Mrs Atha’s

Project:                        Mrs Atha’s
Location:                     Leeds
Duration:                     4 Weeks
Form of Contract:       Main Contractor

The owners wanted to have an experienced shopfitting company carrying out this refurbishment for them. They also wanted to have a direct input into the design in order to create a truly unique coffee shop in the heart of Leeds city centre. They first contacted ourselves while they were going through the lease of the building before signing. Between ourselves and our client we also managed to negotiate for the landlord to foot the bill to damp proof the basement as this was an existing problem.

They required our advise on the cost implications of turning what was a dilapidated old clothes shop which had shut down some time ago leaving the existing building mostly empty, untouched and in a bit of a state with damp etc. Also they required our advise on what we thought the landlord should be paying for within the dilapidations and what they should be paying for. We assisted them in the negotiations with the landlord’s agent in which the landlords considerably raised their offer of contribution towards the fit out of this new coffee shop.

Whilst stripping back the unit to a bare shell so the unit was then a blank canvass for our clients we uncovered and exposed steel columns and brick work much to their delight. The steel columns dated back quite some time (60 years or so). The columns were cleaned and sealed along with the brick work – once the brick work had been lightly sand blasted.

On removal of the existing carpet to the ground floor existing softwood tongued & grooved floor boarding was exposed again to the delight of our clients. This floor was then sanded and sealed we replaced any existing damaged planks with planks taken from under where the banquette seating was going to be installed in order to get a colour match.

This project encompassed the following; Full strip out back to the bare shell, plumbing in new toilets, sinks, water heaters, wastes & water supplies from the coffee machine & ‘Uber’ boiler etc, full electrical first & second fix from scratch including new mains board, liaising with Leeds planning office & building control, new solid timber flooring to the basement, tiling, staircase alterations, counter & backfitting, banquette seating, new joinery to include doors, frames, skirtings, architraves etc, mirrors, kitchen equipment, plaster boarding and re plastering walls & ceilings, works to the shopfront & signage installation of specialist ceiling panels, installation of finishing touches such as black boards and pictures etc.

Even though our clients kept making changes throughout this fit out our project delivery team stayed on focus and managed to accommodate the changes without running over the initial agreed time scale.