What to check in a shell before you sign the lease.
Fourteen points, in the order we walk them. Each one says what to look for, who can tell you, and what it costs if it is wrong. Almost all of it is knowable in one hour with the right two or three people in the room, and almost none of it is knowable after the lease is signed at any price. Print it and take it with you.
Low means it is usually a design constraint rather than a bill. Medium means a real line item you can price and plan around. High means it can change whether the deal makes sense at all, and those are the six to walk first — service size, gas capacity, the waste line, the roof, the occupancy classification, and the two lease clauses.
LowA design constraint more than a bill.
MediumA real line item you can price and plan around.
HighCan decide whether the deal makes sense at all.
Services
Electrical, gas, waste and grease. These four decide more of the number than every finish decision combined, and all four are visible on a walk-through if you know where to look.
01
Electrical service size, and how many spare amps the panel actually has
High cost impact
What to look for
The main breaker rating on the panel, the panel schedule taped inside the door, and how many circuits are genuinely unused rather than just unlabelled. Then a load calculation against your equipment list, not a guess from the breaker count.
Who can tell you
An electrical contractor in twenty minutes, or the building engineer if there is one. The landlord will usually quote the building service, which is not the same as your suite’s.
What it costs if it is wrong
A sub-panel off spare capacity is a few thousand dollars. A new service means the utility, a new meter, possibly a transformer and a trench, and it is the largest single surprise in a fit-out — five figures and six to twelve weeks on the utility’s calendar, not yours.
02
Gas meter capacity, against the BTU load of your equipment schedule
High cost impact
What to look for
The meter’s rating in MBH or CFH, stamped on the meter itself. Add up the input rating of every gas appliance you intend to install — ranges, fryers, water heaters, makeup air, rooftop units — and compare. Undersized is common in second-generation restaurant space because the previous tenant cooked less than you will.
Who can tell you
A mechanical contractor, or the gas utility directly with the meter number.
What it costs if it is wrong
A meter upset or a new meter set is not expensive in itself, but it sits in a utility queue measured in weeks. If the service line to the building is also undersized, you are into street work and permits, and that is months.
03
Sanitary waste line size, and where it actually is
High cost impact
What to look for
Floor drains and cleanouts, the size of the line leaving the suite, and whether the run to the building main passes under a slab. Slope matters as much as size: a 4" line laid flat drains no better than a 2" one laid right.
Who can tell you
A plumbing contractor with a camera, and it is worth the few hundred dollars. As-builts are frequently wrong about this and cameras are not.
What it costs if it is wrong
Opening and re-pouring a slab is disruptive, dusty, sequenced ahead of everything else, and easily five figures on a run of any length. On one of our ledgers a cast-iron line that the drawings showed as PVC cost $9,400 and was found on demolition day three.
04
Grease interceptor — present, sized, and sized for your seat count
Medium cost impact
What to look for
Whether there is one at all, where it is, its rated capacity, and whether it is inside the suite or shared. Then what your locality requires for the seat count and the fixture count you are proposing.
Who can tell you
The local public utilities or wastewater department sets the sizing rule and will tell you over the phone. Your plumbing contractor does the calculation.
What it costs if it is wrong
An interior interceptor is moderate. An exterior in-ground one means excavation, possibly in a parking lot you do not control, and a separate permit. It is also the single most common reason a restaurant permit gets a revision cycle.
Code and occupancy
What the code requires for what you intend to do, which is frequently not what the previous tenant needed. This is where a cheap-looking shell becomes an expensive one.
05
Restroom count, fixture count and path of travel — for the proposed occupant load
Medium cost impact
What to look for
How many fixtures exist, and how many the code requires for the occupancy you are proposing rather than the one the previous tenant had. Then the accessible route: door clearances, turning space, grab bars, lavatory height, and the path from the public entrance to the restroom door.
Who can tell you
Your architect, against the plumbing code table. The plan reviewer will check exactly this, so it is better to know before submission than after.
What it costs if it is wrong
Adding a restroom is a room, a waste connection, ventilation and finishes — a substantial line. Bringing an existing one into compliance is usually smaller but is almost never zero, and it is not optional.
08
Sprinkler coverage against your new partition layout
Medium cost impact
What to look for
Whether the space is sprinklered at all, the head spacing, and how your proposed walls cut across it. Every room needs coverage, and a layout that adds six rooms usually adds heads, drops and sometimes a main.
Who can tell you
A fire protection contractor, from your test-fit plan. It is a fast review and they will do it as part of a bid.
What it costs if it is wrong
Relocating heads is modest per head and adds up quickly across a full fit-out. If the existing system has no spare capacity you are into a new riser or a pump, which is a different order of magnitude and a separate permit.
10
Occupancy classification, existing versus proposed
High cost impact
What to look for
What the space is classified as now — on the existing certificate of occupancy, which the landlord has — and what your use would make it. Business, mercantile, assembly and factory are different classifications with different requirements, and assembly is triggered by a seat count you may not have thought about.
Who can tell you
Your architect, and the building official will confirm it in a pre-application meeting, which is free and which almost nobody takes.
What it costs if it is wrong
A change of use is the most expensive four words in a lease negotiation. It can bring egress, a second exit, rated corridors, sprinklers, accessibility upgrades and a structural review with it. One of our ledgers has an occupancy change that added $18,900 and two permit revision cycles because a training room went over 49 seats.
Structure and fabric
What the building physically is, versus what the drawings say it is. Two of the change orders on our home page came from this group and both were findable in advance.
06
Roof structure, and the landlord’s penetration rules
High cost impact
What to look for
What is already on the roof, how old it is, whether the structure will carry another unit, and what the lease or building rules say about penetrating the membrane. Ask whether the roof is under warranty and who is allowed to touch it.
Who can tell you
A structural engineer for the capacity question — original drawings on file are frequently wrong. The property manager for the rules, in writing.
What it costs if it is wrong
Supplemental steel to carry a rooftop unit is engineering, stamped drawings, steel and a crane. One of our ledgers has this at $14,600 for four bays. A roof warranty that requires the original roofer to make every penetration is a cost too, and it is one nobody quotes for.
07
HVAC tonnage against the proposed occupancy, and the age of what is up there
High cost impact
What to look for
Nameplate tonnage on each unit, manufacture date, and a rough rule against your use — an office and a restaurant with the same square footage need very different capacity, and a fitness studio needs more again. Ask when the units were last serviced and whether there is a maintenance record.
Who can tell you
A mechanical contractor. A one-hour inspection is worth more than any statement in a listing.
What it costs if it is wrong
Replacing a rooftop unit is equipment, a crane, curb adaptation, electrical and controls. A fifteen-year-old unit delivered "as-is" in a work letter is a bill you will pay in year two rather than year zero, so it belongs in the lease negotiation.
09
Slab-to-deck height, against the ductwork and the ceiling your design assumes
Low cost impact
What to look for
The clear height from finished floor to the underside of structure, and what is already in that space — existing duct, sprinkler mains, conduit, beams. Then what your design needs to fit above the ceiling: supply duct, return, a grease duct if there is a hood, lighting and sprinklers.
Who can tell you
Your architect with a laser measure, in ten minutes, on the walk-through.
What it costs if it is wrong
Rarely a direct cost and frequently a design cost: the ceiling comes down, the soffit appears, or the grease duct route becomes expensive. A restaurant in a low-deck space is the classic case where the design you paid for cannot be built.
11
As-builts, and how much to believe them
Low cost impact
What to look for
Ask for every drawing the landlord has: original construction, previous tenant fit-outs, mechanical and electrical. Then treat them as a hypothesis. Check the things that are cheap to check and expensive to be wrong about — panel schedules, the waste line, the roof.
Who can tell you
The property manager has them or does not. Your contractor verifies the ones that matter, which is a few hours of somebody’s time.
What it costs if it is wrong
Nothing to ask. Two of the six ledgers on our home page contain a change order caused by as-builts that did not match the building — a waste line and a set of roof joists — and both were findable in advance.
12
Hazardous materials — the survey happens before demolition, not during
Medium cost impact
What to look for
The building’s age first. In anything pre-1980, assume until proven otherwise: 9" floor tile and the mastic under it, pipe insulation, ceiling tile, and lead in paint on steel. A survey by a licensed inspector is required before demolition for most commercial renovation under federal NESHAP rules.
Who can tell you
A licensed asbestos inspector. The landlord may already have a survey; ask, because it saves the cost and the days.
What it costs if it is wrong
The survey itself is a modest fixed cost. Abatement is not, and it stops work in that area while it happens. On one of our ledgers, 180 square feet of tile mastic was $2,500 and three days. A whole floor is a different number.
The lease itself
The two clauses that decide whether a delay costs you or the landlord. They are negotiable before signature and immovable afterwards.
13
The work letter — delivery condition, TI allowance, who holds the permit, and when the allowance is paid
High cost impact
What to look for
Four things in writing. What condition the space is delivered in, and whether "as-is" means with working HVAC. How large the tenant improvement allowance is and what it can be spent on. Who holds the building permit — you or the landlord. And crucially, when the allowance is actually disbursed: on completion, in draws, or after you have paid everything yourself.
Who can tell you
Your attorney and your contractor, together, before the lease is signed. A contractor reading a work letter will find things an attorney will not, and the reverse is also true.
What it costs if it is wrong
An allowance paid only on completion means you finance the entire fit-out for four to six months. That is a real cost with a real interest rate and it belongs in the negotiation, not in a surprise.
14
Rent commencement versus substantial completion
High cost impact
What to look for
The clause that says when rent starts. A fixed calendar date puts every permit delay on you. Commencement tied to substantial completion, or to the certificate of occupancy, puts a permitting delay where it belongs. Look for an outside date and for what happens if the landlord’s own work runs late.
Who can tell you
Your attorney, and ask your contractor for a realistic permit-plus-construction duration to negotiate against. Ours are on the ledgers on the home page.
What it costs if it is wrong
This is the whole arithmetic. Rent on a dark room, per month, for as long as the delay lasts. On a 3,000 sf space at $30/sf that is $7,500 a month, and a two-month permit delay you did not price is $15,000 you will not get back.
The order to walk them in
If you only have an hour and one contractor with you, do the six high-impact ones first
and in this order: electrical service, gas capacity, the waste line, the roof structure,
the occupancy classification, and then sit down with the work letter and the rent
commencement clause. Everything else can be settled after the lease is signed. Those six
cannot.
Every one of these is cheaper to answer before signature than after.
Not marginally — a service upgrade discovered in week three of construction costs the
same money plus the rent on however many weeks it adds, and the rent is frequently the
larger half.
This checklist works with any contractor.
Take it to whoever you hire. Ask them to walk the shell with you before you sign and to write down what they find. If a contractor will not do that hour, or does it and gives you nothing in writing, you have learned something useful for the price of a coffee. We would rather you signed a good lease with somebody else’s help than a bad one with ours.
Questions about a specific shell? Call
(804) 555-0142
or email hello@wingfieldbuild.example.
Cost bands and durations are typical for light commercial tenant improvement in the Richmond
area and are not a quotation. Codes, utility turnarounds and locality requirements change;
where it matters, we confirm with the authority having jurisdiction rather than assume.