COMMERCIAL TI PLUMBING
Commercial plumbing tenant improvement work, planned around the schedule
BY SPACE TYPE
The same trade, a very different scope in each space
A commercial plumbing tenant improvement can mean a break room sink and a water line to a refrigerator, or it can mean a full restroom core, a grease interceptor and a gas service extension. The trade is the same; the risk is completely different, and so is the permit path.
We scope by what the space is actually going to be. An open-plan office renovation is mostly restroom compliance and break-room work. A clinic adds specialty fixtures, dedicated venting and sometimes a separate waste system. Retail depends entirely on the use — a clothing store and a coffee shop in the same shell are not comparable projects.
What stays constant is the sequence. Whatever the use, the plumbing has to be resolved before the slab is poured and again before the walls close, and it is the last trade inspected before the space can be occupied.
Spaces we build out
- Office suites and corporate floors
- Retail units and shopping-center in-line space
- Medical, dental and outpatient clinics
- Restaurants, cafes and food-service tenants
- Fitness, salon and personal-service tenants
- Light industrial, flex and warehouse office
WHAT CHANGES BY USE
How the plumbing scope shifts with the tenant
Office and corporate
Break-room and pantry plumbing, coffee and filtered-water lines, restroom compliance work triggered by the remodel, and janitor fixtures. Usually the lightest underground scope, but accessibility upgrades can still be triggered.
Retail and in-line space
A single restroom and a mop basin in a shell that may have nothing but a capped stub. Landlord water and sanitary points of connection often need to be extended a long way into the suite.
Medical and dental
Exam-room sinks, sterilization areas, vacuum and air lines coordinated with the equipment vendor, dedicated venting, and in some cases separate waste treatment for dental amalgam.
Food service
Grease interceptors, floor sinks and floor drains, indirect waste for all food equipment, hot water sized for three-compartment sinks and dishwashers, and a gas service for the cook line.
Fitness and personal service
Shower groups, locker-room drainage, higher hot-water demand, hair interceptors for salons, and floor drainage that has to be sloped and tested carefully.
Industrial and flex
Office restroom cores inside warehouse shells, eyewash and safety-shower connections, compressed-air drops, and trench or area drains where the process requires them.
PROJECT PATH
From signed lease to final inspection
01
Lease and work letter review
02
Design coordination
03
Plan review and permit
04
Underground and slab
05
Rough-in and inspection
06
Trim, start-up, occupancy
COMMON QUESTIONS
Commercial TI plumbing questions
Typically underground sanitary and vent, domestic water distribution, gas piping, water heating, fixture setting and trim, plus the permit, testing and inspection work. Specialty items — grease interceptors, backflow assemblies, medical gas — are priced as separate line items.
Frequently. Altering a restroom generally requires the altered elements to comply with current accessibility standards, and many jurisdictions also require accessibility work along the path of travel once the project cost passes a threshold. We assess the existing restrooms during the walk and tell you what the proposed scope triggers.
It is not a continuous run. Underground is a short, intense block early; rough-in is a second block before drywall; trim is a third at the end. The elapsed time is driven by the permit, the slab pour and the long-lead equipment far more than by crew hours.
It depends on the work letter. Base-building items such as the water service, the sanitary stub and sometimes the common restrooms sit with the landlord; everything inside the demised premises is usually tenant improvement cost, often offset by a TI allowance.
Yes. We regularly work off-hours for shutdowns, tie-ins and anything that affects a riser serving other tenants, and we coordinate the notice period with building management.