Electrical fit outs, priced to a specification and handed over with the paperwork finished.
The electrical package on office, retail, hospitality and industrial fit outs across Scotland, from Aberdeen and Peterhead. Cat A, Cat B and refits, to a written scope, a fixed price and a programme that survives contact with the rest of the trades.
Steven Watt holds City & Guilds 2391-52 inspection and testing, 2382-22 BS 7671, 2365-03 installations and 2921-34 EV charging. Registered in Scotland SC821028.
An electrical fit out is the installation package that turns a shell or a stripped out space into a working building: distribution, small power, lighting, emergency lighting, containment, data infrastructure and the certification that proves it is safe to use. Faithful Spark Electricians is a NICEIC Approved Contractor, enrolment 620239, TrustMark 4205123, registered in Scotland as SC821028 and insured to £2M.
This page is written for Scotland, where the notification route is a building warrant rather than the English process, and we work from Aberdeen and Peterhead across the north east.
Most fit out pages tell you the contractor is experienced and comprehensive. This one tells you what the categories mean, what belongs in the electrical package and what does not, what each stage of the programme produces, and what should be in your hands on handover day. If you want our commercial work by town, start with commercial electrician Aberdeen.
Cat A, Cat A plus and Cat B, and why the label decides who pays
These are the standard terms for how far a commercial space has been taken. Getting the category right at the quoting stage prevents the most expensive argument in fit out work, which is who was supposed to install what.
Takes the space from structural shell to technically lettable. Core services in, surfaces finished to a basic standard, but not a functioning workplace.
- Distribution to the floor or demise
- Basic grid lighting and emergency lighting
- Raised floors and suspended ceilings where specified
- Fire detection to base build
- Nothing tailored to an occupier
A middle option that has become common on smaller suites. The landlord takes a Cat A space and finishes it to a lettable, furnished, move in condition.
- Meeting rooms and partitions already formed
- Small power at desk positions
- Data cabling and an equipped comms point
- Lighting adjusted to the actual layout
The tenant's fit out. Everything that makes the space specific to one occupier and their way of working.
- Internal walls, doors and joinery
- Feature and specialist lighting
- Full IT and telecoms cabling
- Kitchen, breakout and welfare power
- Reconfigured small power and containment
There is no single mandatory Cat A standard. The British Council for Offices publishes guidance, but "Cat A" is a convention rather than a specification with legal force, and what one landlord includes another leaves out. That is precisely why it has to be read off the lease and the base build drawings rather than assumed. When we quote a Cat B package we say in writing what we are assuming already exists, so if the assumption is wrong it surfaces before first fix rather than at commissioning.
Cat A, Cat A plus or Cat B, we price all three
Send the drawings or the base build spec and we will come back with a fixed price against a written scope. Survey is free.
What is actually in an electrical fit out package
On a fit out the electrical contractor is one package among several, and the boundaries with the others are where money leaks. This is what ours normally covers.
- Distribution. Boards, sub mains, final circuits, load calculation for what you are actually installing, and a supply upgrade with SSEN where the incoming supply is not enough. Three phase where the equipment needs it.
- Small power. Socket layouts to the furniture plan, floor boxes, desk power, kitchen and welfare, cleaner's sockets and the ones everybody forgets until the vacuum comes out.
- Lighting and controls. General lighting to the layout, plus switching, absence detection and daylight dimming where the scheme calls for it.
- Emergency lighting to BS 5266. Designed against the escape route as built, not as originally drawn, then tested and certified.
- Containment. Tray, basket, trunking and conduit, sized with room for the data package rather than filled to capacity on day one.
- Fire alarm and emergency system wiring, including extending an existing system into new rooms when partitions change the layout.
- Testing and certification under NICEIC enrolment 620239, issued as part of handover rather than chased afterwards.
Where a fit out includes workplace EV charging or a three phase supply upgrade, both have their own pages with the detail.
Not in our package, and worth agreeing early: data cabling termination and testing is usually a separate specialist, as is fire alarm commissioning and certification, sprinklers, HVAC controls and any hazardous area work. We install containment and supplies for all of them and say plainly where our scope stops. A fit out where two trades each assume the other is pulling the data is a fit out that loses a week.
Five stages, and the document each one should produce
If a stage does not produce a document, you have no evidence it happened. This is the part of a fit out that separates a contractor who will still be useful to you in three years from one who will not.
Survey and specification
We measure what exists rather than trusting the drawing, confirm the supply capacity against the load you are actually installing, and write down the assumptions. On a Cat B this is where we establish what the base build gave you. Getting this wrong is the single most common cause of a fit out going over.
First fix
Containment, cabling and back boxes go in while the ceilings and walls are open. This stage is programme critical because it has to happen before the plasterer and the ceiling fitter, and after the partitions are set out. A day lost at first fix is rarely a day lost, it is a week.
Second fix
Accessories, light fittings, boards energised and circuits identified. The furniture plan matters here: a socket six inches from a desk leg is a socket nobody can use, and moving it after the floor boxes are set is a chargeable variation.
Testing, commissioning and snagging
Full testing to BS 7671, emergency lighting duration tested rather than just flicked on, and a snag list worked through and signed off. Snagging is not a formality. It is the last point at which something is cheap to put right, because after handover it becomes a callout.
Handover
The operations and maintenance information for the electrical package, issued as a pack rather than as an email with three attachments. This is the stage most often skipped, and the one that costs you most later.
Every stage above ends in a document you keep
That is what you are buying. Free survey, fixed price, and the full handover pack at the end.
What should be in the electrical handover pack
On a fit out the electrical contractor is normally expected to provide the operation and maintenance information for their own package. Here is what that should contain. Print it and hold whoever you appoint to it, including us.
Why this matters more than it sounds. Two years after a fit out, the person who managed it has usually moved on. What remains is the pack. Without it, your next contractor starts by surveying a building nobody has records for, and you pay again for information you already bought. It is also the first thing an incoming tenant's solicitor asks for at lease end. Our handover packs are issued digitally so they survive a change of facilities manager, and they feed straight into a maintenance programme if you want one.
Ask us for a handover pack from a recent job
We will show you a real one before you appoint anybody. Free survey, fixed price against a written scope.
Where fit outs actually go wrong, and what to ask before you sign
Not one of these is exotic. They are the same handful of problems on nearly every job, and all of them are cheaper to prevent than to fix.
The five that cost money
- The supply is not big enough. Discovered when the equipment schedule arrives, by which point the programme assumes an upgrade that takes weeks to arrange with SSEN.
- The furniture plan arrives after first fix. Floor boxes and desk power then land in the wrong places, and moving them is a variation.
- Escape routes changed and nobody reassessed the emergency lighting. New partitions create a route the original design never covered.
- Containment sized for today. Full on day one, so the first additional circuit needs new tray rather than a spare run.
- Scope gaps between packages. Data, fire alarm commissioning and HVAC controls each assumed to be somebody else's.
What a fit out quote should contain
If a quote does not answer these, it is a number rather than a price, and the difference will be settled later at your expense.
- The assumptions about what already exists, written down.
- Where the scope stops and which packages are excluded by name.
- The certification you will be issued, and when.
- The handover pack contents, itemised.
- How variations are priced, agreed before work is done rather than presented at the end.
- Which edition of BS 7671 the certificates will be issued against.
That last one is a fair question for any contractor this year, and the answer is in the next section.
Building warrants and Amendment 4
A fit out that alters the structure, the means of escape or the compartmentation of a building generally needs a building warrant from the local council, and the warrant has to be in place before that work starts rather than applied for afterwards. Purely electrical alterations usually do not, but the partitioning that comes with a Cat B fit out very often does. We flag it at survey.
Part P does not apply in Scotland. It is an England and Wales building regulation, and there is no Building Control notification for this work here either, because that is the English process. Much of the fit out guidance online is written for England and quietly does not apply. If a contractor's paperwork mentions either, it was written for another jurisdiction.
BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 was published on 15 April 2026 and becomes mandatory for all new work on 15 October 2026. Until then either edition is valid, but a job has to be certified to one edition from start to finish. A fit out running across that date needs a decision made at the outset, not at commissioning. We are already certifying to A4.
Fit out work across the north east of Scotland
We run fit out packages from Aberdeen and Peterhead. Programme work needs the same people back each week, so we are honest about how far that stretches.
On price. Fit outs are not priced from a web page. The figure depends on the floor area, the number of final circuits, the lighting scheme, whether the supply needs upgrading and how much of the base build you inherited. What we can promise is the shape of the number: a fixed price against a written scope, variations agreed before they happen, and no charge for the survey that produces it. The only two figures we publish are a small commercial EICR from £300 + VAT and a workplace EV charger from £800 + VAT, because those are the two we can state honestly without seeing the building.
On a fit out your contractor issues certificates other people will rely on
A landlord, an incoming tenant, an insurer and sometimes a solicitor will all read them. Every number below is on a public register.
What is the difference between a Cat A and a Cat B fit out?
Cat A takes a space from structural shell to technically lettable: core services in, floors, walls and ceilings finished to a basic standard, but not a functioning workplace and not tailored to anyone. Cat B is the tenant's fit out, which makes the space specific to one occupier: internal walls and doors, feature lighting, full IT and telecoms cabling, kitchen and breakout areas, and small power laid out to their furniture plan. Cat A is normally the landlord's cost and Cat B the tenant's, but the lease decides, so it is worth reading before assuming.
Is there a legal standard for what Cat A includes?
No. The British Council for Offices publishes guidance, but Cat A is a market convention rather than a specification with legal force. What one landlord includes another leaves out, which is why a Cat B quote has to state its assumptions about the base build in writing. If your contractor has not written those assumptions down, they have not really priced the job.
Do we need a building warrant for a fit out in Scotland?
It depends on what the fit out changes. Work affecting the structure, the means of escape or the compartmentation of a building generally needs a building warrant from the local council, and it has to be in place before that work starts. Purely electrical alterations usually do not, but the partitioning that comes with most Cat B fit outs very often does. We tell you at survey which side of the line your job falls on.
How long does an electrical fit out take?
The electrical package is rarely the constraint. First fix has to follow the partitions and precede the ceilings and plaster, and second fix follows the decorators, so our programme is set by the other trades. What we can control is turning up in the slot we agreed and not holding anyone else up. The honest answer for any specific job comes after a survey, because a supply upgrade adds weeks that have nothing to do with how fast anyone works.
Can you work under our main contractor or principal designer?
Yes, and on business park and retail work it is the normal arrangement. We work to the specification and programme, provide our own RAMS and insurance evidence before starting, attend progress meetings where they are useful, and issue certification into the O and M pack at the end. What we ask for is a realistic slot and access when we are supposed to have it.
What happens at lease end?
Dilapidations. A landlord asks you to reinstate, and the argument becomes what was there when you arrived and what you altered. That is decided by the schedule of condition and by your certificates, not by what seems reasonable. We carry out reinstatement work, and more usefully we produce the records that show what was done and when, so the negotiation is about facts.
Which edition of BS 7671 will our certificates be issued against?
BS 7671:2018+A4:2026, published 15 April 2026 and mandatory for all new work from 15 October 2026. Until that date either edition is technically valid, but a job must be certified to one edition from start to finish, so a fit out running across the date needs the decision made at the outset. We are already certifying to A4.
Send us the drawings, or just the address
Call Steven on 07304 027013. If you have a layout, an equipment schedule or a landlord's base build spec, send those. If you have none of it, the address and a rough idea of what the space needs to do is enough to start. The survey is free and the price comes in writing.
Faithful Spark Electricians, 17 Thomson Road, Peterhead, AB42 3FJ. Registered in Scotland SC821028. NICEIC Approved Contractor 620239. TrustMark 4205123. OZEV EVHS/WCS14254. Cat A and Cat B are market conventions, not legal specifications. Prices exclude VAT and were correct at September 2026.