When opening a restaurant, school or hospice your project manager may ask you if you have a programme for the works, so firstly… what is programming?
Really, it’s the time schedule from the start of the project to your completion of your project. Including the durations that you need to allow for design, tendering, actual time on site and post-completion opening.
Although experienced restaurant developers and operators might understand the construction best practises, if you’re new to opening a restaurant, you may never have created or participated in creating a construction schedule or programme before.
An average assumption for a project is to expect the project to take up to 8 to 12 months in total duration. This will start with the compilation of the brief and finding the right site for your restaurant, through to setting up your first service. This period might simplistically be broken down as follows:
- Design Concept and Feasibility Review (1 Month): This is where the brief is compiled and the site is evaluated to see if your vision is actually possible within the space.
- Design Development and Detailing (2 Months): Turning the concept into technical drawings that the contractors can build from.
- Procurement and Tendering (1.5 to 2 Months): Finding suitable contractors for the construction work and getting competitive quotes for the project work.
- Contractor Lead Time (1 Month): The time after hiring a contractor but before they arrive on-site, allowing them to organise their team and source materials.
- Construction and Fit-out Period (3+ Months): The physical build. This timescale can vary significantly; a fast-casual food spot might take 3 months whilst a more fine-dining establishment could take 4 months or more.
- Handover and Pre-opening (1 Week+): The final snagging and checks, staff training in the new space and “soft openings” or “family and friends night” to test the kitchen and service.
Of course, there can be some shortcuts if you already have some brand design manuals, although each site you should also consider the requirements for local authority and statutory planning and this could run concurrently with your design and procurement process.
In the UK, you should make an allowance of up to 3 months or more to receive formal approval for your planning matters.
Your process will vary accordingly to the many factors, but nearly all restaurant construction schedules will depend on some basic factors, which include: the restaurant size, whether it’s a chain or an independent establishment, how much equipment will be installed in the back of house, how prepared and organised you are in terms of delivery dates for fixtures, furnishings and equipment and the types of finishes that you’re using in your building.
The most common reason for construction schedules and budget increases is due to the contractor waiting for delivery of construction materials. The timely ordering and scheduling of deliveries is a crucial matter in achieving intended completion dates. I would always recommend that the initial concept design has been considered prior to you agreeing a lease. On any property that you’re seeking to actually take the lease on, you should allow for access for the fit-out within rent-free period time if you can negotiate this. Ideally, you don’t want to be paying rent for premises that you can’t have open.
Certain contractors might be able to work multiple shifts each day for a faster project turnaround, although be cautious before proceeding with anyone offering too much of a too-fast programme. It’s the quality of the works that you need to live with for many years after your project has finished and when your project has opened, you want to be remembered for the quality of your experience, not the quickness with which it was opened.
There could be a number of circumstances that affect the construction programme. These might include: site specification, architectural drawings, permitting processes, the weather conditions, the project size or degree of difficulty, the complexity of the architect or designer’s plans, availability and delivery time for finishes, furnishings, the kitchen equipment, flooring, heating and ventilating installation. Communications between your project team will also impact on their programme and knowledge and experience of contractors and subcontractors will help dictate this.
It’s more difficult to give a generality for a school, an office or retail shop because each will have its own intricacies. However, with a restaurant they are more internally contained.
The design period and any planning permission that we need can add delays to your timescale for example we have been working on a residential project for 2 years now and we have not got planning permission just yet.
Also the tendering process for the residential or retail or school work can vary as well as it depends on the priorities of the client for what contractor we are look to go for. And with that, we might pack more design in at the very front end of things before we start tendering.
Commercially there may be more of a tighter timescale and the client can’t afford to have 3-4 months of designing then a couple of months of tendering, so the tender and the design process may need to run concurrently to reduce the timescale of the work so the design process goes until the end of the build. There is more risk with this process which we have to manage. What it means is you’re less tied down in terms of cost to a final sum.
Going back to programming, our team use a software to create the programme and this gives you the most simple demonstration of how a project goes from nothing to being operable.
Critical path’s and programmes
The critical path is the duration which drives how long your project’s going to be.
So certain matters might take around 6 months to do, but they might not be critical, they can be done at any time during the build whereas when building a building the foundations of that building need to be completed first and if this process is delayed then this has a knock on effect to the other items in the timeline. So pouring foundations would be a critical path item as this effects all other items in a build. After this then you can start constructing the external walls, then roof etc.
This critical path items help define the programme and on the software we use, these items get highlighted in red to distinctly outline these activities.
The term ‘float; refers to a period of time that your activity can slip before it does become a critical path. When we have had any delays on a project we always go back and reassess: what was the critical path, when was that instruction raised, because that then drives what the programme has been. If an activity falls behind schedule then this will then become part of the critical path. In essence it can only float for so long before becoming critical.
An example of a delay is we have been working on a restaurant, where we’ve had some delays in terms of third party’s insurers signing off works after inspecting the initial works when they were stripped out. That delay period means that everything now has been delayed as a knock on effect and what we’ve got to do is try to compress that completion in time to minimise that delay, knowing that certain activities have to go through still.
Setting realistic expectations
We have to set appropriate expectations at the start of a job and we’re constantly managing the expectations as we go through the whole process.
Our clients might not understand why we’re asking for a piece of information when it’s nowhere near when you think we need to be providing it however there’d be a reason that there’d be a lead time. Certain materials, joinery items, big pieces of furniture all have time to be manufactured and delivered, this time could be 6-8 weeks. If this is the case then these items will need to be decided and in order potentially at the start of the project so it arrives and is made in time.
All this information comes with experience and past learnings and it’s that understanding of that process which we’ve repeated many, many times over the years.
Successful restaurant, school or hospitality projects rely on realistic programming and careful coordination from the outset. A well-structured construction schedule helps manage design, procurement, approvals and build activities while reducing costly delays. Early decision-making, strong communication and experienced project management are all key to keeping projects on time, on budget and ready for a successful opening.
- A construction programme is a project timeline that maps out every stage from initial concept and design through to fit-out, handover and opening.
- Most restaurant projects take between 8–12 months, with key phases including design, tendering, contractor lead times, construction and pre-opening preparations.
- Delays are often caused by planning approvals, material lead times and late decisions on fixtures, furnishings or equipment, making early planning essential.
- Understanding the “critical path” helps project teams identify tasks that directly impact completion dates and manage delays more effectively.
If you need any help with your build please get in contact via our email or social media profiles.
