Article
Restaurant build-outs fail on schedule more often than almost any other commercial project type. Not because the construction is unusually hard, but because three separate approval tracks run at once: building, health and fire. Miss the sequence on any one of them and the opening date moves.
Before you sign the lease
The most expensive restaurant decisions are made before construction starts. Have a contractor walk the space with you during the lease negotiation, not after. The things worth checking are boring and decisive.
- Is there enough electrical service for the kitchen equipment list, or does the panel and service need upgrading?
- Where is the existing grease waste line, and is there a grease interceptor, or room to add one?
- Can a hood duct be routed to the roof, and will the landlord and structure allow the penetration?
- How much of the space needs to be brought up to current accessibility standards?
- Does the parking count support the proposed seat count under the local zoning code?
An inherited grease interceptor that turns out to be undersized is one of the more common ways a restaurant build-out loses a month.
Design and plan review
Restaurant plans go to more than one desk. The building department reviews structure, accessibility, mechanical and electrical. The environmental health department reviews the kitchen: finish materials, hand sink locations, equipment schedules, warewashing and food storage. The fire authority reviews the hood suppression system, exiting and occupant load.
Those reviews are not always sequential and they are not always consistent with each other. A qualified restaurant contractor tracks all three and resolves conflicts before a correction letter lands.
Construction, in rough order
- Demolition and any structural work.
- Underground plumbing, grease waste, floor sinks. Concrete gets cut and replaced here, so it is disruptive and should be done early.
- Framing, rough mechanical, electrical and plumbing, hood installation.
- Inspections on rough work before anything is covered.
- Insulation, drywall, sealed floor and wall finishes in food areas.
- Equipment set, final connections, hood suppression test.
- Finishes, casework, lighting, front of house millwork.
- Final building, health and fire inspections.
Where the schedule goes wrong
In our experience the three most common delays are equipment that arrives late and cannot be roughed in around, owner-supplied finish selections made after the wall is ready, and a health department correction on a detail that could have been caught at plan check. All three are avoidable with a decision schedule agreed at the start.
A straightforward tenant improvement in an existing restaurant shell moves quickly. A raw shell with no kitchen infrastructure is a different project, and pretending otherwise on the calendar helps nobody.
If you are looking at a space in Fresno or Clovis and want a read on what it will take, we will walk it with you before you commit.
Planning a project in Fresno County?
We have been building here since 1985. Tell us what you are working on and we will give you a straight read on scope, schedule and budget.
