A fit out in an occupied building has a problem a house does not: everyone else is still using the place. Residents, tenants and their visitors are moving through the same lobby and the same lift your materials are going through, and every one of those surfaces belongs to somebody who will notice a mark.
Start at the loading dock and work in
Protection follows the route your materials take, not the floor plan. Walk it in order: dock, service corridor, lift, landing, hallway, unit door. Whatever that route touches needs covering, in that sequence.
The lift is the pinch point
Lift cars take the most damage and are the most expensive thing in the building to repair. Padded lift protection over the walls and a covering on the car floor should go in before the first delivery, not after the first scratch. Check with building management first, because most have rules about what can be used and when the lift can be booked.
Corners, frames and reveals
Anything a sheet of plasterboard has to turn past will eventually get hit. Rigid angle guards over exposed corners and columns take that impact. Door frames and reveals in the corridor are worth wrapping too, particularly on the approach to the unit.
Common area floors
Lobby and corridor floors usually need something rated for sustained trolley traffic rather than a light covering. Tape every join flat: a lifted edge in a common area is a trip hazard for residents, not just for your crew, and that is a very different conversation.
Inside the unit
Once you are through the door the normal rules apply. Rigid board on the traffic routes and work zones, film or shield on carpet, breathable covering over anything newly coated, and cover benchtops and glazing as soon as they are installed.
Plan the removal too
Protection comes up in the reverse order it went down, and it comes up near handover when everyone is busy. Decide up front who is pulling it and when. Protection left down past handover gets pulled in a hurry by whoever is available, and that is when adhesive gets left behind and edges get torn.
A short list to price from
- Lift car walls and floor
- Common area floor along the delivery route
- Corner and column guards on that route
- Door frames and reveals
- Unit floors by surface type
- Joining tape, edge trim and spare sheeting
Send us the building, the route and the rough quantities and we will put it together as one order.
