Yes, You Can Stay Open During Your Fit Out. Here's How.

30th October 2025

Your lease is signed. Your team is growing. The space needs work. But moving out? Not happening. Your business can’t afford the downtime, and frankly, neither can your budget.

Welcome to refurbishment in occupation, where construction meets commerce, and both need to win.

When Knight Frank needed to refurbish 70,000 sq ft of their Baker Street headquarters, moving wasn’t an option. Their reception stayed open. Clients kept visiting. Meeting rooms stayed bookable. We even delivered three floors early so they could run a major event mid-programme. It’s possible, but only if you know what you’re walking into.

The Refurb in Occupation Spectrum

Not all occupied fit outs are created equal. Yours might be:

• Partially occupied – some floors operational, others under construction. Think of it as neighbours you didn’t choose.
• Fully occupied adjacent – work happens next door, sharing your lifts, your entrance, your patience.
• Fully occupied with swing space – a phased game of musical chairs within the same building.

Each needs a different playbook. A good contractor will tell you which one you’re playing before you start. A great one will tell you what that actually means for your Monday morning.

The Four Pillars of Successful Occupied Fit Outs

1. Communication Protocols (How Not to Ambush Your Team)

Daily briefings aren’t overkill when someone’s drilling through concrete above the finance team. You need a system:

• Daily communication before 8am outlining that day’s noisy work, access changes, and lift availability
• Weekly look-aheads so people can plan around the chaos
• A single point of contact who actually answers their phone
• Real-time updates when things change (and they will)

When we fitted out Knight Frank’s Baker Street headquarters while they stayed operational, we sent morning updates that became compulsory reading. Why? Because nobody likes surprises when they’re carrying coffee—and certainly not when clients are walking through your reception.

2. Phasing & Sequencing Strategy (The Art of Staying Out of Each Other’s Way)

Random construction is disruptive. Strategic construction is manageable.

• Out-of-hours work for the loud stuff. Core drilling, major mechanical installations, anything that makes people look up from their screens.
• Zone-by-zone completion rather than touching everything at once. Finish a floor, hand it over, move on. At Knight Frank, this approach meant we could deliver three floors ahead of schedule for their event—because we’d completed them properly, not just touched them all superficially.
• Buffer zones with proper acoustic barriers and physical separation. Your people shouldn’t feel like they’re working on a building site, even if technically they are.
• Proper phasing can reduce disruption by up to 70%. Improper phasing makes you the villain in every team meeting.

3. Managing the Practicalities (The Stuff That Actually Matters)

The details that separate “we survived it” from “we’d do it again”:

Access logistics – Dedicated construction entrances. Timed deliveries. Hoist schedules that don’t clash with your peak hours. When Knight Frank’s brief explicitly required that major works be “invisible to clients entering the space,” we didn’t just manage access, we choreographed it.

Dust and noise control – Negative air pressure systems to keep dust where it belongs (not on keyboards). Acoustic barriers that actually work.

Amenity continuity – Toilets, kitchens, fire exits stay accessible. Always. Non-negotiable.

Security protocols – Visitor management that doesn’t require your reception team to become site managers.

4. Stakeholder Alignment

The projects that work have a weekly steering group. The ones that don’t, well, don’t.

You need alignment across:

• Tenants (if you’re a landlord managing this)
• Consultants with actual occupied fit out experience, not just regular fit out credentials
• Building management – facilities, security, reception all briefed and bought in
• Internal teams – IT, HR, operations need the programme, not surprises

Monthly meetings feel efficient until you’re three weeks into a problem that weekly check-ins would have caught.

Questions to Ask Your Contractor

Generic fit out experience doesn’t translate to occupied capability. Ask for proof:

• “What’s your approach to out-of-hours coordination, and who manages it?”
• “How do you handle occupier complaints mid-project?”
• “What technology keeps us informed in real time?”

If they’re vague on any of these, keep looking.

What You Can Do to Help

You’re not passive recipients of construction. You’re active participants.

• Manage expectations internally. Some disruption is inevitable. Pretending otherwise doesn’t help.
• Identify flexibility. Can people hot-desk? Work from home during high-impact phases? Small adjustments make big differences.
• Designate internal champions. Someone from facilities or operations who interfaces with the contractor daily.
• Plan around the programme. Talk to your contractor about any key events you might have and how partnering on programme sequencing can be planned in advance.
• Communicate the vision. Help your team see the improved workspace they’re enduring the disruption for.

The Reality Check

Occupied fit outs need more planning, more communication, and more experience than standard projects. They’re also entirely achievable when done properly.

The difference between projects that work and projects that don’t usually comes down to three things: a contractor who’s actually done it before, a client team willing to engage with the detail, and consultants who understand that occupied work isn’t just standard fit out with inconveniences.

Get those three right, and your business keeps running while your space transforms.