Most SMEs cannot simply shut the doors for six weeks while the builders are in. Working during an office refurbishment is the normal case, not the exception — and done properly it is far less painful than people expect. The difference between a smooth job and a miserable one is rarely the quality of the work; it is whether the disruption was planned into the programme from the start.
Can you actually stay in the office during a refurbishment?
Usually, yes — for the kind of small works and refurbishment projects most SME occupiers take on. Partitioning, new flooring, redecoration, a new tea point, lighting upgrades and small power alterations can all be done in an occupied building, provided the work is broken into zones and the noisy or disruptive elements are scheduled sensibly.
It becomes harder when the work is deeper: a full Cat B fit-out, significant mechanical and electrical alterations, or anything that takes out your only means of escape, your only WC or your comms room. Then a short decant — even a fortnight of home working — is usually cheaper than dragging the programme out.
Phase the work so you always have somewhere to sit
The single most useful thing you can do is agree a phasing plan before work starts. The office is divided into zones, and the contractor finishes one zone completely before opening the next — so there is always a clean, usable area for your team.
A typical small-office phasing plan looks like this:
- Decant one half of the floor into the other half, using temporary desking if needed.
- Complete the empty half — strip out, partitions, power and data, decoration, flooring.
- Move the team across into the finished half over a weekend.
- Complete the second half, then rebalance the desks properly.
Phasing does add cost — the contractor mobilises twice and works around a live floor. Ask for a priced comparison of phased versus full-decant working so you can see the trade-off in pounds rather than guessing.
What about noise, dust and smells?
These are the three complaints that come up in every occupied refurbishment, and all three are manageable if you agree the rules in advance.
- Noise. Ask for genuinely noisy operations to be restricted to a defined window — before 8am, after 6pm, or an agreed lunchtime slot — and get that written into the programme, not promised verbally.
- Dust. Dust screens with zipped access, extraction on cutting works, and daily cleaning of the shared route in and out. Temporary protection is a line item worth paying for; skimping on it is how you get dust in every keyboard.
- Smells. Adhesives, paint and floor screeds are the usual culprits. Low-odour and water-based products cost a little more but avoid the morning where nobody can sit near the new flooring.
Should you pay for out-of-hours working?
It buys a quieter working week, but it is not free. Expect a meaningful uplift on labour, because operatives are on premium rates and productivity is lower on short evening shifts. Many London buildings also charge for out-of-hours access, security cover or lift use — and those charges land on you, not the contractor.
The pragmatic answer for most SMEs is a hybrid: normal hours for the bulk of the work, out-of-hours only for the genuinely intolerable operations such as core drilling or ceiling grid removal. Ask for those items to be priced as an option rather than putting the whole job on evenings.
Sort the building rules before anything else
In a leasehold London office, the building dictates much of what is possible. Before you fix a programme, check with your landlord or managing agent:
- Permitted working hours, and whether noisy works are restricted further.
- Lift booking, loading bay access and waste removal arrangements.
- What insurance and method statements the agent wants to see.
- Whether your works need a licence to alter — and how long the landlord’s solicitor will realistically take to issue it.
That last point derails more small projects than any technical problem. Consent can take weeks, and altering without it puts you in breach of your lease and exposes you to a much larger dilapidations bill at lease end.
Keep your team informed — it costs nothing
Disruption is far more tolerable when people know it is coming. A short weekly note — what is happening, which area is out of bounds, when the noisy work is scheduled, where to sit instead — removes most of the friction. Nominate one person internally as the single point of contact, so decisions are made quickly and your site manager is not fielding questions from twelve people.
Be generous about flexibility during the worst weeks, too. Letting people work from home on the two days the flooring is going down costs nothing and saves a fortnight of grumbling.
What to agree with your contractor before work starts
Get these in writing, as part of the quote rather than a conversation afterwards:
- A phasing plan showing which zone is being worked on in which week.
- Agreed working hours, and which operations are restricted to out-of-hours.
- What temporary protection, screening and dust control is included.
- Who cleans what, and how often, while the job is running.
- A named site contact and an agreed weekly progress catch-up.
- How variations will be priced, so a mid-job change does not turn into an argument.
None of this is exotic — it is simply the difference between a contractor who has run occupied refurbishments in London offices before and one who has not.
The short version
You can almost certainly stay in your office through a refurbishment. Phase the work, agree the noise and dust rules up front, sort your landlord consents early, pay for out-of-hours only where it genuinely helps, and keep your team informed.
If staying in the office is a priority, our short-programme office works page covers phasing, weekend and out-of-hours working in more detail, and our decoration and small works page covers the smaller projects that cause the least disruption.
Beem Interiors is a London-based small works, fit-out and refurbishment firm working with SME office occupiers across the capital. If you have an office refurbishment in London coming up and you need it done around a working team, get in touch for a no-obligation chat and an honest, itemised quote you can actually compare.
