Job sheet · Dubai
Office fit-out in Dubai: what decides the cost
CAT A is what the landlord handed you. CAT B is your company. Here is what moves the number between them, what a fit-out quote has to contain, and how to get an indicative range from a licensed contractor.
14 days from approval, card required, cancel before it ends. A person reads every application, usually the same day.
What moves the number
Room count moves it further than floor area does
Every partition is a wall, a ceiling change, a light, a sprinkler head and a detector. That is why two floors of identical area quote differently: one is open plan with a tea point, the other is fourteen rooms and a boardroom.
What CAT A left you
Raised floor, ceiling grid, base lighting and the cooling layout come with the shell. What is already there decides how much of your fit-out is addition rather than replacement.
Open, cellular, or both
Rooms are the expensive unit. Each one carries partitions, a door, a ceiling adjustment, lighting, cooling and its own life-safety devices.
Fire and life safety
Sprinklers, detection, emergency lighting and escape routes are redesigned around the new plan and reviewed before anyone occupies. This is the item that moves programmes.
Services and data
Small power, structured cabling, the comms room and the AV in the meeting rooms. A meeting room that works is a services scope, not a furniture order.
The lease conditions
Approval deposits, after-hours working, nominated contractors for certain trades, and the make-good clause waiting at the end of the term. All four price the job.
What a real quote contains
A room schedule the drawings agree with
A fit-out quote is comparable when it is priced against a room schedule and a named drawing revision, states what it assumes about the base build, separates the life-safety works, and lists what is excluded — furniture, IT hardware, landlord fees.
| Section | What it covers | What the quantities rest on |
|---|---|---|
| Enabling and protection | Base-build survey, protection to lift lobbies and common areas, after-hours access arrangements | Measured on site |
| Partitions and doors | Glazed and blockwork partitions, acoustic infill, doors and ironmongery to the room schedule | From the approved drawings |
| Services alterations | Sprinkler and detector relocation, emergency lighting, diffuser and thermostat changes, small power | Contractor measured |
| Ceilings, floors and finishes | Ceiling grid adjustment, carpet and vinyl, paint and feature finishes | Measured on site |
| Data, AV and commissioning | Structured cabling, comms room, meeting-room AV, testing and as-built records | Client-reported schedule |
Approvals for this job
Three gates, and none of them is optional
General information, not advice, and the sequence differs by zone. The tenant is the applicant and the fit-out contractor normally submits. Briked records the scope, the drawing revision it was priced against and who accepted it — it does not file applications or obtain permits.
Landlord and building approval
Building management approves the drawings, the contractor and the working hours, usually against a refundable deposit and insurance. Nothing reaches site before it is issued.
Authority: Your landlord or building management
The authority governing your zone
The municipality licenses most of the city; a free zone or master-development zone is governed by its own authority. Fit-out drawings are approved there before work starts.
Authority: Dubai Development Authority
Fire and life-safety review
Changes to sprinklers, detection and escape routes are reviewed against civil defence requirements, and the completion certificate is what lets you occupy. Build the review into the programme.
Authority: Dubai Civil Defence
Both sides of the same office
The tenant describes it; you get a room schedule
Your client is a company, not a household, and they answer between meetings. They send the landlord’s floor plan, the room count they need and a voice note about the comms room. It arrives as a structured scope you can price against a drawing revision.
Whole floor, handed over as CAT A last month.
Four meeting rooms and a boardroom; the rest open plan.
Landlord’s floor plan attached, plus a voice note about the comms room.
Meeting rooms · 4
Boardroom · glazed partition
Base build · CAT A confirmed
Sprinkler and detector relocation
For contractors
How Briked structures an office fit-out
A fit-out is argued over revisions. Every quantity carries its source and every quote carries the drawing revision it was priced against, so a variation becomes a comparison rather than a memory. You accept each line, and the tenant accepts the version.
Where each quantity came from
- Client-reported
- From the approved drawings
- Measured on site
What each payment is tied to
- Approvals issued
- Partitions and first fix
- Ceilings and finishes
- Commissioning and handover
Read next
The stations a fit-out leans on
The scope link starts it, the priced scope carries the room schedule, and the contract is where the tenant accepts a version rather than a promise. The fit-out persona page covers the trade.
How Briked does this
Who it’s for
Go deeper
General notes
An indicative range is a range, not a price. Only the quote you send your client is a price.
A person accepts every number before it leaves your company. Nothing drafted by AI becomes the record on its own.
Your client never pays for Briked. Answering your scope link, reading your quote and accepting it are free for them, always.
Your rates, your scopes and your clients stay yours. We never show one contractor’s work to another. Read the data promise
The trial runs 14 days from the day we approve your application. A card is required to start it. Trial terms
Common questions
What is the difference between CAT A and CAT B?
CAT A is the landlord’s base finish: raised floor, ceiling grid, base lighting, cooling and the systems that serve an empty floor. CAT B is everything that makes it your company — partitions, rooms, finishes, data, AV and branding.
How long does an office fit-out take in Dubai?
The front end is approvals, and the long pole is usually the life-safety review, because occupation depends on it. Construction compresses; sign-offs do not. Ask for a programme that shows the approval dates, not only the trade weeks.
Who has to approve an office fit-out?
Building management approves the drawings, the contractor and the hours; the authority that governs your zone approves the works; and changes to sprinklers, detection and escape routes are reviewed against civil defence requirements before you occupy.
What does a make-good clause mean for my budget?
Many leases require the space returned to its CAT A condition at the end of the term. Price it as a known future scope while you still have the drawings and the room schedule, rather than discovering it in the last month of a lease.
Why is there no cost per square foot on this page?
Because it would mislead. Room count, what CAT A actually left behind and the extent of the life-safety works move the number more than area does. An indicative range from a contractor who has seen your plan is worth more than a rate, and a range is not a price.
Does my company pay anything to answer a contractor’s link?
No. Answering the questions, reading the quote and accepting it are free, with no account to create. The contractor pays for Briked.
Scope it, quote it, get it accepted — on your next job, with your rates.
14 days from approval, card required, cancel before it ends. A person reads every application, usually the same day.