One of the hidden killers in commercial fit outs is Asbestos.   Asbestos is still found in abundant quantities in Sydney and time and time again it is handled so poorly.   Here are the facts; if your fit out company does not deal with your Asbestos problem correctly they are not only endangering their own lives.   They could put your life, your staff’s life, your family’s life and everyone who comes into contact with you or your office at risk.

A good rule of thumb (and that is all it is) is any office built pre 1990 could contain Asbestos.   We are not saying that it does, just that it may.   If in doubt always call in a professional.  We’re not going to go into detail as to how to handle Asbestos during a commercial fit out as that keeps changing.

If you are in Sydney, WorkCover New South Wales is a good place to start to look for information, but there are many other resources also available.

Below is a list of possible places Asbestos might be found in your during your office refurbishment or renovation.  This is not an exhaustive list by any means.

• Office electrical Switchboards
• Warehouse and office roof sheeting
• Wet area office wall partitioning
• Kitchen wall partitions
• Eaves Sheets
• Some ceiling insulation
• Backing of some lino / vinyl tiles
• Office plumbing pipe lagging
• Some compounds used for plaster patching
• Some old textured paint finishes
• Electrical conduits
• Fire rated fire stopping around walls, electrical conduits and plumbing pipes
• Some Vermiculite type ceiling coatings
• Air Conditioning duct insulation
• Fire Doors – in the core of the door, this can be real problem, particularly when someone goes to change the lock.

NB:

Just because your office has a build date after 1990, does not mean that you are 100% safe.   Whose to say that a company doing some work after that date didn’t have some materials left over that he wanted to use up.   Don’t be alarmed but be careful, know what the dangers could be and act accordingly.

Apex Executive Interiors can organise a Hazardous Materials survey of your property. This is something that you need to do before your begin your office fit out.

Continuing on our two part blog on selecting a location for your office fit out. Things you should consider when deciding which building or floor to choose for your next fit out.   Particularly when you are given a few ‘locations’ to decide from.

Consider the following:

• Ceiling height, anything less that 2500mm can feel a little cramped, anything more than 2700mm and your fitout costs will sky rocket.
• Retention (yet again) – does the building provide facilities for staff such as showers or a gym.
• The Neighbours – What is the sound transmission like through the existing plaster partition walls?  If you stay quiet, can you hear every word they say? There’s an old military saying “Tracer fire works both ways”.
• What type of ceiling is in place? – A 1200mm x 600mm ceiling grid is the most cost effective in terms office fitout. (see image)
• Floor loads – If you plan to install a compactus, can the buildings floors handle the weight?
• Electrical loads – Does your fit out have unusual electrical requirements such as 3 phase power, does the building have it and is it available to you? Sometimes when a floor that had only one tenant gets divided into multiple tenancies, the electrical infrastructure can be inadequate, best to check.
• Air Conditioning – Many building have real issues with the base building air, this is an area where a bit of research can save a lot of heartache.   Ask some of the existing tenants if they are happy with it.  If your office fit out requires supplementary air for boardrooms or data rooms, you should check to see how that operates, and again if there is capacity in the base building system for you.   If the building is at capacity and there is no condenser water available for your new air conditioning unit, then it won’t operate… simple.
• Air Conditioning (again) – Out of hours air, most building systems are set to run 5 days a week from say 7.30am to 6pm.  If your staff work outside these hours then what are the cost implications if you need to run it for longer periods?
• Have a look at the coffee shops and restaurants in the area, not only for your staff but for client functions.
• What opportunities will you have for office signage?   There may be restrictions put on what you can do.
• Parking… is it adequate for your needs?
• Is the loading dock sufficient in size for the deliveries you will be receiving?

I’m sure I could come up with another 50 things that are frequently overlooked and maybe we will save that for a future blog.   The real trick here is just to think ahead about how your business will operate and then incorporate those thoughts into your office fit out.   If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me through the website.

I hope you found this information useful, there is much more to talk about, we have been receiving some fantastic comments and private feedback.  Please keep it coming.

Thank you

Stephen

I was asked by a client to view a few buildings in Sydney that had been shortlisted for their new office fitout. When we got to the third one, the choice was clear to me, in fact I think the words I used were “no brainer… this is the one for your new fitout”.

He asked, “Why do you say that?” And that’s when it hit me. There is not always one big reason why one property is better than the next, sometimes it’s a whole lot of small reasons.

A few things you need to consider when selecting an office space for your next fitout.

• Available office space – Seems obvious but is the space big enough for your needs now and at least for the term of your lease? How many workstations or partitions will you be able to fit into the office space.
• Building shape – Square buildings waste less space when partitioning an office than round or other odd shaped buildings.
• Neighbours – While you are not in control of who will come later, have a look at who you will be cohabitating with. Do the office walls need soundproofing?
• Locations, size and quantity of columns – They have a real affect on your office partitions or workstation layout.
• Frontage – Either from the lift doors or from the street, will a well designed office foyer or reception design give you maximum exposure?
• Building appearance – Does the look of the building and foyer design match your corporate image, will it help attract and retain staff?
• Staff retention (again, because people are important) – Is it too far out of the way of your key staff, they may choose to go elsewhere.
• Net Lettable Area vs Actual Usable space – The variance between the two can be significant, we have a blog you can refer to for more information dated 19/3/2012. Called “What is Net Lettable Area or NLA”
• Does the tenancy and indeed the building entry facilitate disabled access to your office?
• Does the building have an aerial with cabling to your floor for free to air TV, or equipment and cabling for pay TV?   Is their any capacity in the system for your boardroom?
• Have you spoken to the building manager?   how did you get on?… you will have to work with him or her in the future.
• How many phone lines are available for your office fitout from the buildings Main Distribution Frame (MDF)?
• How secure is the building and the car park?   If some of your staff will be working late or starting early will they be safe?
• Does the building have a full time building manager?   Some buildings only have an onsite person for a few hours a day.
• Don’t forget about public transport, how easy will it be for your staff to get to work?   Depending on the type of business you operate, for your clients to get to you as well.

OK, that’s it for part 1, more on selecting a space for you next office fitout in part 2

“Hi my name is Jenny from XYZ Sydney, how much for a plaster wall two meters long?”

Unfortunately or depending on how you look at it, fortunately, life regarding office fitout just isn’t that simple, but it isn’t that complicated either.

Here are a few things you should consider when you next plan to divide part of your existing office space:

1. What’s the wall made of, plaster, half  glass, full height glass, they get dearer, in that order?
2. If its glass what decals are required, the minimum requirement at the moment is a continuous 75mm frosted strip between 900mm and 1000mm from the ground.   (We actually have a down loadable PDF with different frosting patterns that we provide free under the downloads section of our web site.)
3. What about air conditioning, the new wall will undoubtedly affect air flow.
4. Fire services such as sprinklers, smoke and thermal detectors and EWIS systems could very well be affected.   This needs to be checked, and certified by a qualified professional.
5. Paths of travel, you must comply with maximum travel distances to a safe exit in accordance with the Building Code of Australia.  A wall positioned incorrectly could make your office fitout non compliant and leave you liable.
6. Authority approvals, do you need council or other approvals?   Just because its ‘non structural’ doesn’t mean you don’t need a Development Application, Complying Development Certificate or a Construction Certificate.
7. Disabled access requirements with regard to clearance at doorways and in corridors.   We went into this in more detail in a previous blog (5/3/2012).  Needless to say disabled access is important, in fact its mandatory.
8. Aesthetic design, how will it affect the look of your office fitout, we have seen to many offices not only in Sydney, where it is just so easy to see where one contractor finished and another began.  Sometimes its subtle but not always.

Again this is not a comprehensive list, but it should promote thought.

We often hear, sometimes with a defensive tone “The other guy didn’t bring up these problems”.   Well just because the ’other guy’ didn’t flag the problem doesn’t mean the problem doesn’t exist.   This is one of those situations where ignorance isn’t bliss… its just ignorance.   Believe me, as someone who has been doing office fitout for a while now, it’s better to find out the issues and the solutions before you start.

Net lettable area or NLA is essentially the term given to the area of your office that you actually pay for.   The method of measurement has been set out by the Property Council of Australia.

The basic method of measurement is as follows, all dimensions are taken:

1. to the inside face of the external glass of perimeter walls walls.
2. to the centre of the dividing wall thickness between tenancy’s.
3. to the inside face of solid external, common stairwell and common toilet walls.

Columns also are included in NLA, however if there is a boxed in section around a set pipes from another level on a column or other wall, then the area taken by that box should not be part of your NLA.

So what does this mean for you?

Really what it means is that when you are selecting a building either in Sydney or anywhere else in Australia, it is important to work out the difference between the NLA and the actual ‘usable office space’.   The trick is to minimise the waste.

Here is an example;

• 10 Columns at 0.6 x 0.6 meter each = 3.6m2 of wasted space.
• 35 lineal meters of window sill that is say 350mm deep (not uncommon) = 12.25m2 of wasted space.

This fairly typical example has a difference between NLA and usable space of 15.85m2 which if we said the rent was $750 per meter means annually you are wasting $11,887.50 on floor area you cant use.

NB.  When a real estate agent tells you the property is 450m2 he means NLA, they are not telling you the usable space, probably because they don’t know.

You probably need this like hole in the head, but its just one more thing to consider when you are looking at renewing your current lease or moving to new premises.

This could be the shortest blog in history… the answer is of course YES!

The latest revision of Australian Standard AS 1428.1-2009 (Design for access and mobility) has been a mandatory since early last year and is very specific in its requirements.

Below I have listed some of the more basic items that absolutely have to be considered at the design stage of any office fit out.

1. Circulation space around doors.  Depending on the approach direction of any door way there is an “exclusion zone” which must be kept clear.   This has lead to much wider corridors and entrances than most people believe is required.
2. Door colour, you can no longer have you door the same colour as your wall, there has to be a 30% luminance contrast difference between the wall and the door.   Believe it or not even the toilet seat has to have a 30% luminance contrast to the background.  This is to assist people who are visually impaired.
3. Passing spaces are required when corridors exceed a set distance, and corners of corridors need to have enough room to allow for a wheel chair to turn in them with out doing a 3 point turn.  The exact dimensions are in AS 1428.1-2009, I wont list them here as they are prone to change.
4. Reception design, what do you do when someone in a wheel chair comes into your reception area.   Do you have an area for them to wait in that is not the hall way?  Do you have a way to talk to them from the reception counter that doesn’t mean you have to lean over the hob and speak down to them?   Consider how you would like to be treated if you were in their situation.

So that’s just a few of the many considerations that we put into our office fit out designs.   Sydney offices can be challenging due to the age of the buildings but as they say…

Where there’s a will, there’s a relative! :) 

The “make good” clause is the sting in the tail of just about every office lease.   At a time when all you want to do is walk away, you could be looking at spending thousands of dollars in order to fulfil your commitment to the landlord.    There are a few things that you should consider regarding make good clauses, and believe it or not you should do this BEFORE YOU SIGN THE LEASE!

1. If you are taking over the lease from someone else, you are most likely taking over their make good obligations, read the lease carefully.
2. Why not try to negotiate the clause out of the lease, particularly if you are in a buyers market.   They may well succumb to your way of thinking.
3. Be sure to do a photographic dilapidation report before you move in, if the office space is in a poor state of repair before you move in, you don’t want to be the person who improves the property for someone else when you exit.   Unless your lease says otherwise you should be looking to return the property in the condition that you found it.   There is normally a clause on “fair wear and tear” that you should make sure you understand.  If you are not comfortable doing a dilapidation report yourself there are professional organisations that can do it for you… for a fee.
4. An expense that I’m sure you can do without is replacing the carpet, unless it is in your lease to replace it regardless of its condition.   The use of chair mats and regular professional cleaning of the carpet will reduce your chances of having to replace the carpet when you finish your lease.

This list is by no means comprehensive, but it’s a good start.   If you have had experience with issues around make goods, please tell us your story.

A reception renovation can quickly turn into a disaster if it is not designed and well thought out in advance.   The receptionist is the front line of your business, an uncomfortable and unhappy receptionist will not be your business putting its best foot forward.

Here are a few questions you should ask yourself regarding the design of your reception area:

1.   How many staff are likely to be on the counter at any one time, both now and into the future (the term of your lease)?

2.   How many visitors will you have, and what type?   Families will happily sit together on a 3 person couch, but if most of your visitors are business men, you will find they won’t want to sit together.

3.   Will the receptionist be accepting and sending out mail?  If so they will need desk space to do it and possibly even space for a franking machine.

4.   Will the receptionist need to be able to unlock the entry door without getting up?

5.   If your receptionist is isolated most of the time from other staff, should you consider a duress alarm?

6.   Does your receptionist need to have a space to do confidential filing, ie… lockable cabinets and a private space?

7.   Will your receptionist be required to offer refreshments?  If so make sure this is taken into consideration in the design.

8.   Does your proposed reception area have a space for people to sign in and out and be issued with visitors badges?

9.   What design considerations do you need to give for disabled access, for example, are you frequented by people in wheel chairs?  If so having a low section on the desk and an area where a chair can pull in gives your visitor the dignity they deserve.

10. What kinds of deliveries do you normally take in the reception area?   Does there need to be an area where couriers can drop items off and be signed for.

11. What type of look are you after, it’s not just the counter, it’s the wall and floor finishes, it’s the lighting, it’s the visitor seating and also the art on the walls to name but a few.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of considerations but it’s a pretty good start.