A restaurant refurbishment should begin with a clear operational brief, not a finishes schedule. Before work starts, confirm the scope, existing services, kitchen requirements, customer flow, fire precautions, access, trading restrictions, programme and handover information.

The most useful early decisions are:

• which areas are changing;

• whether the venue will close or remain partly open;

• what must be retained, moved or replaced;

• which services need surveying or upgrading;

• when noisy, dusty or disruptive work can happen;

• what approvals and landlord information are required; and

• what evidence, testing and certification will be needed at handover.

These decisions give restaurant refurbishment contractors a more complete brief and make quotations easier to compare.

Barry Turner & Son supports pubs and restaurants with commercial refurbishment, building services and planned maintenance across London and South East England.

1. Define the business objective before the building work

Start by explaining what the refurbishment needs to achieve. A tired dining room, an inefficient kitchen and recurring building faults are different problems and may require different scopes.

Your brief might focus on:

• refreshing the customer-facing interior;

• improving covers, circulation or table layout;

• reconfiguring the bar or service counter;

• upgrading the commercial kitchen or extraction;

• refurbishing customer or staff washrooms;

• improving heating, cooling or ventilation;

• resolving electrical, plumbing or drainage issues;

• improving accessibility; or

• coordinating several work packages within one programme.

List the priorities in order. This helps the project team protect the changes that matter most if scope, programme or budget decisions are needed later.

2. Split the scope into front of house and back of house

Restaurant projects become easier to plan when the scope is divided into operational zones.

Front of house

Review the entrance, waiting area, bar, dining space, customer toilets, lighting, flooring, decoration, acoustics, signage and furniture. Think about the full customer journey from arrival to departure, including queues, deliveries and accessible routes.

Back of house

Review the kitchen, preparation and storage areas, staff facilities, cellar or cold-store areas, waste routes, plant, service cupboards and delivery access. Back-of-house improvements may be less visible, but they can have a greater effect on safe and efficient operation.

Mark each area as retained, repaired, upgraded, relocated or replaced. This simple exercise can expose missing work before quotations are requested.

3. Survey building services before fixing the layout

A layout can look workable on a plan but become expensive to deliver if existing services cannot support it.

Check the condition and capacity of:

• electrical supplies, distribution and final circuits;

• lighting and emergency lighting;

• water supplies and hot-water provision;

• drainage routes and access points;

• heating and cooling;

• ventilation and kitchen extraction;

• fire alarms and related systems;

• gas services where applicable; and

• data, security and access-control systems.

Moving a sink, bar, dishwasher, cooking line or customer toilet can affect several trades. Early surveys let the contractor coordinate those connections instead of discovering conflicts after strip-out.

If the work forms part of a wider upgrade, review the commercial refurbishment and fit-out service.

4. Make the kitchen specification maintainable

Commercial kitchen finishes and layouts need to support cleaning, maintenance and day-to-day food operations.

The Food Standards Agency says food premises must have adequate ventilation, lighting and drainage, while surfaces in food-handling areas should be maintained in good condition and be easy to clean and disinfect.

Before agreeing the kitchen scope, confirm:

• equipment positions and service requirements;

• preparation, cooking and wash-up flows;

• washable wall, floor and ceiling finishes;

• drainage and grease-management arrangements;

• extraction and make-up air requirements;

• cleaning access behind or beneath equipment;

• waste storage and removal routes;

• pest-prevention details around service penetrations; and

• safe access for future inspection and maintenance.

Do not treat access panels, isolation points and cleaning clearances as afterthoughts. A maintainable installation is easier to operate after handover.

5. Review fire safety before altering the space

Changing layouts, doors, ceilings, partitions, seating or escape routes can affect the fire-safety arrangements for a restaurant.

GOV.UK guidance says the responsible person for a non-domestic premises must carry out and regularly review a fire risk assessment, maintain appropriate fire-safety measures, plan for emergencies and provide relevant information and training.

Before construction, review:

• escape routes and final exits;

• fire doors and door hardware;

• compartment lines and service penetrations;

• alarm coverage and call-point access;

• emergency lighting and signage;

• seating layouts and circulation routes;

• temporary fire precautions during the works; and

• coordination with the building owner or other responsible persons.

Any identified fire-door work should be defined and documented rather than hidden inside a general carpentry allowance. See the commercial fire-door installation and remedials service.

6. Plan washrooms, accessibility and welfare together

Customer and staff washrooms often involve plumbing, drainage, ventilation, electrical work, durable finishes and access considerations in a small area.

Confirm:

• the number and type of facilities required;

• accessible routes and facilities;

• door swings and circulation space;

• water supply and drainage routes;

• ventilation and odour control;

• slip-resistant, cleanable finishes;

• hand-drying and sanitary-waste provision; and

• how facilities will remain available during phased works.

Applicable building regulations, lease requirements and specialist advice should be reviewed before the design is fixed.

7. Decide whether the venue will close, phase or work out of hours

The programme should be built around genuine operational constraints.

Common delivery options include:

• a full closure for a defined period;

• phased work with parts of the venue isolated;

• evening or overnight work;

• work on closed trading days; or

• a combination of enabling works, closure and final completion.

If the business remains partly open, the plan needs clear separation between customers, staff and construction activity. Consider temporary routes, dust and noise controls, service isolations, daily cleaning, deliveries, waste removal and the condition in which each area must be handed back before the next trading period.

HSE guidance confirms that commercial clients have duties under CDM 2015, including suitable project-management arrangements, competent appointments, sufficient time and resources, pre-construction information and suitable welfare during the works.

8. Give every contractor the same quotation information

Quotations are difficult to compare when each contractor has interpreted a different scope.

Issue the same core information to every bidder:

• drawings or marked-up layouts;

• a room-by-room scope;

• equipment and finish schedules;

• available surveys and service information;

• landlord or building-management rules;

• access, working-hour and noise restrictions;

• target dates and any fixed reopening deadline;

• items supplied by the client or specialist vendors;

• required testing, certification and handover records; and

• a clear list of assumptions, exclusions and provisional items.

Ask for the quotation to separate key work packages. That makes it easier to identify missing scope and compare like with like.

9. Check how the contractor will manage a live hospitality project

The lowest headline figure does not show how the work will be coordinated.

Ask potential restaurant refurbishment contractors:

• Who will manage the project day to day?

• How will the programme be reported?

• How will several trades be coordinated?

• What information is needed before starting?

• How will access, noise, dust and waste be controlled?

• How will unexpected defects be priced and approved?

• What testing and handover evidence will be provided?

• Can planned maintenance requirements be captured during the project?

Relevant project experience is useful because hospitality work combines customer-facing finishes with practical building services and tight operational constraints. Barry Turner & Son’s Queens Arms refurbishment update shows an example involving layout, lighting, toilets, kitchen finishes and external works.

10. Agree the handover standard before work begins

Handover should be part of the original scope, not a last-day conversation.

Depending on the project, the handover pack may need to include:

• completion and snagging records;

• test results and certificates;

• product and equipment information;

• warranties where applicable;

• operation and maintenance information;

• commissioning records;

• photographs of concealed or completed works;

• updated drawings or schedules where required; and

• a list of follow-up or planned-maintenance actions.

Linking project completion to a planned preventative maintenance schedule can help preserve the finished space and make future servicing easier to organise.

Restaurant refurbishment brief: final checklist

Before asking for quotations, confirm that you can answer these questions:

• What business outcome must the refurbishment deliver?

• Which front-of-house and back-of-house areas are included?

• What is being retained, moved, repaired or replaced?

• Have the building services been surveyed?

• Are kitchen hygiene, extraction and cleaning requirements defined?

• Have fire safety, accessibility and washrooms been reviewed?

• Will the venue close, phase or remain partly operational?

• Are access, working hours and reopening dates clear?

• Is every contractor pricing the same information?

• Are testing, certification, maintenance and handover requirements written down?

The earlier these questions are resolved, the more useful the quotation and programme can be.

Planning a restaurant or pub refurbishment?

Barry Turner & Son delivers coordinated commercial refurbishment and building-services work for hospitality environments across London and South East England.

Discuss your restaurant refurbishment with the team

Sources and further guidance

• HSE: Commercial clients — roles and responsibilities under CDM 2015

• GOV.UK: Fire safety in the workplace — who is responsible

• Food Standards Agency: Food hygiene requirements for premises