COMMERCIAL ELECTRICAL TI
Commercial electrical tenant improvement services
SECOND-GENERATION SPACE
Rewiring a suite that was built for somebody else
A second-generation suite comes with a history. There is a panel sized for the last tenant, a lighting layout that suited their furniture, abandoned circuits above the ceiling, and sometimes wiring that was never inspected at all. None of it is on the drawings you were handed.
Our work on these spaces starts with an honest assessment of what can stay. Reusing a sound panel and good feeders is often the biggest single saving on the job, while inheriting overloaded or undocumented circuits is one of the most common reasons a final inspection fails.
From there we lay the new plan over the existing conditions: what gets demolished back to the panel, what gets extended, what gets replaced, and where the new load forces a change to distribution. The estimate shows each of those decisions, so the scope is clear before anyone starts pulling wire.
What we check in an existing suite
- Panel capacity, condition and spare spaces
- Where the suite is fed from and how it is metered
- Abandoned or unlabeled circuits above the ceiling
- Existing lighting and whether it meets current energy code
- Fire alarm devices and who monitors the system
- Low-voltage cabling that can be reused or must come out
SCOPE OF WORK
What commercial electrical tenant improvement covers
Selective demolition
Making safe and removing circuits, fixtures and cabling that the new layout does not use, back to the source — not just cut off at the ceiling and left in place.
Panel reuse or replacement
Testing and relabeling an existing panel we can keep, or replacing it when capacity, condition or available spaces rule it out.
New power layout
Receptacles and dedicated circuits placed to the new furniture and equipment plan, with the existing circuits reused wherever that is sound.
Lighting upgrades
Replacing or relocating fixtures, and adding the controls a lighting alteration triggers under the energy code your jurisdiction has adopted.
Fire alarm coordination
Relocating and adding notification and initiating devices with the building’s fire alarm contractor, so the system is tested and accepted with the rest of the suite.
Documentation
Updated panel schedules, circuit labeling and as-built drawings that reflect what is actually installed — the thing the next tenant will wish the last one had left.
HOW THE JOB RUNS
How a commercial electrical TI moves
01
Survey what is there
02
Decide what stays
03
Make safe and demolish
04
Install the new layout
COMMON QUESTIONS
Commercial electrical TI questions
Often, yes. If it has the capacity for the new load, is in good condition and has the spaces we need, keeping it saves both cost and lead time. We test it and tell you plainly if it should be replaced.
Usually, when enough of the lighting is altered. Most commercial energy codes require controls such as occupancy sensing and daylight response on altered lighting. We check the threshold in your jurisdiction before pricing.
The building usually has a fire alarm contractor who owns and monitors the system. We coordinate device locations and pathways with them, and in many buildings the landlord requires their contractor to make the final connections.
Abandoned cabling is generally required to be removed, and it is also a fire load and a headache for the next contractor. We price its removal as a line item rather than leaving it behind.
It depends on the size of the suite and, more than anything, on the gear lead time and the permit review. We give you a schedule with those two items called out, because they usually decide the finish date.