Fitout glossary

The words that turn up in a lease, a contract or a certifier's email, defined without the circular explanations.

Every definition here links to the page that goes into it properly. If a term you have been sent is missing, tell us and we will add it.

Leasing and the tenancy

Cold shell

A concrete box with a power supply and a water point. Air conditioning, ceilings, lighting, fire services and floor coverings are all the tenant's, which adds roughly $350 to $550 per square metre before a single finish is chosen.

Make good

An obligation in a lease to return the tenancy to its original condition at the end of the term. For a clinical fitout that can mean removing partitions, plant, shielding and services you paid to install.

Warm shell

A tenancy handed over with base building services already in place: conditioned air, a ceiling grid, general lighting, sprinklers, an accessible path of travel and usually a bathroom. You fit out on top of something that already works.

Complying development certificate

A New South Wales combined planning and construction approval under the Codes SEPP, issued by council or a registered certifier. Faster than a development application, and all or nothing: failing one development standard closes the pathway.

Construction certificate

A New South Wales approval confirming documented building work is consistent with the development consent and complies with the National Construction Code. Issued before work starts, and separate from the development application.

Material change of use

The Queensland application for changing what a building is used for, assessed by council against the planning scheme. Whether it is code or impact assessable depends on the zone and changes the timeframe substantially.

Occupancy permit

The final approval confirming a building is suitable for occupation. Called an occupation certificate in New South Wales and a certificate of classification in Queensland. Without it you cannot lawfully occupy the premises.

Ambulant accessible cubicle

A wider toilet cubicle inside an ordinary toilet block, with grabrails to both side walls and a door that opens outward, for people who walk with difficulty. Triggered by the number of closet pans provided, not by accessibility on its own.

Class 9a

The health-care building classification under the National Construction Code, covering buildings where occupants receive treatment and may be unable to evacuate without physical assistance. The test is self-evacuation, not whether the use is described as medical.

Continuous accessible path of travel

An unbroken route from the site boundary or accessible car space to the entrance, through it, along circulation and to a sanitary facility. One step anywhere in that chain breaks it.

Negative pressure room

A room held below the air pressure of the spaces around it, so air flows in and leaves only through a dedicated exhaust discharging outside. Positive pressure does the reverse and protects the occupant instead.

One-way flow

The layout principle governing a sterilisation room: instruments move in a single direction from dirty receiving through cleaning, inspection, packaging and sterilising to sterile storage, with nothing moving forward crossing anything not yet cleaned.

Test fit

A concept plan showing whether the rooms you need fit the space you are considering, with an order-of-magnitude cost against it. Enough to negotiate a lease with, and enough to compare two tenancies honestly.

Defects liability period

A defined period after practical completion, commonly twelve months, during which the contractor must return and rectify defects in their work. Retention is normally held until it ends, which is what gives the obligation force.

Design and construct

A single contract in which the builder takes responsibility for both design and construction. Faster than design then tender and puts one party accountable, at the cost of design control.

Practical completion

The point at which works are complete except for minor defects that do not prevent the building being used for its intended purpose. Contractual, and not the same thing as being permitted to open.

Prime cost item

An allowance for a product that has not been selected, such as tapware or floor coverings, where the work of installing it is already priced. PC items are things you go shopping for; provisional sums are things nobody can see yet.

Provisional sum

A contract allowance for work whose extent cannot be known at signing, adjusted against actual cost when the work is done. Different from a prime cost item, which is an allowance for a product not yet selected.

Send 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.

Start a project