Six weeks, twelve weeks, six months. Here is what drives the difference, using programmes from projects we have actually delivered.
The honest answer is that floor area matters far less than most people expect. Services, long lead items and whether the building stays occupied will move a programme more than another hundred square metres will.
What our own programmes look like
A 50m² cafe took nine weeks. A 150m² premium office fitout took eight. A 900m² make good with an intertenancy split took six. Two commercial suites totalling 312m² took twelve. A 1,050m² multi-floor demolition and rebuild also took eight.
Read those together and the pattern is clear. The 1,050m² job and the 150m² job took the same time, because one was a strip-out and rebuild to a straightforward specification and the other was a premium fitout with bespoke joinery and upgraded services throughout.
What actually moves the date
Long lead items are the usual culprit. Stone, custom joinery and imported fittings need ordering before the design is fully resolved if the opening date is fixed. On hospitality projects this is almost always the critical path, not the building work.
Landlord approvals and services windows are the second. If the base building will only allow after-hours work on mechanical or fire services, that constraint sets the sequence and there is no arguing with it.
Occupied sites are the third. We delivered a school master plan in three stages over six months precisely because the school stayed open throughout. The work itself would have taken a fraction of that on a vacant site.
What to do about it
Get the programme built backwards from the date you have to trade or occupy, not forwards from when you hope to start. Then identify the long lead items in week one and order them, even if some of the design is still moving. Everything else can usually be compressed. Those cannot.
- Floor area is a weak predictor. A 1,050m² strip-out and a 150m² premium fitout both took eight weeks.
- Long lead items set the critical path on hospitality projects, not the building work.
- Build the programme backwards from the date you have to trade, and order long leads in week one.