What Challenges Faced in Interior Fit-outs and How to Solve Them?

For many people, interior design is like an expense, but if it is done in the right way, they are an investment in your home’s/business’s growth and success after on. Still, poorly organized fit-outs can often result in a nightmare, so you must plan the fit-outs in a way where you can take into account several different variables that often lead to a bad fit-out experience. There are some common problems and the solutions to them:

Accurate Budget planning issue:

Being unaware of the costs associated with the interior fit-out of an office is a formula for disaster. A lot of businesses have just started, also the experienced managers only get an initial estimate from their general contractor, and then they have to worry about the costs as the job is in process. Costs can increase and surpass the initial estimates unexpectedly. To avoid this, plan out a budget beforehand with the contractor and have a well-organized review of the same to avoid any last-minute surprises.

All Contractors are Different:

A lot of contractors have experience with different projects or specialize in different fields. Find out which contractor suits you the best by preparing an initial meeting or interview. Some points to be considered in that interview:

  • Does the contractor have the financial capability to execute such a project?
  • What were the results?
  • Have they done similar projects before?

Accounting:

The owner or landlord of the premises often has a significantly large influence on the overall success of the interior fit-out. In some cases, the landlord could be the owner of an office apartment/space; so the fit-out contractor may be bound to only work outside normal business hours. He may not be authorized to use the lifts for bringing in materials/furniture, may also have limitations on delivery times, etc. which could lead to delays from the primary work schedule decided. In other cases, the proprietor could be a team of people such as in the case of fit-out work in a mall, where it is necessary to coordinate with the mall office to ensure that designs are prepared with following mall restrictions and regulations in mind. This is a common issue that fit-out managers are forced to engage with if not kept in mind during the initial stages and the best way to overcome such a problem would be to ensure that the landlord is a part of the initial consultations during the design and planning stage rather than the execution stage.

DELAYED in Drawings and Designs:

Another common problem that an interior contractor may have to face is delays and hold of work due to drawings not being conferred to the contractor on time or that the drawings are not detailed enough to perform the work. This is usually only the case when the designer is hired from the client’s side and the project is not assigned on a turnkey basis where the contractor is in charge of designs as well. This can once again lead to delays in project fulfillment, however, this problem could be avoided by either assigning the project to a company on a turnkey basis where they are singularly liable for the delays or ensuring that the design team is precise with their work and will always be available to clarify or rework the drawings if they need further detailing.

Procurement Planning:

This is probably the most essential factor in ensuring a project is executed and handed over on time. If the acquirement planning of a company is poor, then it will be very challenging to succeed in any interior fit-out project. The material and the labour must move in sync with the project, as in many cases contractors are faced with the challenge of labour being present on site but cannot work to full capacity because the needed materials have not reached the site. The only solution to this problem is to plan out your procurement in advance, this involves listing out all the long lead items which generally take a much longer time to be procured and delivered on site as well – items such as movable furniture, etc. which may not be easily available to reach the site immediately. If at the start of a project, you have a robust and strong procurement schedule then the chances of the project being a success are much higher.

Scope Management:

This refers to changes that are both uncontrolled and controlled post-project commencement. Realistically almost all projects have changed after the work begins; however, the difficulty lies in being able to manage the changes in the scope of work. One should be able to dominate this in various ways such as – concluding if the change in scope is necessary or not; assuring the change in scope is still within the project budget or changing the project budget to account for the increased scope, improving timelines and setting new progress schedules or deadlines. It is also necessary to ensure that all project changes are documented so that there is no dispute between the client and the contractor at a later stage.

Cubic Interiors