A lease renewal often comes with a tenant improvement allowance, and a lot of Denver companies use it for the obvious things: new carpet, fresh paint, maybe a few updated finishes. But there is one question that tends to come up late in the process, usually after the carpet has already been picked out: what happens to all the furniture?
Carpet installers and painters need open floor and clear walls. Workstations, desks, file cabinets, and conference tables do not move themselves, and most modular furniture cannot just be slid out of the way. Here is how that part of a TI project usually works, and how to plan it so it does not slow everything else down.
Why the furniture becomes the critical path
On most TI projects, the general contractor has a clear sequence: demo, paint, flooring, finish work. The furniture has to come out before the flooring goes in and go back after it is done. If that teardown and reinstall is not planned with the rest of the job, the carpet crew shows up to a floor full of cubicles, or the furniture crew shows up before the paint is dry.
Modular workstations are also more involved than they look. Panels, work surfaces, overhead storage, and electrical components all connect to each other. Taking them apart carelessly is how parts get lost, power gets wired wrong on the rebuild, and a two-day reinstall turns into a week of punch-list fixes.
Coordinating with the general contractor
The best results come from getting the furniture installer and the GC talking early. A few things worth settling before work starts:
- The sequence of areas. Which zones get cleared first, and how many days each zone will be open for paint and carpet.
- Where furniture goes in the meantime. Another part of the floor, a vacant suite, or offsite storage.
- Who touches what. Furniture, electrical, data, and flooring each have their own trade.
- Building rules. Freight elevator access, loading dock windows, and work-hour restrictions all affect the plan.
At MORE, coordinating with general contractors on carpet and paint projects is a regular part of our workstation reconfiguration work. The goal is simple: the furniture is out of the way when the other trades need the floor, and back in place when your team needs to work.
Phased floor clearing
Most companies cannot empty an entire floor for two weeks. Phasing solves that. Instead of clearing everything at once, the floor is broken into sections. One section is torn down, painted, and carpeted while the rest of the office keeps working. When it is done, the furniture goes back, and the next section starts.
Phasing takes more planning, and it can add a bit of time to the overall project, but it usually means nobody has to work from home for weeks or squeeze into a borrowed conference room.
Teardown, tracking, and reinstall
Mapping before anything comes apart. Every panel, work surface, and electrical whip should be tracked so the station goes back together the same way it came apart. That matters most with electrical, since a powered panel system has to be rebuilt correctly to work correctly.
Storing what is not going back right away. If there is no room on the floor to stage furniture during the work, it can go offsite. MORE operates a heated, staffed 27,000 square foot warehouse, so components can be held through the project and delivered back when the floor is ready. More on that on our offsite storage page.
Cleaning panels while you have the chance. When workstations are being reinstalled anyway, it is a good time to have fabric panels cleaned before the components go back on.
A good moment to rethink the layout
If the furniture is coming apart anyway, it is worth asking whether it should go back exactly the same way. Teams change. If you have more hybrid workers than you used to, or a department that has outgrown its corner, a TI project is the cheapest time to change the layout, because the labor to tear down is already part of the job.
The same goes for power. New carpet is the right moment to add under-carpet power to conference tables or island workstations that never had good access to outlets. Once the new carpet is down, that work gets harder. And if some of your furniture is not coming back at all, it can be cleared out properly rather than left in a corner. Our guide to office furniture decommissioning covers the options.
A simple TI furniture checklist
- Ask the GC for the paint and flooring sequence as soon as it exists.
- Get a furniture installer to walk the space and confirm what has to come out, and in what order.
- Decide where furniture will sit during the work: on site, in another suite, or offsite.
- Decide whether the layout goes back as it was or changes.
- Agree on after-hours or weekend work if the office needs to stay open.
Planning a TI project this year?
If you are heading into a lease renewal with new carpet or paint on the list, we are happy to walk the space, talk with your GC, and lay out a realistic plan for the furniture side of the job.
Call 303.371.4049 or send us a message.