Office fit out
Office fit out across DIFC, Business Bay, JLT, DMCC, Dubai Internet City and Sheikh Zayed Road — landlord approvals, Civil Defence sign-off, MEP, joinery and handover under one contract.
Office fit out in Dubai is rarely delayed by construction. It is delayed because the building manager needs method statements and insurance certificates before anyone is allowed on site, because the free zone authority approves drawings on its own standard, or because Civil Defence will not sign off a sprinkler alteration done in the wrong sequence.
We programme a fit out backwards from those gates. Landlord submission, authority approval and Civil Defence inspection are scheduled first, then the site works are fitted around them — and joinery goes into production in our Al Quoz workshop during the approval window rather than after it. That is usually the difference between a fit out that hands over on the date and one that slips a season.
What an office fit out covers
We take on full-floor Cat B fit outs, single-department refurbishments and occupied-office alterations phased around a working business.
Reception desks and feature walls from our own workshop, backlit branding, and the waiting area the business is judged on.
Workstation layouts planned to real density and circulation rules, with power and data setting-out coordinated before partitions go up.
Acoustic partitions and double-glazed glass fronts, AV and video-conference integration, and table joinery with cable management designed in.
Demountable and full-height systems, acoustic glazing, and partitions set out against the ceiling grid and sprinkler layout rather than across it.
Tea points and staff kitchens with the drainage and extract they need, plus breakout seating and informal meeting space.
HVAC alterations and rebalancing, electrical distribution, fire detection and sprinkler modification, lighting and emergency lighting.
Approvals
It depends entirely on whether you are in a free zone or on the mainland, and most delays happen here. We confirm the route before pricing the programme.
Ask about your buildingBefore any authority sees a drawing, the building needs a fit out application, your contractor’s trade licence and insurance, method statements, and often a refundable deposit. Many towers also restrict working hours, limit service lift and loading bay slots, and require noisy works outside business hours. We submit this first because it is the gate everything else sits behind.
Offices inside a free zone are approved by that authority, not by Dubai Municipality: DMCC for JLT and Uptown, DDA for Dubai Internet City, Media City and Design District, DIFC for its own buildings, and Trakhees for PCFC and Jafza jurisdictions. Mainland offices in Business Bay or on Sheikh Zayed Road go to Dubai Municipality. Each has its own drawing standard and its own register of approved contractors — being approved by one does not carry to another.
Any change to partitions, ceilings, sprinklers, fire detection, emergency lighting or escape routes needs Dubai Civil Defence approval, and an inspection before handover. This is the approval most often underestimated: a sprinkler head moved without a drawing can hold up the whole handover. We submit it with the main package rather than at the end.
Load increases and new distribution boards need DEWA approval. Telecom and data provisioning runs on its own lead time, outside your control and the landlord’s — we raise it at week one because it is a common reason a finished office cannot be occupied.
Recent commercial work
Business Bay, JLT, Al Quoz, Dubai Investment Park and Abu Dhabi.
Cat A, Cat B & cost
Know which category you are buying before you compare quotations — most of the confusion in office fit out pricing comes from comparing a Cat B scope against a Cat A rate.
Raised floor or screed, suspended ceiling, basic lighting, fire detection, sprinklers and conditioned air to an empty open floor. A lettable blank space. Usually the landlord’s scope, not yours.
Partitions, meeting rooms, reception, pantry, finishes, joinery, branding, AV and data, plus the MEP alterations all of that requires. This is the fit out you are actually buying.
Partitions, MEP alteration and joinery are the largest lines. Glass partition systems, acoustic ratings and AV integration are what lift a basic specification to a high one. We price line by line in a BOQ after a site survey.
Set by the size of the floor, how heavily partitioned it is, and the approval route for the building. Landlord and authority approvals sit at the front and we run them in parallel where the building allows.
We phase by zone, hoard the active area, and run noisy and dusty work outside business hours where the building permits it. It costs more per square foot than an empty floor, and it avoids paying rent on two leases.
Glass partition systems, acoustic ratings, AV integration, and any alteration to sprinklers or HVAC. Long-lead imported partition systems set the programme — we flag all of it at quotation, not as a variation.
Tell us the building, the floor area and roughly how many people need to sit in it. We will survey, confirm which authority approves your fit out, and come back with a programme and a BOQ you can tender against.
Common questions
Categories, cost, approvals and working around a live business. If yours is not here, call +971 50 448 3095.
For a Cat B fit out it depends on specification. Partitions, MEP alterations and joinery are the largest lines, and glass partition systems, acoustic ratings and AV integration are what lift a basic specification to a high one. If a quotation looks unusually cheap, check whether it is pricing Cat B at all rather than comparing the rate. We price line by line in a BOQ after surveying the floor, so you compare scope rather than headline numbers.
Cat A is the landlord’s base build — floor, suspended ceiling, basic lighting, fire detection, sprinklers and air conditioning delivered to an empty floor. Cat B is everything that turns that into your office: partitions, meeting rooms, reception, pantry, finishes, joinery, branding, AV, data and the MEP changes they need. If a quotation looks unusually cheap, check whether it is pricing Cat B at all.
It depends on the size of the floor, how heavily partitioned it is, and the approval route for your building. Landlord approval and the authority permit sit at the front of the programme, and we produce joinery in our own workshop during that window so production time does not sit on top of the site programme. You get a dated programme with milestones rather than a duration quoted over the phone.
Whichever governs your building. Free zone offices are approved by their own authority — DMCC in JLT, DDA in Internet City, Media City and Design District, DIFC in its own buildings, Trakhees in PCFC and Jafza areas. Mainland offices in Business Bay or on Sheikh Zayed Road go to Dubai Municipality. Each has its own drawing standard and approved-contractor register, and approval with one does not transfer to another. We confirm the route before pricing.
Yes, for any change to partitions, ceilings, sprinklers, fire detection, emergency lighting or escape routes — which covers nearly every real fit out. There is also an inspection before handover. It is the approval most often left late, and a sprinkler head relocated without a drawing can hold up occupation of a finished office. We submit it with the main package.
Yes. We phase the work by zone, hoard and seal the active area, and schedule noisy or dusty work outside business hours where the building allows it. It costs more per square foot than an empty floor, but it is usually cheaper than overlapping two leases. Buildings with strict working-hour rules make this harder, which we check before committing to a programme.
Yes. Reception desks, meeting tables, storage walls and feature joinery are made in our own Al Quoz workshop; loose task chairs and workstations we procure from suppliers to the specification. You can also keep FF&E out of our scope entirely and buy against a schedule we provide.
We hold a Dubai trade licence, ISO 45001:2018 certification for occupational health and safety, and the insurances building managers ask for, and we submit method statements as part of the fit out application. Where a building keeps its own approved-contractor register we complete that registration as part of our scope rather than treating it as your problem.
Yes — across the UAE including Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. For commercial work in the capital see our Abu Dhabi page, which covers the ADM and Estidama requirements that differ from Dubai.
