Six office floors on Bishopsgate in seven weekends

The brief

A City of London office complex on Bishopsgate, EC2, needed a full redecoration of six floors. The building was live and tenanted throughout, so the work could not interrupt the businesses inside it. Every floor had to be redecorated without closing offices, moving staff out or leaving anything unfinished on a working day.

The result needed to be six fully redecorated floors, finished to commercial specification, on programme.

The challenge

Working in an occupied commercial building brings strict constraints. Access was limited to out-of-hours windows, building rules governed deliveries, noise and working areas, and the tenants expected to arrive on Monday morning to clean, usable offices with no sign that decorators had been there.

That left a fixed window each week. All works had to start after close of business on Friday and be completed before Monday morning, every weekend, for seven weekends in a row. There was no room for overruns: an unfinished area on Monday would have meant disruption for tenants and complaints to the managing agent.

Our approach

• Out-of-hours programme. All works were programmed to begin after close of business on Friday and to be completed before Monday morning, across seven weekends
• Multiple teams working concurrently. We ran several teams across different floors at the same time, so each weekend's area was finished within the window
• Commercial specification. Surfaces were prepared, primed and finished to commercial specification, using durable finishes suited to busy offices, corridors and washrooms
• Full RAMS. Risk assessments and method statements were provided in full before work started, covering out-of-hours working in an occupied building. See our health and safety approach
• Clean handover every Monday. Each area was cleaned, checked and handed back ready for tenants before the start of the working week

Painting live commercial buildings

Many offices cannot close for decorating. Our office painting service is built for exactly this situation: evening, night and weekend working, multiple teams to hit fixed windows, and the paperwork facilities managers and managing agents need before anyone sets foot on site.

On Bishopsgate, careful planning meant tenants saw only the finished result. Corridors, washrooms and office areas were transformed weekend by weekend while business carried on as normal during the week.

The result

Six fully redecorated floors, delivered on programme across seven weekends, without a single missed deadline. The building stayed live and tenanted throughout, and there were zero complaints from tenants across the whole project.

Need to redecorate an occupied building?

We redecorate offices, communal areas and commercial buildings across London out of hours, with full RAMS and dedicated site management. Talk to us about your project.