MEP planning belongs before the design freeze
Services drive ceiling height, riser capacity and rework. Coordinating them after the design is signed off is how fit-outs lose both money and millimetres.
On most fit-outs, MEP arrives as a subcontract after the interior design is approved. The sequence is backwards, and the cost of reversing it lands as value engineering, lowered ceilings and site rework.
What has to be known before freeze
- Available electrical load from the landlord, in kVA, and what the base build already consumes.
- Riser and shaft capacity for cabling, drainage and fresh air, measured, not assumed.
- Existing fire detection and sprinkler layout, and what a partition change obliges you to modify.
- Ceiling void depth after beams, existing services and structural drops.
- Plumbing routes and slope for any new pantry or washroom, including waste connection points.
The three collisions that cost the most
First, ductwork against beam soffits: discovered late, it is paid for in ceiling height. Second, sprinkler heads against a designed ceiling grid: relocation is chargeable and the compliance drawing has to be reissued. Third, electrical load against actual demand, the point at which an office discovers it needs a transformer upgrade is usually the point at which it cannot afford one.
A coordinated set, before freeze
What we push for is a services coordination drawing, reflected ceiling plan, duct routes, sprinkler and detector positions, cable trays, light fittings, overlaid and resolved on one sheet before the BOQ is frozen. It is a week of drawing that routinely saves several weeks of site.
Why it also changes the price
A coordinated set lets MEP be priced from quantities instead of allowances. Cable lengths, duct areas, diffuser counts and fitting schedules become measurable, which removes the largest single source of provisional sums in a fit-out BOQ, and with it, the variation claims that follow them.
Have a quote or a BOQ in front of you? Send it across and we will read it line by line.
