Case study — Commercial office fit-out
We delivered the decoration package at Vodafone House in Bracknell for main contractor OD Group, working across the office floors and the building's core areas.
Client
OD Group
Location
Bracknell, Berkshire
Sector
Fit-out
Scope
Office floors and core areas
We were appointed by OD Group to carry out the decoration package at Vodafone House, Bracknell. The works covered the office floors together with the reception, atrium, core areas, meeting rooms and WCs, including spray application to ceilings and exposed services.
Commercial office decoration is judged on programme as much as on finish. Floors are handed over in sequence, the decoration follows the trades ahead of it, and the work has to reach a defect-free standard in time for occupation without holding up anyone behind it. Floors were taken and released one at a time so completed areas could be handed over while work continued elsewhere, with core and reception areas worked outside normal hours to keep the building's circulation open.
Four office floors — walls, ceilings and joinery
Reception, atrium and core areas
Meeting rooms, WCs and circulation routes
Spray application to ceilings and exposed services
Protection and phased handover of completed floors
Office interiors take heavy contact wear through circulation routes and cores, and the specification has to hold up to a commercial cleaning regime while giving a flat, defect-free finish under the even lighting of an open-plan floor. Walls were finished in scrubbable water-based systems, ceilings and exposed services were spray-applied, and joinery and metalwork took a hard-wearing water-based satin.
On a commercial fit-out the decoration is the last thing seen and the last thing done. Everything upstream lands on it.
Floors were decorated and released in sequence rather than as one block, so each could be handed over and brought into use while work continued on the floors above.
Decoration sits at the end of the sequence and absorbs the slippage in front of it. Holding the completion date meant re-sequencing around the trades ahead of us and working two floors concurrently where the programme tightened.
New floor finishes, glazing and joinery were installed ahead of us across much of the building, so protection and a disciplined snagging and making-good routine carried as much weight as the decoration itself.
Reception, lifts and stair cores were decorated outside normal hours so the building's circulation stayed open, with deliveries and set-up arranged around the site's access windows.
We are a commercial painting contractor based in London, and we travel for national contractors on projects across the South East. Bracknell was resourced and supervised to the same standards as our Central London work.
What contractors and building managers ask us before appointing a decoration subcontractor.
Yes. Most of our commercial work is carried out in buildings that stay in use. We phase the works floor by floor or area by area, hoard and protect ahead of starting, and use low-odour water-based systems so neighbouring spaces stay occupied. Core areas and reception can be worked outside normal hours where the building cannot lose circulation.
From drawings and a specification we measure the areas, allow for preparation appropriate to the substrate, and price labour, materials, access and protection separately so the build-up is transparent. Send us the tender documents and a programme and we will return a priced bill with any qualifications stated plainly rather than buried.
Yes, and on occupied commercial buildings we often do. Out-of-hours working is priced and programmed from the outset rather than added later, and our supervisors attend the same shifts as the operatives so quality does not drop on a night shift.
We are CHAS and SSIP accredited and work to the health and safety standards main contractors expect on commercial sites, with a 100 per cent RIDDOR-free record across our sites. Full details, policies and certificates are on our health and safety page and are available for your prequalification pack.
We are a commercial painting contractor based in Clerkenwell and most of our work is in Central and Greater London, but we travel across the South East for national contractors and multi-site clients. Vodafone House in Bracknell was resourced and supervised to the same standards as our Central London projects.
See the sectors we work in →Talk to the team that delivered the decoration package at Vodafone House.
GSD London Ltd
Company Number: 10543768
VAT Number: 261280131
Head Office
40 Bowling Green Lane,
EC1R0NE, United Kingdom
