CAT-A and CAT-B Office Fit Out

CAT A (Category A)

CAT-A Fit Out is when office spaces are finished to a standard that the landlord would let the space to an incoming tenant. CAT A spaces are usually finished with suspended ceilings, raised floors, lighting and air conditioning and/or heating, they are often described as a fresh/clean ‘white box’ or a ‘blank canvas’ ready for an incoming tenant to make their own bespoke interior when they undertake their CAT B Fit Out. Interior décor such as wall decoration or flooring are often neutral in terms of colour and design.

CAT A offices are always left as an open plan space therefore have no rooms (such as offices or meeting rooms) formed.

The M&E (Mechanical & Electrical) Systems installed at CAT A stage are also suitable for an open plan environment, so you will find items such as the lighting and air conditioning evenly spaced throughout the open plan floor plate.

CAT B (Category B) Fit Out follows the CAT A and is when the incoming tenant creates a bespoke working environment specific to their business. CAT B Fit Outs are usually left to the tenant to design and install.

The first step of a CAT B Fit Out would be to undertake a space planning and workplace consultancy process to understand how the current business functions and then to apply this to the new CAT A space, ensuring the right number of workstations, breakout spaces, meeting rooms, cellular offices etc are captured.

The second step (once the space plan is ‘frozen’) would be to undertake the Interior Design stage where the interior décor and specification of all the fixtures and fittings are prepared and tailored to your brand. This is an important stage as it’s all about ensuring you create a space that your workforce love to be, it’s worth considering that many office based workers spend more time at work (8 to 10 hours per day) than they do at home with their families, therefore getting their working environment right is critical to ensure you help boost productivity, retain and attract the best talent.

What is CAT B Fit Out?

To summarise a CAT B Fit Out the below is what you would expect to see:

• Solid and glazed Partitioning to form the various offices, meeting rooms, breakout spaces
• Kitchens and tea points
• Flooring, decoration, signage and branding
• Bespoke Joinery for items such as reception counters, feature walls and ceilings, boardrooms
• Adjustments and additions to the landlord CAT A installed M&E Installations (Air conditioning/heating/lighting/fire Detection)
• IT and Infrastructure (data cables/WiFi/power/comms room)
• Audio Visual Installations (TV screens/presentation areas/video conferencing)
• Workstations and seating etc

Whether it’s a CAT A or CAT B Fit Out, or whether you are a landlord or a tenant, you will need to appoint a team usually including a Fit Out Contractor who will engage with Interior Designers and Consultants to produce a design, specification scope of works and cost for the project. This team will take your brief and present back a scheme that will create an initial project cost.

It’s worth considering that to build up the above it is quite a ‘jigsaw puzzle’ of many components and options on specification so you need to start somewhere to get an initial design you like then a cost on the table for review, this cost should never be seen as fixed and final as you can make great savings by small tweaks, the cost at this stage needs to be taken as a starting point which requires more work.

What is ‘Value Engineering’ (VE)?

When a project is fully designed and fully costed ‘Value Engineering’ (VE) is a process where the client (landlord or tenant) can work with the team to look across the costs to see where savings can be made. Savings can often be made by tweaking the specification of an item that has been selected. For example, if a £25 per SQM carpet has been selected for a 1000 SQM project this equates to £25,000, if this is exchanged for a £15 SQM carpet then a £10,000 saving can be presented as a possible VE consideration for the client. This process can be undertaken for all items across a project. Sometimes it may be a compromise on a specified item but just swapping a brand can bring a saving with no obvious compromise.

Interior Designers and M&E Consultants can be known to select high specification products and finishes which can drive up the overall budget, a good contractor will always offer VE alternatives when costing a project which can be considered.