For landlords and outgoing tenants
Office Strip Out in London: Scope, Cost and the Checks Before You Start
Sviatoslav JerdetchiiCEO & Founder of Craftex. Updated , 7 min read
The short answer
An office strip out removes the previous fit-out and leaves a clean shell, ready for Cat A or a new fit-out. Knight Frank's 2026 benchmark for Central London is about £10 per sq ft.
- A soft strip takes out finishes, partitions and ceilings. A strip to shell also takes the tenant's services back to the risers.
- Before anyone lifts a tile you need a refurbishment and demolition asbestos survey, a CDM check and a waste route.
- Knight Frank's table has no asbestos line, so price removal separately once the survey is in.
An office strip out removes the previous fit-out and leaves a clean shell. In Central London, Knight Frank's Spring 2026 benchmark puts it at about £10 per sq ft.
That is the easy number. Before the first tile comes up you need an asbestos survey, a CDM check and a waste route. This guide covers scope, those checks, the programme and the cost. It is written by an office strip-out and Cat A contractor working for landlords and outgoing tenants across London.
Floor to clear before a lease date? Get a free schedule costing. Send us the floor plans, the asbestos register and the lease date.
What an office strip out removes, and what stays
"Strip out" covers three different jobs. Tenders use the words loosely, so quotes for the same floor can differ by a whole package. Fix the level in writing before you compare prices.
| Level | What goes | What stays |
|---|---|---|
| Soft strip | Carpets and finishes, partitions, doors, suspended ceilings, light fittings, joinery | Structure, raised floor, base-build plant, risers, fire systems |
| Strip to shell | All of the above, the raised floor where it is to be replaced, and the tenant's own services back to the risers | Structure, base-build plant, risers and life-safety systems serving other floors |
| Strip out and Cat A | Everything above, then new ceilings, lighting, floor and services to a lettable standard | Structure and the building's main plant |
Life-safety systems need care. Where other tenants stay in the building, the base-build fire alarm and emergency lighting usually stay live on their floors. Say so in the scope, so nobody isolates a circuit that serves a neighbour.
Outgoing tenants have a second question: what the lease obliges them to remove. Our guide to dilapidations at lease end explains how the landlord's claim works.
Asbestos, CDM and waste: the checks before the strip out
Three duties sit in front of the first day on site. Each can move your programme.
1. The asbestos survey comes first
The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 bar an employer from starting demolition, maintenance or other work that is liable to expose its employees to asbestos. There are two ways in. One is a suitable and sufficient assessment of the premises. The other is to presume asbestos is present.
For a strip out, HSE points to a refurbishment and demolition survey. It involves destructive inspection, so the area must be vacated while it runs. It must locate asbestos hidden in the building fabric before any structural work begins.
A management survey does not replace it. Its aim is the asbestos register for normal occupation, and it is not destructive.
2. CDM 2015 applies to a strip out
A strip out is construction work under CDM 2015. The definition covers demolition and dismantling, removal of waste from them, and removal of mechanical, electrical and similar services fixed within a structure.
If more than one contractor will work on the project, the client must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor. This must be in writing and before the construction phase begins. Our guide to CDM 2015 client duties sets out what the client must do.
3. Waste has a duty of care
Section 34 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 puts a duty of care on anyone who produces, carries, keeps, treats or disposes of controlled waste. You must stop it escaping and pass it only to an authorised person.
GOV.UK's code of practice says the same in plain terms. Keep waste safe, deal with it responsibly and give it only to businesses authorised to take it. So ask every contractor who carries your waste, and where it goes.
Does the lease or the building's rules limit your hours and lift use? Read our guide to the licence for alterations before you fix a start date.
Need the floor cleared and handed over lettable? Our office strip-out and Cat A contractor team prices the strip out and the Cat A together.
How an office strip out runs from survey to handover
The order matters more than the speed. These are the stages of a typical floor, in sequence.
- Survey and register. The refurbishment and demolition survey is done and its results go into the programme. Any asbestos work is planned before the strip starts.
- Isolate services. Electrics, water, gas and data are isolated and made safe. Systems that serve other floors stay live.
- Soft strip, floor by floor. Carpets, ceilings, partitions, doors and fittings come out in a set order, so the floor stays tidy and the route to the lift stays clear.
- Segregate waste at source. Waste is separated into streams, carried by an authorised carrier and tracked, so you can show where it went.
- Make safe and clean. Fixings are removed, services are capped and the soffit and floor are cleaned back.
- Hand over to Cat A. The shell is checked and photographed with you, then the new fit-out starts on a floor that is ready for it.
An occupied building changes the programme. Noise, dust, lift booking and the loading bay all limit what can happen in the day. At Portsoken House in Aldgate the other floors were already leased, so we worked nights and weekends around the tenants.
A hard date changes it too. At Beaumont House in High Street Kensington the client had five weeks before the lease expired. Other contractors quoted at least 12 weeks. We stripped out and rebuilt the 750 sq m office in three.
Office strip out cost in London
Knight Frank's Landlord Refurbishment Cost Guide for Spring 2026 prices "strip out existing fit-out" at £10 per sq ft in Central London. The figure is the same at all three of its budget levels, £175, £275 and £300 plus per sq ft.
It sits inside the £110 per sq ft that the guide gives for office floors. Contractor preliminaries, overheads, profit and risk are included. VAT and professional fees are not.
| Line | £ per sq ft |
|---|---|
| Strip out existing fit-out | £10 |
| Raised access floor (refurbish) | £5 |
| Suspended ceiling or soffit treatment | £12 |
| Decorations | £3 |
| Joinery and window treatment | £5 |
| LED lighting, power and fire alarms | £25 |
| Air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation | £50 |
| Office floors, all lines | £110 |
The arithmetic is simple, and it is not a quote for your floor.
| Floor area | Strip out at £10 per sq ft |
|---|---|
| 5,000 sq ft | £50,000 |
| 10,000 sq ft | £100,000 |
| 25,000 sq ft | £250,000 |
The table has no asbestos line, so price removal separately once the survey is in. The guide also says buildings below 50,000 sq ft may carry a cost premium. Most single floors are smaller than that.
| What changes | Why it moves the price |
|---|---|
| Asbestos found | Removal is licensed work, planned and priced separately |
| Occupied building | Out-of-hours working and noise limits slow the strip |
| Access | Lift size, loading bay and floor height set how fast waste leaves |
| Extent of services | More tenant M&E to isolate and remove back to the risers |
| Salvage and reuse | Keeping tiles, doors or units takes longer than skipping them |
| Waste route | Segregation and the carrier's distance affect the cost |
At lease end, the strip out may be a line in the landlord's schedule. The schedule is a claim, not a price. See our guide to schedule of dilapidations costs before you pay or dispute it.
We recently hired Craftex for a commercial office fit-out project in Central London, and overall, we’re really happy with the result. There was a delay on our side with a custom glass partition supplier, but the Craftex team managed the construction schedule very professionally and kept everything on track. Their guys worked clean, respected our workspace and IT setup, and kept the site tidy throughout. If you're looking for a reliable office refurbishment company in London, I’d definitely recommend Craftex. Would use them again without hesitation.
Strip out and Cat A under one contract
Strip out and Cat A are one floor on one programme. When two contractors split them, the first leaves, the second surveys again and the gap costs weeks. One contractor sees what the strip out uncovers and adjusts the new ceiling and services at once.
That matters on the numbers too. Knight Frank puts the strip out at £10 of the £110 per sq ft for Cat A office floors. Our guide to Cat A fit out cost per sq ft prices the rest of the floor.
Larger buildings follow the same logic. At Slingsby Place in Covent Garden, strip-out and structural works behind retained façades were led by Martin Hickey, now our Preconstruction Director, as Project Director. At Medusa in Knightsbridge we fully stripped out four floors, then delivered the turnkey fit-out in 17 weeks.
Getting comparable strip-out quotes
Quotes for "an office strip out" differ because the scopes differ. Send every contractor the same pack and ask for the same things in writing. Then you compare like with like.
Want the strip out and the Cat A priced from one set of plans? Get a free schedule costing. We price from the floor plans, the asbestos register and your lease date.
- Floor plans and the area of each floor
- The asbestos register and any refurbishment and demolition survey
- The scope level in writing: soft strip, strip to shell or strip and Cat A
- What stays: base-build plant, fire alarm and emergency lighting
- The waste route: carrier, destination and records
- Working hours, lift and loading bay booking, and any building rules
- The lease end date, or the date the floor goes to market
