Warm shell or cold shell?
Two words in a lease that decide more of your budget than every finish you will ever choose.
Fitout guides
Twenty-three guides for people about to commit money to a tenancy, in the order a project actually meets them.
Numbers where we have them, the reasoning behind them, and the parts other people leave out. If you want the reasoning behind publishing any of it, it is on the about page.
If you’re not sure where to start
Warm shell or cold shell?
Two words in a lease that decide more of your budget than every finish you will ever choose.
5 min readWhat a fitout costs
Indicative ranges per square metre for all four sectors, with inclusions and exclusions.
CostsAS 1428.1 explained, for people fitting out a clinic
The access standard that rules more tenancies out than any other, and what it actually asks for.
9 min readBefore you sign
What to establish about a tenancy while walking away is still free.
How long does a practice fitout take?
Construction is the short half. Here is where the rest of the time actually goes.
Costs
What the work costs per square metre, and what moves the number.
How much does a dental fitout cost?
Per square metre, what sits inside that figure, and the four things that move it more than finishes do.
How much does a medical centre fitout cost?
Rates for general practice, specialist rooms and day procedure, and why the three are not comparable.
Approvals
The certificates between a signed lease and an open practice.
Do I need a DA for a medical centre?
Usually. Here is how the approval works in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, and why it’s the part of the program that moves your opening date.
Complying development certificates, for a clinic
The fast lane through NSW planning, when your tenancy qualifies. And the trap of assuming it does.
Construction certificates in NSW
What it’s, when you need one, who issues it, and why it isn’t the approval most people think it’s.
Occupancy permits and occupation certificates
The document that lets you open. Different name in every state, same job, and the last thing standing between a finished fitout and a working practice.
Compliance
The standards that decide whether your practice can open and stay accredited.
What the RACGP Standards ask of your building
Accreditation is mostly about how you run a practice. A handful of it’s about the rooms, and that handful is expensive to retrofit.
Designing a sterilisation room that passes
One direction of travel, no crossing back. Everything else in the room follows from that.
AS 1428.1 explained, for people fitting out a clinic
The access standard that rules more tenancies out than any other, and what it actually asks for.
Ambulant toilet requirements
Not the same thing as an accessible toilet, triggered by different rules, and routinely left out of a fitout until the certifier asks.
NCC building classification, and which one your clinic is
Every building in Australia sits in a class, the class sets the rules, and changing use changes the class.
What is a Class 9a building?
The health-care classification, what triggers it, and why it should be settled before you sign a lease rather than during documentation.
AS 1668.2 and clinical ventilation
Why the base building air conditioning that suits an office frequently cannot serve a clinic, and what to check before you sign.
Negative pressure rooms
What they’re, when a clinic actually needs one, and why they are engineered rather than specified.
AS 3745 and emergency planning for a clinic
Evacuation diagrams, wardens and the obligations that start the day you occupy, not the day you build.
Design
How the rooms themselves get set out.
Designing a veterinary clinic
Noise, separation, drainage and the small rooms that owners wish they had planned for.
Dental surgery design
The room itself: where the chair goes, what reaches it, and the decisions that are fixed the day the slab is cut.
Contracts
The vocabulary in a building contract, and where it costs you.
Provisional sums, and why two quotes are not comparable without them
The line in a building contract that makes a cheap quote look cheap.
Practical completion, and what it actually triggers
Not when the building is perfect. When it’s usable, with a list attached.
The defects liability period
Twelve months in which things that only show up in use get fixed, and the retention that makes it happen.
Design and construct, or design then tender?
One contract with one party accountable, or two with a competitive price. On a clinical fitout the answer leans one way more than people expect.
Or use a tool
Fitout cost estimator
Four questions and a number that moves as you change them. Nothing gets sent anywhere.
EstimatorHow much space do I need?
Count the rooms you want. It adds the support spaces and the circulation.
Space plannerFitout glossary
Warm shell, make good, Class 9a, provisional sum. The words that turn up in a lease or a contract.
GlossarySend us the floor plan
A site assessment tells you what the tenancy can take and what it will cost to get there, ideally before you have signed for it.