Refurbishing a building while people are working in it is a logistics problem more than a construction one. What we have learned from doing it repeatedly.
Our Chancery Court project involved refurbishing four floors of a six-floor building while the other two floors carried on trading normally. Seven months, zero escalated complaints. Here is what makes that possible.
Sequence from the top down
Working downwards means dust, debris and water always travel away from finished areas rather than through them. It also means the noisiest structural work happens furthest from the occupied floors for as long as possible.
Agree the noise windows before you price the job
Core drilling, breaking out and demolition need to be scheduled outside trading hours, and that has a cost. Establish those windows with the building manager and tenants before you submit a price, not after. A programme that assumes daytime working and then has to move to nights will not hold, and the argument about who pays for it is one nobody wins.
Treat the lift as the critical path
In most occupied buildings a single goods lift serves construction and tenants alike. Everything - every delivery, every skip, every sheet of plasterboard - passes through it. We plan lift bookings six weeks ahead and build the material delivery schedule around the lift, not the other way round.
Fire separation is not optional and not an afterthought
Temporary fire and smoke separation at every floor boundary, inspected weekly and documented. In an occupied building this is a life safety issue, not a compliance box. It also tends to be the first thing a landlord's surveyor asks to see.
Communicate directly with the people affected
We issue a weekly note to occupied floors: what is happening, when the noisy work is scheduled, and who to call. Most complaints are not really about noise. They are about unexpected noise.