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8 minute read
Organisations can minimise downtime during an office refurbishment by phasing construction around the way the business operates. This means keeping unaffected areas working, creating temporary workspace, protecting critical IT and building services, controlling disruptive works and coordinating employee moves with each construction phase.
There is a moment in almost every occupied office refurbishment when someone asks the question everyone has been thinking. “Where are we supposed to work while all this is happening?” It is a fair question.
There’s a slightly awkward reality to refurbishing an occupied office: the business doesn’t stop just because the building work starts. People still need to answer emails, meet clients, run teams and keep projects moving, while around them floors are being lifted, services moved and new meeting spaces built. The challenge is doing both without one getting in the way of the other.
You cannot simply press pause on the business.
That’s where phasing becomes important. You’re not asking the business to pause while the building changes around it. Instead, the refurbishment moves in manageable stages, with people, teams and construction zones carefully coordinated as each area is completed. The result is a workplace that changes without bringing the business to a standstill.
Done properly, the building keeps working while the workplace changes around it. And that starts well before the first contractor arrives on site.
Key takeaway
A phased office refurbishment works best when the programme is built around the business, not just the construction.
That means understanding what cannot stop, separating employees from the works, protecting critical services, planning temporary workspace properly and testing each completed phase before people move in.
Habit Action rule: the workplace can change without the business standing still.
What causes the most disruption during an office refurbishment?
The biggest disruption during an office refurbishment is not always the construction itself. It is often the knock-on effect on the business.
A power shutdown affects a team on another floor. An IT connection goes down earlier than planned. A delivery blocks the main entrance. Noise makes a client meeting impossible. A meeting room disappears just when another area is already out of use.
Individually, these things can seem fairly minor. Across a large organisation, they quickly add up. That is why we think about an occupied refurbishment slightly differently.
Habit Action rule: Plan the refurbishment around the business, not just the build.
Before deciding which area gets refurbished first, the more useful question is: What does the business need to keep working while we do it?
That means understanding the people, spaces, systems and services the organisation cannot afford to lose — and designing each construction phase around them.
For a larger refurbishment, this should form part of the wider project planning process before work starts. Our guide to planning a large corporate office fit-out covers the wider decisions around programme, governance, budget and business requirements.
Because a construction programme can be running perfectly on time while the business inside the building is having a terrible week.
The real measure of a good phasing strategy is whether both can keep moving at the same time.
What does the business need to keep running during the refurbishment?
Before planning the phases, first work out what the business cannot afford to lose. That usually includes four things:
People
Which teams need to stay fully operational? Are there client-facing, leadership or specialist teams that cannot easily move?
Spaces
Which areas still need to function throughout the works? Reception, meeting rooms, welfare spaces, secure rooms and key circulation routes can all be critical.
Technology
What needs to stay live? Wi-Fi, servers, access control, telephony, AV and other IT systems can affect much more than the area being refurbished.
Building services
Power, HVAC, fire alarms, lifts, security and other services often connect across several areas of a building.
Habit Action rule: know what cannot stop before deciding what starts first.
That sounds obvious, but it is one of the easiest things to miss when a phasing plan is built around construction logic alone.
On complex projects, this is why early planning matters. Our guide to planning a large corporate office fit-out looks at the wider decisions around programme, governance, technical requirements and business continuity before construction begins.
The better you understand those dependencies at the start, the easier it is to create phases that work for both the project and the people using the building.
How do you decide which part of the office to refurbish first?
The first phase should not automatically be the emptiest area or the easiest part of the floor to build. It should be the area that can be taken out of use with the least impact on the rest of the business.
That means looking at more than the floor plan. You need to understand:
- which teams use each area
- how often spaces are occupied
- where people move through the building
- which departments rely on each other
- which services feed other parts of the office
- where client or visitor activity happens
- whether any spaces have security or specialist requirements
Habit Action rule: understand how the workplace is used before deciding the order of the works.
This is where workplace data can make a real difference.
Occupancy studies, employee surveys, utilisation data and stakeholder workshops can all help show which areas are busiest, which are underused and where the biggest operational dependencies sit.
Our workplace strategy looks at how people actually use a workplace before design decisions are made.
A floor plan shows you where the desks are, but it does not always show you where the business happens.
Where do employees work while their area is being refurbished?
If a team needs to move out of its normal workspace, the temporary space still needs to work properly. That might mean moving people into:
- another floor
- a completed phase of the refurbishment
- temporary office space
- another company location
- a reduced desk setup supported by hybrid working
This is often referred to as swing space — temporary workspace used while an employee's usual area is unavailable. But moving people is only useful if the new space still supports the way they work.
At Habit Action, we would test any temporary workspace against four simple questions:
Can people connect?
Do they have reliable Wi-Fi, power and access to the systems they need?
Can they concentrate?
Is there enough suitable space for focused work without constant disruption?
Can they collaborate?
Are there meeting rooms, project spaces or areas where teams can work together?
Can they access what they need?
That includes equipment, storage, welfare facilities and any specialist spaces.
Habit Action rule: temporary space still has to work like a workplace.
Hybrid working can give organisations more flexibility here. ONS data found that 28% of working adults in Great Britain hybrid worked between January and March 2025, which means some businesses may be able to reduce the amount of temporary space they need during certain phases of a refurbishment.
But the answer should not simply be to send everyone home. The temporary arrangement still needs to support the business, the team and the work they need to do.
How do you control noise, dust and disruption while people are still working?
The safest way to reduce disruption is to separate employees from construction activity as much as possible.
That can mean:
- temporary partitions or hoarding
- separate contractor access routes
- controlled delivery times
- dedicated waste routes
- acoustic barriers
- dust extraction or suppression
- noisy works outside normal working hours
- temporary closures for particularly disruptive activities
The aim is not just to make the office more comfortable. It is to protect the people still using the building.
HSE guidance on construction noise recommends measures such as reducing noise at source, using barriers, creating exclusion zones and changing working patterns where necessary. HSE also treats construction dust as a health risk, not simply an inconvenience, and recommends suitable controls such as extraction and suppression.
Habit Action rule: separate people from the works wherever you can.
On live projects, that often means changing the construction programme rather than asking the business to work around it.
For example, on our Titan Airways project, some electrical and alarm works started at 3am so disruptive activity could happen before the working day began. Crane works were also scheduled for a Saturday, helping the business continue operating during the week.
That is what good phasing should do: move the disruption to the least disruptive time.
How do you keep IT, power and building services running during refurbishment?
One of the biggest risks in a phased refurbishment is switching off something that another part of the building still depends on.
Power, data, Wi-Fi, HVAC, access control, fire alarms and other services often connect across several areas of an office.
So before isolating any system, ask two questions:
What does this area provide to the rest of the building?
What needs to be working before we switch it off?
That sounds simple, but it can prevent a lot of disruption.
HSE guidance for construction work in occupied buildings is clear that works should not interfere with existing escape routes, fire separation, alarms, dry risers or sprinkler systems. That makes services planning a business continuity issue as much as a construction one.
Habit Action rule: construction complete does not always mean operationally ready.
Before employees move into a newly completed phase, test the things they actually need to work:
- power
- Wi-Fi and data
- meeting-room technology
- access control
- lighting
- heating and cooling
- fire and life-safety systems
A space might look finished. But if people cannot log in, access it properly or use the systems they rely on, the phase is not really complete.
How do you move employees between refurbishment phases?
In a phased refurbishment, it is not only the construction team that moves from one area to another. People do too. And every employee move needs to be planned properly before the next phase starts.
Before anyone arrives at their new workspace, they should know:
- where they are moving
- when they are moving
- where their equipment will be
- how they will access the space
- whether their IT and systems are working
- where they can hold meetings
- what facilities are available
For larger organisations, we treat each move almost like a small go-live.
The Habit Action move-ready check
Before a team moves, check four things:
Space: Is the area finished, clean and ready to use?
Systems: Are power, Wi-Fi, IT, AV and access control working?
People: Does everyone know where they are going and when?
Support: Are facilities, meeting rooms, storage and any specialist requirements in place?
Habit Action rule: don't move people into a space just because the construction programme says it's finished.
There is a difference between construction complete and ready for people.
For larger or more complex moves, this is where a coordinated relocation strategy becomes important, particularly when teams are moving between temporary and completed spaces while the rest of the refurbishment continues.
The next phase should only start when the previous one is genuinely ready to support the people moving into it.
What does a low-disruption office refurbishment look like in practice?
A good phasing strategy should be almost invisible to the people still using the building. That does not mean there is no disruption. It means the disruption is planned, communicated and moved away from the business wherever possible.
On our Titan Airways refurbishment, employees remained working on the first floor while the ground floor was being transformed.
To reduce the impact on the business:
- some electrical and alarm works started at 3am
- crane works were scheduled for a Saturday
- employees received regular updates on planned construction activity
- the works were sequenced around the areas that still needed to remain operational
The important point is that the construction programme was adapted around the business, rather than expecting the business to constantly adapt around the construction.
Habit Action rule: good phasing is not about removing every disruption. It is about controlling when, where and how disruption happens. That is ultimately what successful occupied refurbishment looks like: the workplace changes, but the business keeps moving.
Can an office refurbishment really happen without major disruption?
Yes, but only if disruption is planned for from the start.
The most successful phased refurbishments are not necessarily the ones where nobody notices the construction.
They are the ones where people know what is happening, critical services stay running, teams have somewhere suitable to work and disruptive activity happens at the right time.
That takes more than a construction programme. It takes an understanding of how the business actually operates.
If you're planning a live office refurbishment, our Office Fit-Out Planning Readiness Assessment can help identify the areas that need resolving before the programme starts.
FAQs
How can organisations minimise downtime during an office refurbishment?
Organisations can minimise downtime by planning the refurbishment around critical business activities from the start. This means understanding how the workplace is used, providing functional temporary workspace, protecting essential IT and building services, separating construction activity from employees and scheduling disruptive works around operational requirements.
Can you refurbish an office while employees are still working there?
Yes. An office can be refurbished while employees continue working, provided construction areas, employee workspace and essential services are carefully coordinated. Depending on the project, people may work in unaffected areas, completed sections of the building, temporary accommodation or another location while construction progresses elsewhere.
What should a business continuity plan include for an office refurbishment?
It should cover critical operations, employee locations, temporary workspace, IT and connectivity, power and building services, access and security, construction routes, disruptive activities, communications, employee moves and contingency arrangements.
How do you minimise disruption to employees during an office renovation?
Start by understanding how employees actually use the workplace. Then provide suitable temporary workspace, communicate moves clearly, protect essential services and schedule noisy or disruptive activities around the teams most affected.
Is it more expensive to refurbish an occupied office?
It can be. Temporary workspace, additional logistics, temporary services and phased working can introduce additional costs. However, those costs need to be considered alongside the potential financial and operational impact of significant business downtime.
What is the biggest risk during an occupied office refurbishment?
One of the biggest risks is treating the project purely as a construction exercise. The building may be what is being refurbished, but the organisation still has to operate inside it. Failing to plan around people, technology, services and critical operations can turn construction issues into business disruption.
