working out how much floor you actually need against published density benchmarks, and what surplus space is costing you. Taking them in that order — sizing before building — is the single cheapest decision available on a fit-out, and the one most often skipped.
One contract, one party answerable for both the design and the build, and a price committed earlier than the alternatives. The trade is design control, which is why the route has to be chosen rather than assumed.
Cat A and Cat B fit-out, with a cost and programme estimator on the page.
Explore →How much floor you need, against British Council for Offices benchmarks.
Explore →Which route to use, and what each one costs you in control or certainty.
Explore →Landlord consent established before the design is fixed.
Explore →What the lease lets you do with the space you have.
Explore →Running the building once it is built out.
Explore →Most contractors recommend the procurement route they are set up to deliver. We would rather tell you that a bespoke, design-led job with a professional project manager on your side probably should not be a design and build contract at all — because being wrong about that costs you far more than the job is worth to us.
One contract under which a single party is responsible for both designing and constructing the works. The practical consequence is that a clash between the design and the build is the contractor’s problem to resolve rather than yours to arbitrate, and that you can have a committed price earlier.
When control of the detail matters more than certainty of price, when the design is already complete, or when the specification is bespoke enough that transferring the design risk gets expensive. The diagnostic on this page is built to say so.
Under traditional procurement your design team completes the design and the work is then tendered on it. You keep control of the design and carry the design risk; the price comes later and variations are yours. Under design and build you transfer the design responsibility and get the price earlier, at the cost of that control.
Packages are let directly rather than through a main contractor, which gives flexibility and can start on site sooner, but leaves the risk that the packages do not add up with you. It needs a professional project manager on your side and is not a route to take without one.
Space optimisation, almost always. It is cheaper to establish how much floor you need than to fit out floor you do not, and occasionally the answer removes the project.
The diagnostic on this page is free and gives you the whole reasoning, including the case against the route it recommends. Advice on a specific project is chargeable, and we will tell you what it costs before we do it.
The diagnostic gives you a defensible starting position for free. The lease, the landlord and the funder are what turn it into a decision.