Building office inside a unit/warehouse

[unstoppable]

Hi,

I am in the process of acquiring an industrial unit on a lease for my business. It currently has a toilet but no office space. I need to "put in" a small office where I can have space for 2/3 people to work from on a desk. It will need to be lockable as it will have computers etc and I would prefer a glass window large enough to be able to keep any eye on the ongoings inside the unit.

I want something fairly cheap and "temporary" enough so that it can be taken out at the end of the lease.

What are my options and roughly how much should it cost?

Thanks.

 

[AllUpHere]

I'd do it with studwork. You could Ply / OSB the outside and plasterboard the inside. Stick some kingspan between and you'd have a fairly useable 'box' to work in.

 

[RDBiometrics]

Do you need to consider sound too? Do you need to factor in noise levels from the warehouse when choosing building materials?

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

realistically, it's a little bit more than just popping in some walls, doors and windows... what about your electrical points, data points, phone points, ventilation - will your windows be able to be opened in a heat wave for instance... Your industrial unit will get hot... and I mean hot and musty in the "built up areas that you create" ... Then, there's the existing alarm (if there is one) do you want to extend this to cover the offices...

Doors, do you put in basic internal wooden door from B&Q at £20 a pop, with mortise locks in... or do you go for something a bit stronger...

Do you want to incorporate a master suite, say for instance is there anywhere on site you don't want staff to venture into when there is no one in the warehouse, or do they have full access...

Fire routes - in the case of a fire in close proximity to the office that you're building, how will they get out if the door is blocked (or even walls) by a fire...

the size of the office, will of course need to be suitable to cater for 2-3 members of staff... great, but what if you need to expand... do you stick with the "basics" or do you consider the future...

Will the office be a single storey "box" or is there enough room above to install a supporting mezzanine floor so you can utilize the space above?

Will there be money held on site... if so, you'll need a safe - will the office be big enough to cater for a "real" safe or are you going to spend as little as possible, stick in a cheap basic B&Q glorified cash tin and then run the risk of a theft?

You say you have a toilet... what about a kitchen or canteen area? do you have female staff... I'm pretty sure they won't be overly happy with sharing with men... some women don't mind, but... the bigger picture is not many do...

 

[unstoppable]

Thanks for responding - some very very good questions!

Essentially it's just me and occasionally a couple of family members who will be using the space. I don't have regular staff atm, just some temp labour now and then for labourious jobs. I want to keep it very minimalistic and simple as well as cheap. Basically I am happy to even put up a desk and a chair and work from that! However an enclosure would be better so I can lock it up so I don't have to worry about storing printer, documents etc (there will be no money and no real valuables as such). Plus in colder months it will be cheaper to heat a small office with a convector heater.

Good points about electrics, phone points and lighting. There already is a twin sock and phone point in place but I'll have to consider lighting. May be a portable pedestal light of some sort?

I am no good with doing these things myself - totally useless at DIY plus honestly don't have the time right now.

Any suggestions regarding options available to me and estimated costs will be much appreciated. If someone has done something similar I would very interested to learn from them too!

Thanks.

 

[unstoppable]

I'd do it with studwork. You could Ply / OSB the outside and plasterboard the inside. Stick some kingspan between and you'd have a fairly useable 'box' to work in.

Is this something a joiner would do? Or a builder? I'm useless at DIY myself Any idea about costs?

 

[unstoppable]

Do you need to consider sound too? Do you need to factor in noise levels from the warehouse when choosing building materials?

Sound is not an issue. It's essentially storage space with occasional preparation of pallets to send stock to customers. It will mostly be just myself in the unit.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Try something like this http://www.elitepartitionsandinteriors.co.uk/budget-partitions/

 

[DavidWH]

We had a joiner/builder chuck exactly what you're looking for into our unit. They had it done in 2 days, with a load bearing roof too. Then a sparky just to put power & lights in. Can't remember how much it cost. As Haunted says, make it bigger than you think you need. The unit & office looks huge with nothing in them.

 

[wevet]

If there is space for access but a small portacabin or a shipping container based office and then at the end of the lease you can, if you wish, sell it on.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

Agree, lease or buy an office container. Based on the prices here https://containercabins.co.uk/portable-office-for-sale/ you get decent stuff under 5k. Maybe used or least. Didn't bother checking but there might be some business offering it.

 

[paulears]

Ventilation and fresh air are always my number one requirement - if you cannot afford air conditioning, then at the very least an 8" duct fan to suck out stale air and a similar entry point for fresh at the other end. A couple of flu tubes are still dirt cheap - electrics usually costs little if the distribution point/consumer unit is close. Two mcbs - one lighting one for a ring main - less than twenty quid for the mcbs, some cable and some sockets. Traditional construction with timber and plasterboard is not hugely expensive, and a proper builder will no doubt do it with lightweight metal studs. If they make the ceiling stronger, and finish the top with chipboard, it become useful storage space too!

 

[ADW]

If you want cheap and simple then take a look at garden sheds. You can get all different levels and sizes. Easy to fit a different window if you want it larger etc. Position it wherever needed for power and all the other essentials. Seen some great shed offices in my time.

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

Not sure where abouts you are in the UK - but... we extended offices with the use of a company based in Bolton (I think) - the stud walls were built with 3x2 and MDF/hard boards - much more harder wearing, plus we were able to paint straight onto the MDF boards/hard boards easier to attach too rather than plaster board for additional sockets etc.

Half of the shop was done in half a day, they brought the corner walls in ready built, put them in situ and they were pretty much done then a day to install the 2 offices across the right hand side of the shop.

Cost about £2500 including additional electrical points - all we had to do then was paint and carpet.

Technically speaking, it was all done within a week.

In reality, one twin socket will not be enough for what you're wanting... get a sparky in to extend on the ring main - trust me, you'll be glad you did... with regards to the single phone outlet... will one phone line really be enough for what you want?

 

[JakeM]

In terms of security, I use a small unit for my business and didn't want to risk my data being stolen.

I decided to go down the route of using a laptop, which I always keep on me and never leave unattended.

Then, the office itself contains 2 screens, a wireless mouse and a wireless keyboard. These can all be had for £100 - £200, and I leave these at the premises at all times.

When I arrive every morning, I plug everything in (the laptop lid stays closed) and I effectively have a "desktop setup", and when I leave, I put my laptop in my bag and know that all my data is safe with me.

But by running it from a laptop, I also have the freedom to maybe pop out and sit in a cafe or a coffee shop for a few hours, if I want a change of scenery.

 

[paulears]

Taking your data with you is the equivalent of not trusting a bank to look after your money and keeping it under a floorboard - proper security isn't expensive, data security nowadays is more about having multiple backups, and absolutely NOT only having your valuable data in something you could leave in the coffee shop, or get stolen by a moped gang walking into the coffee shop.

If your data is that precious you cannot risk keeping encoded backups or just having it on your office computer, perhaps you should invest in some serious security software. You could use drives on caddies that you could lock in the safe, or other similar systems - or have encryption, but I've lost count of the number of laptops I have had fail on me over the years because they get bashed about. Most people are now widening their data sharing - so you can use cloud services to use your laptop in the coffee shop, AND the computer at work, and your pad, pod and phone too!

For me - backups are the most vital. In another topic a helpful member has ben assisting me to install wordpress - and today I managed to install it on the server, and in so doing, zap hundreds of critical files - wiping out the images and data ebay links to - removing all the images from my listings and stopping sound files working. However, I have multiple backups and soon restored the data - I'd rather have that facility than minimise the access to data!

 

[Pish_Pash]

Can you not put in a small touring caravan inside the warehouse?

Voila instant instant office space (with a degree of soundproofing), easy to heat, no pesky time sumped having to build something ..... & something to sell on if it all goes Pete Tong.