01 — MethodologyHow to read these numbersThere is no duration equivalent of the JLL or Cushman & Wakefield cost guides, so the schedule benchmarks on this page are assembled from dated, published sources and shown with their provenance attached. Construction and phase durations come from Plescia Construction & Development’s sector timeline benchmarks, Terrapin Construction Group’s July 2026 project-delivery guide (drawn from projects across 38 states), Keyser’s tenant-improvement planning guidance, EB3 Construction’s commercial TI timeline, and the fit-out programmes published by ACI, Oktra and K2 Space.Procurement figures are dated and independent of those. VAWN’s Electrical Equipment Lead Time Index carries a data date of August 13, 2026 and is built from Siemens CompAS lead-time adjustments, Wood Mackenzie transmission-and-distribution survey data, NEMA figures and manufacturer SEC filings. Terrapin’s July 2026 material lead-time table is attributed to ENR Construction Economics and AGC of America’s supply-chain reporting. Glass durations are from AC Glass’s 2026 storefront benchmark. Permit durations come from the DC Department of Buildings’ Fast Track Fit Out program and published NYC Department of Buildings plan-examination guidance.Productivity impacts are from MCAA Bulletin No. OT1 (revised 2011), which averages the Business Roundtable, NECA, Penn State and US Army Corps of Engineers overtime studies, and from published applications of the MCAA factor model to occupied-building claims. Cost context, where it appears, is from JLL’s U.S. & Canada Office Fit-Out Costs Guide 2026 and Cushman & Wakefield’s Office Fit Out Cost Guide, Americas 2026. All figures were retrieved in August 2026 and rounded.What these figures are — and are notThese are planning ranges compiled from public sources, not iRecruit project data and not a schedule commitment. Fit-out duration is set by things a benchmark cannot see: base-building condition, jurisdiction, delivery method, landlord work rules, union agreements, and how fast the tenant makes decisions. The per-floor arithmetic below only holds on repetitive, stacked floors with a common core; the first floor of any scheme is always the slowest, and one-off floors do not average. Lead-time figures are point-in-time readings that move month to month, so re-check gear and glazing quotes before a programme is baselined. Use these numbers to test whether a proposed schedule is plausible, to size the float you need, and to decide when procurement has to start — then build the real programme with your general contractor and a live expediter.02 — At a glanceThe benchmarks at a glanceThe whole guide in one screen. Each row jumps to the full section.01Design and documentationTest fit about 2 weeks; schematic design 6-14; design development 8-16; construction documents 10-20Design02Permit and agency review4 weeks to 18+ months overall; DC Fast Track targets 15 business days; NYC ALT2 prof-cert 4-6 weeks, ALT1 plan exam 8-12; Landmarks can add monthsPermit03Construction by scope tierSpec suite 8-12 weeks; standard 12-16; high-end 16-24+; full tenant-improvement band 8-22Build04Long-lead procurementLow-voltage switchgear 54 weeks; medium-voltage 44-80; structural steel 14-20; storefront glass 6-11Long-lead05Occupied-building dragAbout 20% productivity loss cited in beneficial-occupancy claims; 60-hour weeks fall to a 0.61 index by week 10OccupiedAnchor figures: 12–16 weeks of construction for a standard single floor, 8–12 for a spec suite and 16–24+ for premium space (Plescia); 8–22 weeks across all tenant-improvement scopes (Terrapin Construction Group, July 2026); 4 weeks to 18+ months of permit review; and 54 weeks for low-voltage switchgear (VAWN, August 2026).
03 — BenchmarksOffice fit-out schedule benchmarks: weeks per floor and total durationPublished benchmarks converge on a narrow construction band and a very wide total-programme band. Construction is the part everyone quotes and the part that varies least: roughly 8 to 24 weeks per floor depending on spec. The total — lease signature to occupancy — is where projects run long, because design, permit review and long-lead procurement each consume more calendar than the build itself.8-12 wksSpec suite or white-box floorPlescia Construction & Development’s published sector timelines put speculative-suite office fit-outs at 8–12 weeks of construction — the fastest repeatable per-floor unit on a stacked building.12-16 wksStandard fit-out, one floorThe same benchmark set puts a standard office fit-out at 12–16 weeks of construction. Keyser’s tenant-side planning guidance widens that to 12–20 weeks once design and permitting sit inside the window.16-24+ wksHigh-end or premium floorPlescia puts high-end office fit-outs at 16–24 weeks and up. EB3 Construction places full build-outs carrying structural, mechanical and plumbing scope at three to six months or longer.8-22 wksFull tenant-improvement bandTerrapin Construction Group’s July 2026 project-delivery guide, built on projects across 38 states, gives 8–22 weeks as the working range for tenant-improvement construction across all scopes.~5 moTwo-floor scheme, on-site programmeACI’s 2026 programme data puts a mid-size two-floor fit-out at about five months — 20 weeks — of on-site works, and a two-floor scheme with a structural mezzanine at about eight months for the whole programme — roughly 8–12 construction weeks per floor.5-6 moLarge multi-floor, end to endFor its largest office category — 10,000 sq ft and up — ACI reports a total programme of 20 weeks to 6 months, of which on-site works alone are 12–16 weeks or more; the balance is design, approvals, procurement, furniture and the move.Sources: Plescia Construction & Development sector timeline benchmarks; Terrapin Construction Group project-delivery guide, July 2026 (38 states); ACI office fit-out timeline 2026; Keyser tenant-improvement planning guidance; EB3 Construction commercial TI timeline; Oktra and K2 Space published fit-out programmes (retrieved Aug 2026).Why weeks per floor only works on repetitive floorsPer-floor arithmetic is a planning device, not a law. It holds when floors are stacked, similar in plan, served by a common core and released to the contractor in sequence — the crew learns the floor once and repeats it, so floors two through six run faster than floor one. It breaks the moment a floor carries something the others do not: a new riser, a stair infill, a kitchen, a data room, a floor with the only conference centre. Plescia’s benchmark set makes the same point from the trade side, noting that MEP trades are the biggest schedule risk across every sector and that fit-outs are less predictable than ground-up work once specialty systems enter the scope. On a real multi-floor programme, treat the first floor as a mock-up with a schedule attached, then apply the per-floor rate to the ones behind it. 04 — Cost driversWhat stretches a fit-out scheduleSchedules rarely fail in the field. They fail in procurement, in a permit queue, and in the decision to work nights around a live tenant. These are the drivers with published numbers attached, roughly in order of how much calendar they can move.54 wksSwitchgear and electrical gearVAWN’s index puts low-voltage switchgear at 54 weeks and medium-voltage at 44 as of Aug 13, 2026; Terrapin, citing ENR and AGC data, quotes 52–80 weeks for medium-voltage gear.4 wks-18 moPermit and agency reviewTerrapin’s 2026 guide spans 4 weeks in fast-track jurisdictions to 18+ months for complex work, with a 12–24 week median; DC’s Fast Track Fit Out targets 15 business days, while NYC ALT2 professional certification runs 4–6 weeks and ALT1 plan examination 8–12.-28%Sustained overtimeMCAA Bulletin OT1 (revised 2011): a crew on 50-hour weeks holds a 0.95 productivity index in week 1 but 0.72 by week 10; 60-hour weeks fall from 0.91 to 0.61 over the same run.20%Occupied-building accessPublished loss-of-productivity practice has combined the MCAA factors for beneficial occupancy and stacking of trades to support a 20% productivity loss where crews worked around occupied areas.6-11 wksGlass, storefront and glazingAC Glass’s 2026 benchmark: 1–2 weeks of submittals, 4–6 weeks of fabrication and 1–3 weeks of installation. Specialty glass adds 2–4 weeks to fabrication, and curtainwall systems run 16–24 weeks from contract to completion.3-4 wksMillwork submittal cyclesMillwork fabricators are explicit that the clock starts at approved shop drawings, not at award; a design team taking 3–4 weeks per review cycle pushes the install date back by the same amount.Read together, the pattern is that the longest poles are all pre-construction. A 54-week switchgear order placed at construction-documents stage lands after the drywall is closed; the published lead times mean switchgear and specialty MEP equipment have to be released concurrent with design development, a year or more ahead of installation. Permit review and submittal cycles behave the same way — they are queue time, not work time, and no amount of overtime later buys them back. The levers that genuinely compress a fit-out are early procurement, an expediter who knows the jurisdiction, and a design team that turns shop drawings in days rather than weeks. 05 — VariationDuration by scope type: basic, mid, premium, lab and trading floorSpec level moves duration less than most owners expect, and systems density moves it more. A premium floor is roughly twice a spec suite; a lab or a high-density trading environment is a different problem entirely, because the critical path leaves the jobsite and moves into the equipment order book.Basic / spec suite8-12 wksSpeculative suites and white-box refreshes (Plescia). Light scope — paint, flooring, lighting swaps — can close in 2–4 weeks, per EB3 Construction.Mid-spec office12-16 wksThe standard construction window (Plescia); 12–20 weeks once design and permitting sit inside the programme, per Keyser’s planning guidance.Premium / HQ floor16-24+ wksHigh-end fit-outs per Plescia. ACI’s largest office category (10,000 sq ft and up) runs a 20-week to 6-month end-to-end programme with 12–16 weeks or more of on-site works inside it.Lab / life sciences20-30 wksKeyser puts medical build-outs at 20–30 weeks; C&W’s 2026 life-sciences guide averages $741/SF, a fair proxy for the systems density behind that duration.Trading floor / high densityGear-ledPower and cooling density move the critical path off construction and onto procurement: low-voltage switchgear alone is quoted at 54 weeks (VAWN, Aug 2026).Occupied, phased floors20% hitPhasing around live tenants stretches programmes; MCAA-factor practice supports about a 20% productivity loss in occupied areas, more under overtime.Anchor figures by scope: 8–12 weeks for a spec suite, 12–16 for standard space and 16–24+ for premium (Plescia); 20–30 weeks for medical and comparable systems-heavy build-outs (Keyser); and, for trading floors and other high-density environments, a date set by a 54-week switchgear quote rather than by the construction sequence. 06 — TrendWhat changed between 2024 and 2026Procurement replaced labour as the primary schedule risk. VAWN’s August 2026 index shows low-voltage switchgear at 54 weeks, medium-voltage at 44, switchboards at 32–41 and panelboards at 21–32, with power and substation transformers past 160 weeks. Terrapin’s July 2026 table, citing ENR Construction Economics and AGC of America, is longer still on medium-voltage gear at 52–80 weeks, and puts structural steel at 14–20 weeks nationally. The practical consequence for interiors work is a rule that did not exist in 2019: order switchgear and specialty MEP equipment during design development, a year or more before installation, because the low-voltage quote alone runs 54 weeks.Cost escalation continued while activity stayed subdued. Cushman & Wakefield’s Office Fit Out Cost Guide, Americas 2026 reports fit-out costs up 5.5% across the Americas to an average of $149 per square foot and up 5% in the US, with 79% of surveyed general contractors expecting further increases over the following six months and none expecting declines. The share planning to absorb those costs rather than pass them on rose from 13% to 20%, against an office development pipeline at a 25-year low. Elevated lead times, in other words, are now a standing planning constraint rather than a passing shock.Jurisdictions and delivery methods absorbed some of the pressure. The DC Department of Buildings now runs Fast Track Fit Outs for nonstructural Level 1 and 2 alterations to Group B offices with no change of occupancy, targeting 15 business days for initial review, 5 business days per additional round and approval within 30 business days. On delivery, Terrapin’s 2026 guide, citing DBIA research alongside its own project data, puts design-build 15–25% faster than design-bid-build, and K2 Space reports design-and-build fit-out programmes of 8–12 weeks against 15–40 for the traditional route. 07 — WorkforceThe workforce behind the scheduleEvery number above resolves to a person holding a date. Someone has to release the switchgear order at design development rather than at award; someone has to run the permit through a jurisdiction they know; someone has to turn millwork shop drawings in days; and someone has to sequence night work around a live tenant without burning the crew down to a 0.72 productivity index. On multi-floor programmes the people who matter most are preconstruction and procurement leads, MEP coordinators who can read a gear submittal, and superintendents fluent in occupied-building logistics — freight-elevator windows, noise and dust protocols, after-hours access and phased turnover.iRecruit assembles those teams for owners, occupiers, general contractors and interiors specialists: tenant-improvement and corporate-interiors project managers, superintendents, MEP coordinators, expediters, and preconstruction and estimating leads, spanning project engineer through executive. If a fit-out is on your capital plan, put hiring lead time on the same bar chart as permits and procurement — it behaves the same way.For the hiring side of this market, see the Commercial Fit-Out practice. 08 — FAQFrequently asked questions How long does an office fit-out take?+Construction is typically 8–22 weeks depending on scope, per Terrapin Construction Group’s July 2026 project-delivery guide, with a standard single floor at 12–16 weeks. End to end, ACI puts a large office of 10,000 sq ft and up at 20 weeks to 6 months, of which on-site works are only 12–16 weeks.How many weeks per floor should I plan for?+On repetitive stacked floors, roughly 8–12 construction weeks per floor is a defensible planning rate: ACI’s 2026 programme data puts a mid-size two-floor fit-out at about five months — 20 weeks — of on-site works, and a two-floor scheme with a structural mezzanine at about eight months for the full programme. Treat the first floor as slower than the rest.Which long-lead items actually set the date?+Electrical gear, then glass, then millwork. VAWN’s August 2026 index quotes low-voltage switchgear at 54 weeks and medium-voltage at 44, while Terrapin, citing ENR and AGC data, quotes 52–80 weeks for medium-voltage. Storefront glass runs about 6–11 weeks, curtainwall 16–24.How much does working in an occupied building add?+Enough to matter. Published loss-of-productivity practice has combined the MCAA factors for beneficial occupancy and stacking of trades to support a 20% productivity loss where crews worked around occupied areas, and MCAA Bulletin OT1 shows crews on 50-hour weeks dropping to a 0.72 productivity index by week 10.Does fast-tracking a fit-out really save time?+It saves the right kind of time. Terrapin’s 2026 guide, citing DBIA research and its own project data, puts design-build 15–25% faster than design-bid-build, and K2 Space reports 8–12 week design-and-build programmes against 15–40 weeks traditional. The gain comes from overlapping procurement with design, not from working faster. Building a 2026 fit-out schedule?Staff the programme before the gear order goes in iRecruit assembles interiors project managers, superintendents, MEP coordinators and preconstruction leads — project engineer to executive.Scope a search →Candidates — register with us →
