Office Fit-Out Ealing

Office fit-out in Ealing centres on the borough's Metropolitan Centre, which the Development Strategy describes as one of the 10 most important centres in London outside the centre. Beyond it, expect smaller office space: a floor above shops in Acton, Hanwell or Southall, a professional suite in a converted house, a studio. We fit out, reconfigure and strip back offices at that scale, from partitions and ceilings to lighting, kitchenettes and WCs, and we coordinate data cabling with your IT supplier.

For Ealing, the construction part of an office fit-out is published at £70 to £120 per sq ft as a UK guide, and an all-in London office fit-out at £148 to £359 per sq ft (Oktra and Cushman and Wakefield, 2026). GS Renovation Ltd, a building contractor based in Potters Bar, does the work in Ealing: we build the office partitions, ceilings, lighting and finishes as one contract and coordinate the IT supplier and specialist trades around them.

Where office space sits across Ealing borough

Office work in Ealing follows the named centres. The Development Strategy ranks Ealing as the borough's Metropolitan Centre, above Southall and the district centres at Acton and Hanwell, so larger office floors are most likely in central Ealing. London Plan Policy E1 names Croydon town centre as the strategic outer London office location, so it is fair to say Ealing is not a business district on that scale. Expect office jobs here to be single floors and small suites, some above a shop, sometimes a whole small building.

That scale shapes the job. An office above a parade in Hanwell or Acton usually shares an entrance and a staircase with other occupiers, has a single WC to renew and wiring that has been extended by several tenants in turn. A suite in central Ealing is more likely to come with a landlord's fit-out guide, a building manager and set hours for noisy work. We read those documents before pricing, because they decide when noisy stages fit around the other occupiers within the council's permitted hours, and which quiet work can run into the evening.

Cat A, Cat B and the landlord's licence in Ealing

Office leases in Ealing, as elsewhere, generally describe the space in two stages. Cat A is the landlord's base: finished ceilings, lighting, raised floor or trunking, heating and cooling, and WCs, with the floor otherwise open. Cat B is the tenant's layer on top: partitions and glazed screens, meeting rooms, a tea point or kitchenette, extra small power, signage inside and decoration. In a smaller Ealing building the line is blurrier, and a tenant may be taking a tired floor that needs both, so we price the two stages separately to show who pays for what.

Before any of it starts, the landlord usually needs to grant a licence for alterations, backed by drawings and a method statement. We supply the programme and method statement the landlord's surveyor asks for, and build to the designer's approved drawings. Your IT supplier specifies the data cabling and comms cabinet, and we coordinate the containment, the floor boxes and the timing so the network goes in before ceilings close and the first working day starts on schedule.

Building control for office work in Ealing

An office fit-out that alters means of escape or fire separation (Part B), access and WCs (Part M), or fixed lighting and services (Part L) is building work, and in Ealing the choice of approving body matters. Ealing Council runs its own building control service and says it will continue to act as the service provider of last resort when no alternative provider can be found. It also says it currently has severe backlogs with customers who reverted to it after their private sector company failed. For a tenant with a fixed move-in date, settle the route early.

Ealing says a building notice only suits small domestic works, so where Ealing is the approving body an office goes in as a full plan application. The plans are checked within 10 working days and a list of observations is produced, and a formal decision notice follows within five weeks unless an extension to two months has been agreed. Only 40% of the charge is payable on submission, with the remaining 60% invoiced when work starts. We sequence the fire alarm, emergency lighting and escape signage so each is ready for inspection before the ceilings close.

Occupied buildings, lease end and Ealing office stock

Many Ealing office jobs happen in buildings that stay open, so drilling and cutting keep to the council's permitted hours and are timed with the landlord and the other occupiers. Quiet work such as decoration and second fix can run into the evening. Under CDM 2015 a commercial client has duties of its own, including making sure the project has enough time and resources and appointing the right people. We prepare the construction phase plan and run the site to it. At the end of a lease, the same care applies in reverse: dilapidations and reinstatement to the condition the lease requires.

Some Ealing office floors will not stay offices. Class MA of the General Permitted Development Order 2015 permits a change of use from Class E to homes, subject to prior approval that covers natural light in all habitable rooms. London Plan Policy E1 says boroughs should consult upon and introduce Article 4 Directions so that office clusters are not undermined by office to residential permitted development rights. For a tenant that is context, not a decision: it explains why some buildings change hands and why a landlord may prefer a short lease. The owner confirms any consent position.

• Office WCs, accessible WCs and staff showers
• Metal stud office partitions boarded both sides
• LED office lighting with presence and daylight controls

VOA Council Tax stock of properties, March 2025, for all 41 statistical areas in Ealing. Counts rounded by the VOA.

If you are weighing up office fit-out in Ealing, it may help to read commercial fit-out in Ealing, our Ealing area guide, what a main building contractor does, what a snagging list covers, office fit-out across London and Budget and Contingency.

Working With GS Renovation in Ealing

An office fit-out is judged on the first working morning, so the programme is agreed before we start and kept to. GS Renovation's founder and director, Abdelaaziz Saaid, brings more than three decades of hands-on building experience. For an Ealing office one team handles strip-out, partitions, ceilings, floors, joinery and decoration, and coordinates the electrical, fire alarm and data trades. We work to the landlord's licence and fit-out rules, keep other occupiers informed, and hand over the certificates the landlord will ask for.

• Building control applications and inspections coordinated for you
• A programme built back from the date your staff move in
• One named contact for the landlord, the building manager and your office manager

Checked by Abdelaaziz Saaid, founder and director of GS Renovation Ltd (Companies House no. 14611254).