If you’ve ever asked a contractor “how much does an office refurbishment cost?” and been given the answer “it depends” — you’re not alone.
We know it depends. You know it depends. That’s not an answer. That’s a stalling tactic dressed up as expertise.
So here’s what we’re going to do in this article. We’re going to give you honest, current numbers — the ones we actually quote against — for every kind of office refurbishment you’re likely to be scoping. Per square foot. In pounds. With the reasons why the numbers land where they land.
Because if you’ve just bought an office, or you’re weighing up an investment, or you’re planning to move your team into a new space — you need to be able to budget with real figures. Not with “it depends.”
This is going to be a long article. It’s the article we wish existed when we started explaining refurbishment costs to clients years ago. If you’re in a rush, jump to the section that matches what you’re planning:
- Light refurbishment costs (paint, flooring, minor works)
- Full refurbishment costs (services, layout, complete interior)
- Cat A fit-out costs (landlord specification)
- Cat B fit-out costs (occupier specification)
- What’s not included in the per-square-foot price
- A worked example on a 5,000 sq ft office
Otherwise, read on.
First — what kind of refurbishment are you actually pricing?
The single biggest reason contractor quotes vary so wildly on the same building is that different contractors are pricing different things. One quotes for light cosmetic works. Another prices a full strip and rebuild. Both are technically “office refurbishment.”
There are four categories, and they cost dramatically different amounts.
Light refurbishment. You’re keeping the existing layout, existing services, existing structure. You want it looking better. New paint, new flooring, maybe some refreshed lighting or new partitioning in a couple of places. The bones of the office stay as they are.
Full refurbishment. You’re replacing services — heating, electrics, air conditioning, plumbing — alongside cosmetic and layout changes. You might be moving walls, upgrading lighting throughout, replacing the ceiling, putting in a new kitchen or breakout space. This is by far the most common scope when someone buys an older office.
Cat A fit-out. You’re taking an empty shell (or stripping one back) and installing the “landlord standard” — raised floors, suspended ceilings, lighting, air conditioning, basic finishes. Ready for a tenant to move in and add their own finish.
Cat B fit-out. You’re taking Cat A and completing it for an occupier — partitioning, branded finishes, furniture, kitchens, breakout areas, IT cabling. The complete usable space tailored to a specific business.
If you’re not sure which category you’re in, a good contractor will help you scope it on a first site visit. But knowing the difference before you make calls means you can compare quotes on a like-for-like basis.
Light refurbishment: £40-£80 per sq ft
For a straightforward light refurbishment — repainting, new carpet or LVT flooring, refreshed lighting, minor partitioning, cosmetic upgrades to WCs and kitchens — expect to pay somewhere between £40 and £80 per square foot of floor area.
Where you land in that range depends on:
- The condition of the existing building. A building that’s had regular maintenance costs less to refurbish than one that’s been neglected for a decade.
- The specification of finishes. Contract-standard vinyl flooring costs a fraction of engineered wood. Trade-quality paint costs a fraction of premium heritage colours.
- How much partitioning is involved. Studwork partitions are cheap. Full-height glass partitions with proper doors and ironmongery are not.
- Whether the M&E survives. If the lighting, heating, and electrics are all in decent condition and just need reconfiguring rather than replacing, you stay at the low end.
A 3,000 sq ft office at light refurbishment level costs somewhere between £120,000 and £240,000. Plus VAT, professional fees, and contingency (more on those below).
Full refurbishment: £80-£150 per sq ft
Full refurbishment is where most commercial office projects land. New services, revised layout, new ceilings, new lighting, new HVAC, upgraded WCs and kitchens, quality finishes throughout, proper acoustic treatment. This is what an office looks like when it’s genuinely been refurbished, not just refreshed.
Expect £80 to £150 per square foot.
What pushes you up the range:
- HVAC replacement. New air conditioning is expensive. VRV/VRF systems, ductwork, condenser installation, and commissioning can be 15-25% of your total project cost.
- Structural changes. Removing walls, opening up floor plates, adding new doorways all trigger structural engineer involvement and Building Regulations approval.
- Electrical upgrades. New distribution boards, cable runs, energy-efficient LED lighting throughout, smart controls, and testing to BS 7671 can push the M&E cost above 30% of total.
- Better acoustics. Sound-absorbing ceilings, acoustic wall panels, phone booths — everything that makes an open-plan office actually workable — adds cost but reduces the risk of a finished space nobody wants to work in.
- Higher-grade finishes. Engineered flooring vs vinyl. Custom joinery vs off-the-shelf. Feature lighting vs standard troffers. Every material choice moves the number.
A 5,000 sq ft office at full refurbishment level costs somewhere between £400,000 and £750,000 for the construction element alone. Add professional fees, contingency, and VAT and you’re realistically looking at £550,000 to £1 million all-in.
Those figures often surprise buyers who bought the building expecting to “just tidy it up” for £150,000. The building doesn’t care what your budget is — the refurbishment costs what the refurbishment costs. Better to know now than after you’ve signed the purchase.
Cat A fit-out: £60-£100 per sq ft
A Cat A fit-out is the landlord specification — everything a tenant needs to move in and add their own finish, but nothing tenant-specific.
Typical inclusions:
- Raised floors and floor boxes
- Suspended ceilings with grid lighting
- Air conditioning and mechanical ventilation
- Basic power and data distribution
- WCs and shower facilities
- Fire safety systems
- Lift refurbishment where relevant
Expect £60 to £100 per square foot.
Cat A is priced lower than full refurbishment per square foot because you’re not paying for finishes, furniture, or occupier-specific systems. But you’ll almost always need a Cat B on top of it before the space is actually usable, so if you’re an occupier the two costs need to be considered together.
Cat B fit-out: £100 to £200+ per sq ft
Cat B is where the occupier’s real spend happens. This is the space tailored to a specific business — with all the layout, branding, furniture, IT, and finishes that make it your office.
Typical inclusions:
- All partitioning and glazed offices
- Meeting rooms with AV
- Kitchen and breakout areas
- Reception and client-facing spaces
- Branded interior design and finishes
- Task lighting and feature lighting
- Furniture (desks, chairs, storage, meeting room furniture)
- IT cabling and comms room fit-out
- Acoustic treatment
- Bespoke joinery
Expect £100 to £200+ per square foot, and honestly the top end is soft — high-end Cat B for a professional services firm can hit £250 or £300 per square foot.
What determines where you land:
- How much is furniture? Furniture alone can be £2,000-£5,000 per person for good-quality task chairs, desks, and meeting room seating. On a 50-person office that’s £100,000-£250,000 of furniture.
- How much bespoke joinery? Custom reception desks, tea-point cabinetry, branded feature walls, and integrated storage all add up quickly.
- Meeting room technology. Video conferencing kit in every meeting room, digital signage, booking systems — these can add £50,000-£200,000 on a serious project.
- Design quality. A functional Cat B and an aspirational Cat B for the same business are separated by six-figure differences, mostly in materials and finishes.
A 5,000 sq ft Cat B fit-out for a professional services firm at good-quality specification typically costs £600,000-£1,000,000. Larger, more design-led offices can be significantly more.
What’s NOT included in the per-square-foot prices
Every figure above is the construction cost. There are things you must budget for that sit outside that number.
Professional fees: 3-7% of build cost. Project management, design fees for the contractor’s in-house team, cost consultancy. A well-run project is worth this and more — poorly managed projects cost more than a good project manager saves you.
Architect fees (if needed): 5-12% of build cost. Only needed if you’re doing structural work, applying for planning permission, or working on a listed building. For most internal refurbishments, the contractor’s designers cover this in the professional fee bucket.
Building Regulations and planning fees: £500-£5,000. Depends on scope. Building Regs approval is almost always required. Planning permission usually isn’t unless you’re doing external works or change of use.
Surveys: £1,000-£5,000+. Asbestos R&D survey (legally required for buildings pre-2000). Condition survey if you skipped one at purchase. M&E surveys for complex installations.
Contingency: 10-15% of everything above. Building projects have unknowns. Ceilings come down and reveal things nobody knew were there. Materials go out of stock. Programmes need to flex. If you don’t have contingency, every change becomes a crisis.
VAT: 20% on all of it. Non-negotiable and often forgotten.
Furniture, IT, and moving costs. Especially for Cat B projects, furniture and IT can easily add 20-30% to the build cost. Moving in — packers, IT setup, temporary space — has its own budget.
A worked example: 5,000 sq ft full refurbishment
Let’s put it together with an actual worked example. This is what a mid-market 5,000 sq ft office full refurbishment might cost end-to-end.
- Construction: £100/sq ft × 5,000 = £500,000
- Professional fees @ 5%: £25,000
- Surveys and approvals: £4,000
- Contingency @ 12%: £63,500
- Subtotal before VAT: £592,500
- VAT @ 20%: £118,500
- All-in refurbishment cost: £711,000
That’s before furniture, IT, and any moving costs. Add £150,000-£250,000 for those on a 50-person office and you’re at £850,000 to £950,000 total spend to get from an old office to a working one.
These are real numbers. They surprise people, which is why so many contractors don’t put them in writing. But if you’re planning a project, you need to know them.
Why some quotes come in dramatically cheaper (and what happens next)
If you’re getting quotes back and one is 30% below the others, don’t celebrate. Ask what’s not included.
Common shortcuts in low quotes:
- HVAC is understated or excluded. Air conditioning is the biggest single mechanical cost. Some contractors quote for “existing systems reused” without properly surveying whether they can be.
- Fire protection is missing. Fire detection, fire-rated partitions, and intumescent seals get scoped out by contractors who assume Building Control won’t check. Building Control will check.
- Cheap finishes are specified. Trade-quality vinyl instead of the LVT you were expecting. Contract paint instead of the finish you agreed. Generic light fittings instead of the ones in the mood board.
- Contingency is absent. No allowance for the unknowns. Every variation becomes a change order at premium pricing.
- Testing and commissioning is skipped. Systems are installed but not properly certified. You inherit compliance problems later.
The cheapest quote is rarely the cheapest project. What it usually is: the quote that gets you to sign, followed by variations and change orders that bring the total to the same place as the “expensive” quote — except with worse quality and no relationship.
Why some quotes come in dramatically more expensive (and what to look for)
The opposite can also be true. Not every high quote is padded. Sometimes it’s the honest number and everyone else is guessing.
What justifies a higher quote:
- Detailed scope with itemised pricing (rather than a lump-sum guess)
- Full M&E specification with proper survey work
- Named suppliers and materials, not “or equivalent”
- Realistic contingency built in
- Testing, commissioning, and certification clearly included
- Aftercare and defects liability properly documented
A well-scoped quote from a competent contractor should look expensive next to a rough one from a chancer. That’s a feature, not a bug.
What we quote against, and what we don’t
At ETS Group, our office refurbishment and fit-out projects across the South West, South Wales, and beyond come in at the ranges above — not the low end, not the top end, but genuinely competitive for the specification we deliver. Full accreditation stack (NICEIC, CHAS, Constructionline, SMAS Worksafe, Alcumus SafeContractor, CSCS). In-house electrical and mechanical teams. 47 years of doing this properly.
We won’t quote fixed price over the phone. Any contractor who does is either guessing or padding.
We won’t quote without a proper site visit. Every building has surprises. Finding them before we quote is cheaper than finding them mid-project.
We will give you an indicative range on a first call. Enough for you to know whether we’re in the right ballpark before you invest in a proper scoping conversation.
We will give you a detailed, itemised proposal after a site visit. So you can see exactly what’s included, what’s assumed, and what’s excluded. So you can compare it properly with other proposals.
That’s how honest procurement works. It’s what should be normal in this industry and mostly isn’t.
What to do next
If you’re planning a commercial office refurbishment and you’d like an honest steer:
Call us on 0117 9414 666 for a 20-minute conversation about your project. We’ll ask about the building, the intended use, the timeline, and the scope. We’ll give you an indicative cost range on the call. If it sounds like we might be a fit, we’ll offer to visit the site.
Or read the full guide to refurbishing an office you’ve just bought. It covers everything else you need to think about — process, compliance, timelines, choosing a contractor — beyond just the numbers.
Whichever way you get in touch, the earlier you have the conversation, the better the outcome. Refurbishments run best when they’re properly scoped from the start, not rushed at the end.
We’ve been doing this since 1979. There isn’t a refurbishment challenge we haven’t seen a version of. We’d love to help you avoid the expensive lessons other buyers learn the hard way.
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