Builder: Prepare for Renovation Already at the Design Phase
The completion of a new building is a major event, which is the result of months and sometimes even years of effort. Just as no one thinks about divorce at a wedding reception, no one talks about future renovations at a new office's opening celebration.
In reality, maintenance and renovation should be considered already during the design phase. According to Ülo Jaanisoo, the head of Reparo Construction, planning for the entire building's lifespan early on can significantly reduce costs. "In our work, we often encounter situations where due to poorly thought-out designs, problems arise during reconstruction that are either very inconvenient or expensive to solve," says Jaanisoo. According to him, Reparo, which deals with building reconstruction work, encounters daily situations where, for example, office tenants change in a building and wish for complete renovation of the premises, but the builder has no way to remove construction waste or bring in building materials. "On one hand, costs are saved during construction by cutting corners on, say, a freight elevator or an open staircase, but these costs will likely be paid back many times over during the building's lifetime, for example, when the facade needs to be opened to bring building materials to the site during renovation," says Jaanisoo, who has 20 years of experience in the construction field.
Make sure the building has a freight elevator or an opening window
When choosing office space, make sure the building has a spacious freight elevator that can be used to transport construction materials to and from the site. It is also worth noting that the less common areas are used for transportation, the less damage will be caused to staircases, handrails, etc. As an alternative, make sure that each floor or office space has at least one large opening window. This is especially important to remember for those who prefer offices in high-rise buildings.
Jaanisoo recalls a recent shopping center construction project where, in order to transport materials and lifts to the second floor, part of the shopping center's facade had to be opened. Opening the facade also increases the risk of window glass breaking, which in turn increases costs even further.
Make space planning easy to change
Today's rapidly growing companies often have to move due to lack of space, and building owners are increasingly dealing with office reconstructions. However, new tenants want new exciting interior design solutions, so the designer should ensure that the space planning can be easily changed.
"Let's say a client wants offices instead of an open office, then typically partitions are built between the windows. This means that ventilation, cooling systems, and sprinklers should be installed in such a way that they are not in the way of possible partition locations," explains Jaanisoo, who says that in such cases they don't need to be moved around, which in turn helps save costs.
Prefer modular flooring that can be easily removed
"I recommend covering floors with modular carpet tiles instead of roll carpets, so that soiled or damaged tiles can be easily replaced," says Jaanisoo. Typically, modular carpet tiles are installed with adhesive or even double-sided tape, making them easy to replace. In contrast, removing roll carpets and PVC is a much bigger undertaking due to rigid gluing – to replace the flooring, you need to empty the entire room, remove the baseboards, and there may be a need to level the subfloor before installing new material. This is already a much more thorough and expensive job. Jaanisoo also does not recommend glued-down parquet, as it is difficult and sometimes impossible to replace individual pieces.
Paint is the most practical wall covering
Alongside many new and exciting materials, paint remains the most versatile and practical wall covering. "Paint is easy and inexpensive to repair and there are endless variations," says Jaanisoo. He gives veneered wall panels as a comparison, which are difficult to repair damage on. Often the panel needs to be replaced entirely, and such specialized work is expensive, and there are fewer good craftsmen available.
When planning electrical systems, think two steps ahead
Often rental space is divided among several tenants, but electricity consumption needs to be measured separately. In order not to have to rebuild the electrical system and add separate electricity meters, it's worth thinking a couple of steps ahead and installing a separate electricity meter for each potential rental space. "This way there's no problem even if the entire floor is rented to the same tenant – the meter readings can be easily added together," believes Jaanisoo.
According to Jaanisoo, the market is moving toward simpler and more practical buildings. "Nowadays everything changes quickly, and those times are gone when office spaces were furnished with a 10-year plan in mind. Company needs constantly change, and many forward-thinking companies want to refresh their interior design every few years. However, this requires that office and retail spaces are designed to meet changing needs," believes Jaanisoo, whose Reparo Construction has renovated numerous commercial spaces over the past two decades and knows well the typical bottlenecks that could be easily prevented during the design phase.
Ülo Jaanisoo, Head of Reparo Construction
