Commercial Fitout Services Sydney — Design, Joinery & Construction

Liteco Projects delivers commercial fitouts in Sydney as a single accountable partner. We design the space, manufacture the joinery in our own workshop and build the site with our own supervisors and trades. That means there is no gap between the drawings, the budget and what finally gets installed — the people who price the job are the people who answer for it on site. Our services cover hospitality, retail and workplace interiors across Sydney and New South Wales.

This page sets out exactly what we do, how each stage works, how long things take and what drives cost, so you can judge whether we are the right fit before you spend time on a site visit.

1. Design and documentation

Every project starts with concept design: spatial planning, customer flow and circulation, materials and finishes, lighting, and coordination of the services that have to live inside the ceiling and floor. From there we produce full construction documentation — plans, elevations, reflected ceiling plans, joinery details, services layouts and finish schedules — that a certifier, strata body or shopping-centre design manager will actually approve rather than send back for revision.

Because the design team sits beside the estimating and site teams, drawings are produced with buildability and cost in mind. We do not design in isolation and then cut the scope down when the price comes in. Deliverables include concept boards, 3D visuals, a documented scope of works, construction drawings, joinery shop drawings and a fixed-price proposal.

2. Approvals, certification and compliance

Approvals are where fitout programmes are usually lost, so we run them as a managed workstream rather than an afterthought. That covers development applications and complying development certificates where a change of use or new food premises triggers them, construction certificates, fire safety and essential services coordination, food premises requirements for hospitality, and final occupation certification.

We also prepare landlord and strata submission packages: contractor insurances, work method statements, safe work method statements for high-risk work, and design review against shopping-centre guidelines. In occupied buildings we coordinate access, lift bookings, delivery windows and after-hours works approval with the building manager before the first trade arrives on site.

3. Hospitality fitouts and commercial kitchens

Hospitality is our deepest specialisation. We fit out restaurants, cafés, bars, bistros, hotel food and beverage venues, bakeries and takeaway outlets, and we coordinate commercial kitchen equipment as part of the package rather than handing it to a separate supplier at the end. That means cold room and cool-room placement, cooking line layout, exhaust hood and make-up air design, grease trap and trade-waste requirements, floor falls and drainage, and the health-inspection standards that decide whether a venue can open on the date you have promised your landlord and your staff.

We also plan seating capacity against egress and licensing conditions, because a beautiful room that cannot legally seat the numbers your business model needs is not a finished job. Front-of-house joinery — bars, banquettes, booth seating, display counters and serveries — is manufactured in our own workshop to suit the exact dimensions of the tenancy, which matters in older Sydney buildings where no wall is square and no floor is level.

4. Retail fitouts

Retail work is governed by landlord delivery requirements, centre design guidelines and trading-hour restrictions. We handle shopfront and tenancy construction, display joinery and fixturing, lighting and signage coordination, and the documentation landlords need before they release a tenancy for fitout. We have delivered retail projects in shopping centres and street-front locations across Sydney and understand the inspection sequence, hold points and defect processes that decide whether you open on schedule.

For retail we also plan the practical details that affect takings: sight lines from the mall or street, window display depth, stock storage, back-of-house access, and how deliveries and waste move through the tenancy without crossing the customer floor.

5. Workplace and office fitouts

For offices we deliver refurbishments and whole-floor upgrades: reception and client-facing areas, meeting and focus rooms, open-plan workstations, breakout and kitchen spaces, partitions, ceilings and acoustic treatment, and the power, data, HVAC and fire coordination that makes a floor genuinely usable. We work in occupied buildings and after hours where required, with staged handovers so your business keeps running while the work is done.

Workplace projects are increasingly about hybrid behaviour rather than desk count. We help clients test how much collaboration space, how many focus rooms and how much quiet area their people actually need, then build to that brief instead of an outdated density assumption.

6. Joinery manufacture in our own workshop

We operate our own joinery workshop. Counters, bars, banquettes, wall panelling, display units, reception desks, vanity units and bespoke feature joinery are manufactured to our own drawings and quality standard rather than subcontracted to the lowest bidder. Owning the workshop removes one of the most common causes of programme slippage — the joinery supplier who is two weeks late with no consequence — and gives us direct control over the finish quality clients see and touch every day.

It also lets us prototype. Where a detail is unusual or a material is being used in a new way, we can build a sample before committing the whole run, so surprises are discovered in the workshop rather than on site in week eight.

7. Project management and site supervision

A dedicated project manager runs each site: programming trades, coordinating deliveries and long-lead items, managing site safety, tracking variations and reporting progress weekly with photographs. Site supervisors are on the floor daily checking work against drawings and specification and escalating issues before they become rework. One point of contact for the client, one programme, one cost report.

Weekly reporting includes progress against programme, upcoming milestones, any decision or selection the client needs to make, and a photographic record of work in place. If a risk appears — a late equipment delivery, an unexpected service in a wall, a certifier requirement — it is raised in writing at the time, not discovered at handover.

8. Commercial kitchen equipment supply and coordination

For hospitality clients we supply and coordinate commercial kitchen equipment as part of the fitout: cooking lines, refrigeration, dishwashing, ventilation and stainless-steel fabrication. Supplying equipment alongside construction means services, clearances, ventilation rates and delivery sequencing are planned together instead of retrofitted around each other. It also means one party is responsible when the exhaust does not line up with the hood or the door swing clashes with the pass bench.

What a fixed-price proposal actually includes

We price from documented drawings so the number is a commitment, not an opening position. A typical proposal sets out demolition and make-good, partitions and ceilings, finishes and floor coverings, joinery manufacture and installation, electrical, plumbing and mechanical coordination, fire services, signage allowances where relevant, builders clean, and the approvals workstream. Exclusions are stated explicitly — for example loose furniture, POS systems, audio-visual equipment or specialist kitchen items outside our supply scope — so there is no ambiguity later.

Typical programmes

A café or small retail tenancy usually runs six to ten weeks on site once approvals are in place. A restaurant with a full commercial kitchen typically runs ten to sixteen weeks because of equipment lead times and services coordination. An office floor generally runs eight to fourteen weeks depending on size, partition and services scope. Design and approval stages can add six to twelve weeks before construction starts, and council or strata processes are usually the biggest variable in the whole programme.

What drives cost

Four things move the number more than anything else: the standard of finish, the quantity of bespoke joinery, the amount of services work required, and the condition of the existing tenancy. A tenancy that has been stripped to shell is cheaper to build than one where decades of previous fitouts must be demolished and made good. Late changes cost more than early changes, because materials are already ordered and trades already sequenced. We would rather spend an extra week in design than three weeks in variations.

Working in occupied and live environments

Many of our projects happen in buildings that stay open. We plan noisy and dusty work outside trading hours, use hoardings and negative-pressure dust control, protect fire egress at all times, and stage handover by zone so parts of the venue or floor can reopen before the whole job is complete. For retail and hospitality clients this is often the difference between a viable project and one that simply cannot proceed.

Where we work

We are Sydney-based and work across the CBD and greater Sydney, including Barangaroo, Surry Hills, Pyrmont, Ultimo, Alexandria, Rosebery, Bondi, Double Bay, Parramatta, Chatswood, Macquarie Park, Manly and the Northern Beaches. We also take on regional NSW projects where the scope and programme suit our workshop-based model.

Sustainability and waste

Fitouts generate a lot of waste, and most of it is avoidable. We separate demolition materials for recycling where facilities allow, specify durable commercial-grade finishes that will not need replacing in three years, and design joinery to be repairable rather than disposable. Long-life materials cost slightly more up front and much less over the life of the tenancy.

Warranties and handover

Handover includes as-built drawings, equipment manuals and warranties, maintenance schedules for mechanical services, and a defects process with a named contact. We return to inspect defects at agreed intervals and close them out. Our interest is in being the contractor you call for the next site, not in disappearing after the final invoice.

Questions worth asking any fitout contractor

Who will supervise my site, and how often will they be there? Do you manufacture your own joinery or subcontract it? Who lodges the approval documents? What is excluded from this price? What happens if the landlord’s design manager requests changes? Can I speak to two clients whose projects were similar to mine? A contractor who cannot answer those five questions plainly is a risk, whichever price they quote.

Which service do you need?

If you are opening a new venue or tenancy, you need design, approvals and construction working together. If you are refreshing an existing space, a staged refurbishment may be enough. If you already have drawings, we are happy to price and build to another designer’s documentation. Contact our Sydney office and we will tell you honestly which path suits your project, budget and opening date — including when the answer is that you should wait.

The delivery sequence, stage by stage

Most clients want to know what actually happens between signing and opening. The sequence is: site inspection and feasibility, concept design and budget alignment, documentation and approvals lodged, pricing confirmed against final drawings, demolition and make-good, services rough-in, partitions and ceilings, joinery install, finishes and fit-off, services commissioning, certification, builders clean, then handover with the defect list. Each stage has a decision point attached, and we tell you in advance which decisions we need from you and when, so the programme does not wait on a colour selection.

How we manage trades and subcontractors

Electrical, plumbing, mechanical, fire and specialist trades are engaged against a single programme and a documented scope, coordinated by our project manager rather than by the client. Every trade is inducted to site, given drawings and hold points, and inspected before the next trade covers their work. We check work in place rather than accepting an invoice as evidence of completion, because rectifying concealed defects after handover is far more expensive than catching them at the time.

Site safety, insurance and licensing

We hold current public liability and contract works insurance and provide certificates to landlords and strata bodies on request. Site-specific safe work method statements are prepared for high-risk activities, including work at height, hot works, demolition and any work near live services. Sites are secured, signed and kept clean, with waste removed regularly rather than piled at the back door. A clean site is a safer site and a faster one.

What we do not do

We do not sell loose furniture, IT or point-of-sale systems as a core service, and we do not take on residential renovation work. We are not the cheapest quote in the market and we do not pretend to be. What we offer is a documented scope, a fixed price, our own joinery workshop and a site team that answers the phone after handover. If your project needs something outside our scope, we will say so and, where we can, point you to someone who does it well.

How to compare our proposal with another

Compare the exclusions before the totals. A lower number often means the demolition, make-good, fire services, certification or joinery allowance has been left out. Compare who supervises the site, whether the joinery is made in-house, and whether the programme includes approval time. Those three comparisons usually tell you more than the bottom line, because the cheapest proposal is rarely the cheapest project once variations arrive.

Liteco Projects — design, joinery and construction under one roof. Serving Sydney and New South Wales for over twenty years.