Fit-out contractors
Compliance software for fit-out and refurbishment.
The building is open, the client's staff are still in it, and the building manager has rules of their own before you touch anything.
14 days free access · no card needed
Fit-out and refurbishment happen inside buildings that are still being used. Offices trade, hospitals treat, shops sell, and the works proceed around people who are not yours, under a building manager whose permission you need for most of what you do.
That adds a layer no new-build site has: a permit regime belonging to somebody else. Hot works, isolations, roof access and out-of-hours working are controlled by the building's own procedures, and breaching them is a commercial problem long before it is a regulatory one.
Refurbishment also means working on a building whose history you did not choose. What is behind a wall, above a ceiling or in a riser is a question the surveys answer imperfectly, and the answer matters a great deal.
The records
What fit-out contractors are answerable for
- RAMS per task, accepted by the client or building manager
- Permits to work, and what they covered
- Asbestos survey information relied on, and its limits
- Inductions, including the building's own requirements
- Operative cards, qualifications and training
- Incidents and near misses, through to close-out
BuildOptix holds each of these against the site, the business or the person it belongs to, with its own expiry.
The problem
What makes fit-out contractors compliance hard
Somebody else's permit regime
Hot works, isolations and access are controlled by the building rather than by you. Obtaining, holding and closing permits is an administrative load that sits outside your own system and is audited by the client.
Working above and around occupied space
The people at risk include the client's staff and the public, who have not been inducted and are not wearing anything. The controls are about separation and timing as much as about the work itself.
A building with an unknown history
Refurbishment opens up fabric that surveys describe rather than guarantee. What the survey covered, and what it explicitly did not, is a record that matters enormously the moment something unexpected is found.
Short programmes, many trades
Fit-out compresses a lot of trades into a short window, often working nights and weekends. The induction and briefing load is front-loaded into exactly the period with least time for it.
Several projects, several clients' rules
Each building has its own procedures, and a business running six projects is working to six sets of rules at once. Confusing one for another is the ordinary failure mode.
The answer
How BuildOptix helps
Somebody else's permit regime
Documents are held with their versions against the site they belong to, so permits, acceptances and the conditions attached to them sit with the project rather than in a folder on site.
Document controlA building with an unknown history
Survey information and the RAMS that rely on it are held together as controlled documents, so what was known — and what was not — is evidenced rather than remembered.
RAMS & method statementsShort programmes, many trades
Inductions and briefings are recorded against the person and the project, which is what makes a compressed mobilisation evidenced rather than assumed.
Inductions & toolbox talksWorking above and around occupied space
Incidents and near misses are captured through to close-out, including those involving people who are not your workers.
Accidents & RIDDORSeveral projects, several clients' rules
Each project carries its own record and requirements, so the rules that apply are attached to the job rather than carried in somebody's head between them.
Sites & projects
Who it is for
The people doing this job
Project managers
Running works inside a building they do not control, to a programme set by the client's operations.
Site supervisors
Obtaining permits, briefing trades and keeping works separated from occupants.
permit to workHealth and safety advisers
Covering several projects with different client regimes at once.
CDM 2015Building and facilities managers
Controlling access and permits, and auditing you against their own procedures.
Trades and operatives
Working nights and weekends around occupants, often across several projects in a week.
hot works
Questions
What fit-out contractors ask
- Can it hold permits issued by the client's building?
- Permits and the conditions attached to them can be held as documents against the project. BuildOptix does not operate the building's permit system — that stays with whoever controls the building — but it keeps your copy of what was issued and what it covered.
- Can we record asbestos survey information?
- Survey documents can be held against the project alongside the RAMS that rely on them. What the survey covered and what it excluded is exactly the kind of thing worth evidencing rather than remembering.
- Does it handle out-of-hours or shift working?
- Scheduling and a shared calendar are included, so works and the briefings around them can be planned together. It is not a workforce management or payroll system.
- Does it do cost or variations?
- No. There is no commercial, cost or accounting function at all.
- Can each client's project be kept separate?
- Yes. Access is role-based per project, with a cross-project view for the people carrying the organisation's overall position.
Keep reading
One record per site, and the evidence already in it
Sites, subcontractors, inductions and incidents on one record, for fit-out contractors desks.
14 days free access · no card needed