How to Plan a Commercial Kitchen Fit-Out
A commercial kitchen fit-out is a sequence, and the order is not negotiable: brief the menu and covers, survey the space and services, zone the workflow as a one-directional flow from goods-in to wash, plan the services (gas, electricity, water, drainage, extraction) around that zoning, build the equipment schedule to fit the zones and the power available, then install and commission in the right order. Skip a step or run it out of sequence and you get the classic failures — a fryer with no gas run to it, a walk-in blocking the fire exit, a handwash basin the environmental health officer condemns, or an extraction canopy undersized for the cook line. This guide runs the whole sequence with the numbers a UK fit-out needs.
- Sequence beats budget: the order is brief → survey → zoning → services → equipment schedule → install → commission. Getting the order right saves more money than any single equipment saving.
- One-directional workflow: goods-in → dry/cold store → prep → cook → pass/plate → wash, with no crossing of clean and dirty flows. This is the spine of every compliant layout.
- The handwash-basin rule: under retained Regulation (EC) 852/2004, dedicated handwash basins with hot and cold water, soap and hygienic drying must be provided in food-handling areas, separate from food-prep and wash-up sinks. This is a common inspection failure.
- Services are the expensive surprise: gas runs, three-phase power, drainage falls and extraction ductwork are the lines that blow fit-out budgets when discovered late. Survey them before the equipment schedule, not after.
- Extraction is a legal and design line: a canopy sized to the cook line, ductwork to a competent design, and a cleaning regime under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Undersized extraction fails at inspection and cooks the room.
- Stainless steel is the structure: shelving, tabling, sinks and benching in 304 or 430 grade set the layout before a single piece of cooking kit lands. Fabrication is planned in the zoning stage.
- Power dictates the equipment schedule: a 13A socket, a 32A supply, or three-phase — the electrical survey decides whether the induction range and the walk-in can both run, before you order them.
- Commission before you open: gas safety certification under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, electrical sign-off, refrigeration pull-down, and extraction airflow testing — all before the first service, all documented for inspection.
Fit-outs go wrong in a predictable order, and it is almost always the order itself. The operator falls in love with a piece of cooking equipment, buys it, and then discovers there is no gas run to where it needs to sit, or the electrical supply cannot carry it alongside the refrigeration, or it will not fit through the door. The professional approach reverses this: understand the space and its services first, zone the workflow second, and only then schedule the equipment that the zones and services will actually support. Everything downstream — install order, commissioning, sign-off — follows from getting those first steps right.
This guide is for operators planning a new commercial kitchen or a substantial refit — restaurant, pub kitchen, hotel, care home, contract catering, or dark kitchen — and for anyone project-managing a fit-out who needs the sequence and the UK compliance touchpoints in one place. Browse the commercial kitchen shelving category and the refrigerated prep counters range when ready.
Table of Contents
- Step 1: Brief and Survey
- Step 2: Zoning the Workflow
- Step 3: Services — Gas, Electric, Water, Drainage, Extraction
- Step 4: The Equipment Schedule
- Step 5: Install and Fabrication
- Step 6: Commissioning and Sign-Off
- Fit-Out Equipment We Stock
- UK Compliance Checklist
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Related Buying Guides
Goods-in, store, prep, cook, pass, wash — the one-directional workflow spine
Gas, power, water, drainage and extraction surveyed before the equipment schedule
Handwash basins separate from prep and wash sinks — a common inspection failure
Every expensive fit-out mistake traces back to running the sequence out of order. Buy the cooking kit before the electrical survey and you may find the supply cannot carry it. Zone the layout after the equipment arrives and you fight the room forever. Fit the extraction last and you discover the canopy was undersized for the cook line — a rip-out and redo. The discipline is simple and unglamorous: brief, survey, zone, service, schedule, install, commission, in that order, every time. The plan on paper is cheap to change; the stainless steel bolted to the floor is not.
From brief to commissioning, in a fixed order that cannot be skipped
Step 1: Brief and Survey
Nothing gets specified until two documents exist: a brief that defines what the kitchen must produce, and a survey that defines what the space and its services can support. Get these right and the rest of the fit-out follows logically.
The menu drives the cook line; the covers drive the capacity. A 200-cover carvery kitchen and a 40-cover à la carte kitchen of the same floor area are entirely different fit-outs. Write the peak-service menu and the busiest-hour cover count before anything else — every downstream decision references these two numbers.
Measure the room, the door widths, the ceiling height, the floor loadings, and the access route for delivering equipment. A walk-in or a six-burner range that cannot get through the door is a fit-out cliché for a reason. Note structural walls that cannot move and drains that cannot be relocated.
Establish the incoming gas supply and meter capacity, the electrical supply (single or three-phase, available amperage), the water supply and pressure, the existing drainage runs and falls, and any existing extraction. This survey decides what the kitchen can run before you schedule a single appliance.
Split the budget across fabrication, refrigeration, cooking, services and contingency, and decide what is phase one versus phase two. Services and fabrication are hard to phase — they are the structure. Standalone equipment can be added later. Contingency of 10–15% survives the surprises a survey always uncovers.
The services survey exists to find the expensive surprises while they are still cheap to plan around. An undersized gas meter, a single-phase supply where the kit needs three-phase, a drainage run with no fall, an extraction route that fights the building structure — each of these can add thousands to a fit-out, and each is far cheaper to design around than to discover mid-install. A kitchen designed to the services it actually has costs a fraction of one designed to services it wishes it had and then has to upgrade.
Step 2: Zoning the Workflow
A commercial kitchen is a production line, and the layout is the flow. The goal is a one-directional path from raw goods in to clean plates out, with clean and dirty processes never crossing. Zone the room before you place a single appliance.
| Zone | Function | Key equipment | Adjacency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Goods-in | Delivery, checking, decant | Bench, scales, bins, handwash basin | Near the door, away from the pass |
| 2. Store | Dry, chilled and frozen storage | Upright fridges, freezers, shelving, dry store | Between goods-in and prep |
| 3. Prep | Cold and raw preparation | Prep counters, GN drawer fridges, sinks, boards | Between store and cook, raw kept separate |
| 4. Cook | The hot line — the extraction footprint | Ranges, ovens, fryers, induction, salamanders | Under the canopy, centre of the flow |
| 5. Pass / plate | Plating and service hand-off | Hot hold, heated gantry, plating bench | Between cook and the service door |
| 6. Wash | Warewashing and pot wash | Dishwasher, pot sink, drainer, racking | Away from prep, dirties never cross clean |
The handwash basin belongs in the zoning stage, not the plumbing afterthought. Retained Regulation (EC) 852/2004 requires dedicated handwash basins in food-handling areas — hot and cold water, soap, hygienic drying — and they must be separate from the sinks used for food prep and washing up. A prep zone, a cook zone and a wash zone each need one within reach. Designing them in at the zoning stage is free; retro-fitting them after the plumbing is set is expensive and is one of the most common environmental health inspection failures in the trade.
Step 3: Services — Gas, Electric, Water, Drainage, Extraction
Services are planned around the zoning, and they are where fit-out budgets are won or lost. Each service has to reach the zone that needs it, sized for the equipment that will sit there.
Gas
Cook zone
- Meter and supply sized to the cook line
- Runs to each gas appliance position
- Installed and tested by a Gas Safe engineer
- Interlocked with extraction where required
Electricity
Every zone
- Single vs three-phase decided at survey
- Induction, refrigeration and warewashing loads
- Dedicated circuits for high-draw kit
- Sign-off and test certificate required
Water & drainage
Prep & wash zones
- Hot and cold to sinks and basins
- Drainage falls to every sink and dishwasher
- Grease trap on the pot-wash run
- Floor gullies in wet zones
Extraction
Cook zone
- Canopy sized to the whole cook line
- Ductwork with access panels for cleaning
- Make-up air balanced to extract volume
- Fire Safety Order cleaning duty applies
Extraction deserves its own paragraph because it is where under-specification bites hardest. The canopy must cover the full footprint of the cook line with the correct overhang, the extract fan sized to the canopy, and make-up air balanced so the kitchen does not go into negative pressure and pull fumes back through the building. Ductwork needs access panels so it can be cleaned to standard — grease build-up in ductwork is a genuine fire risk, and the cleaning regime falls under the duty holder’s responsibilities in the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Get the extraction design signed off by a competent designer at this stage; discovering it is undersized after the cook line is installed is one of the most expensive rip-outs in a fit-out.
The temptation is to pick the equipment then ask the services to catch up. Reverse it. Once the services survey tells you the gas capacity, the available electrical load and the drainage layout, the equipment schedule is written to fit within them. If the survey says single-phase with limited headroom, that points toward induction and efficient refrigeration over a gas-heavy line. Designing the schedule to the services you have — or budgeting a deliberate services upgrade up front — is the difference between a fit-out that commissions cleanly and one that stalls waiting for an electrical upgrade nobody costed.
Step 4: The Equipment Schedule
With the zones drawn and the services sized, the equipment schedule writes itself around them — each appliance placed in its zone, within the power, gas and drainage that zone provides. This is where the fabrication and the appliances come together into a buildable list.
Wall shelving, tabling, benching, sinks and racking define the working surfaces and set the layout the appliances slot into. Plan these in the zoning stage and order them early — the room is built around the fabrication, not squeezed in afterwards.
Upright storage fridges and freezers in the store zone, GN prep counters and drawer fridges in the prep zone. Size to the covers and the delivery cycle, and check the electrical load — refrigeration runs 24/7 and competes with the cook line for the supply.
Ranges, ovens, fryers, salamanders and induction all sit within the extraction footprint. Where the electrical supply is tight, induction ranges shift load off gas and reduce the extraction burden — a common answer in space- and service-constrained sites.
Dishwasher or pass-through machine, pot-wash sink, drainers and racking, sited away from prep so dirties never cross clean. Include the grease trap, the drainage fall, and water treatment where the supply is hard.
Dedicated basins in prep, cook and wash zones — hot and cold, soap, hygienic drying, separate from the food and wash sinks. Non-negotiable under retained Regulation (EC) 852/2004 and a routine inspection checkpoint.
The split above is a planning frame, not a quote — every kitchen’s ratio shifts with the menu and the state of the building’s existing services. A site with a good gas meter, three-phase power and usable drainage spends far less on services and more on kit; a stripped shell spends heavily on services before a single appliance lands. The point of the schedule is to make those trade-offs visible on paper, where they are cheap to change, before anything is ordered.
UK Cost Bands — July 2026
£76–£144
Wire towers, chrome shelves and stainless wall shelves
£596+
Double sink with double drainer, 2400mm — the wash zone spine
£1,100–£1,830
Upright storage fridge and GN prep counter, per unit
£2,150+
Induction range — sourced and sized to the cook zone
Step 5: Install and Fabrication
Installation runs in its own order, dictated by what has to go in before what. Get the sequence wrong on site and you are lifting finished equipment out to run a service behind it.
Gas pipework, electrical circuits, water supply, drainage runs and extraction ductwork installed to the design before any equipment lands. First fix is buried in walls and floors, so it happens while the room is still open.
Hygienic, cleanable, non-slip surfaces — sealed floors with coving to the walls, wipe-clean wall cladding behind the cook and wash zones. These go in after first fix and before the fabrication is fixed to them.
Stainless shelving, tabling, benching and sinks installed to the zoning plan. The wall shelves and racking set the working heights and the storage the appliances will sit beside. This is the skeleton the equipment hangs off.
Refrigeration, cooking and warewashing craned or wheeled in and connected to the roughed-in services. Access route and door widths from the survey pay off here — everything should fit and reach its service point without improvisation.
Final electrical connections, gas connections, the extraction canopy hung and ducted, make-up air balanced. The kitchen is now physically complete and ready to commission — but not yet ready to cook.
A frequent site error is landing the appliances before the shelving and tabling are fixed, then trying to work the fabrication in around them. It never fits cleanly, and the working heights end up compromised. Fix the stainless steel structure to the zoning plan first — wall shelves, benching, sinks and racking — then position the equipment against it. The fabrication defines the surfaces and storage; the appliances are the tools that sit on and beside them. Structure before tools, on paper and on site.
Step 6: Commissioning and Sign-Off
A physically complete kitchen is not an open kitchen. Commissioning proves every service and appliance works safely and legally, and it produces the documents an inspection will ask for.
Gas appliances must be commissioned and certified by a Gas Safe registered engineer under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 — no certificate, no gas cooking. The electrical installation needs its test certificate and sign-off. Refrigeration needs 24–48 hours of pull-down to reach and hold 8°C fridge and −18°C freezer before it is loaded. Extraction airflow should be tested and balanced. Every one of these produces paperwork that belongs in the compliance file — the environmental health officer and the insurer will both ask for it. Skipping commissioning to hit an opening date is how a kitchen opens on a fault it then serves through.
Refrigeration pull-down before loading — never stock a warm cabinet
Commissioning is also where the operational documents are created: the HACCP plan referencing the actual layout and equipment, the cleaning schedule including the extraction ductwork, the temperature-logging routine for the refrigeration, and the staff training on the workflow and the clean/dirty separation. A kitchen that commissions properly opens with its compliance file already built, rather than scrambling to assemble it after the first inspection notice.
Fit-Out Equipment We Stock
The lines below are stocked or sourced at Craven Cooling, July 2026 — the fabrication skeleton, the refrigeration, and a cook-line option that shifts load off gas. Prices ex VAT, 2-year parts warranty on equipment.
+ VAT — Craven Cooling price
Store-zone workhorse
- 4-tier freestanding wire tower
- 610x610mm footprint — corners and dry store
- Open wire shelves for airflow and hygiene
- Adjustable shelf heights
The vertical storage answer for the store zone. Open wire lets air move and keeps the shelves cleanable — the standard dry-store and walk-in shelving format in commercial kitchens.
+ VAT — Craven Cooling price
- 1220x610mm chrome wire shelves
- 2 per pack — extend or replace a run
- High load capacity for stock and equipment
- Airflow-friendly open construction
Additional shelves to build out a storage run to the exact height and depth the store zone needs. Buying in a 2-pack keeps the reorder simple as the storage plan grows.
+ VAT — Craven Cooling price
- 1200mm stainless steel wall shelf
- Frees bench space above prep and pass
- Wipe-clean, hygienic solid surface
- Sets working storage at head height
Wall shelving is the fabrication that lifts storage off the bench and sets the working heights in the prep and pass zones. Stainless keeps it cleanable in the hot, splash-heavy areas.
+ VAT — Craven Cooling price
- 1800mm stainless steel wall shelf
- Long-run storage over a full prep bench
- Solid wipe-clean surface
- Wall-mounted to free floor and bench
The long wall shelf for a full prep or pass run — one span of overhead storage instead of two joins. Matches the 1200mm shelf so a zone can mix lengths to the wall it has.
+ VAT — Craven Cooling price
Wash-zone spine
- Double bowl, double drainer, 2400mm
- Wash and rinse bowls plus landing space
- Stainless steel — durable, hygienic
- Sits at the heart of the wash zone
The pot-wash and warewashing sink is the backbone of the wash zone. Double bowl and double drainer gives wash, rinse and both landing areas in one run — sized so the wash zone works without a bottleneck.
+ VAT — Craven Cooling price
- 650 litre single-door upright fridge
- Holds 8°C for the store zone
- GN-compatible interior
- 2-year parts warranty
The store-zone chilled workhorse. A 650-litre upright holds a day’s chilled stock at 8°C for a mid-size kitchen — factor its 24/7 electrical load into the supply survey before ordering.
+ VAT — Craven Cooling price
Prep-zone chilled bench
- Four-drawer GN counter fridge
- Chilled prep surface plus drawer storage
- GN-compatible drawers for mise en place
- Sits in the prep zone under the bench
The prep-zone counter fridge doubles chilled storage as a working surface. Four GN drawers keep mise en place cold and to hand — the piece that makes the prep zone a chilled, compliant workstation.
+ VAT — Craven Cooling price
- Cordless PowerCell induction range, 220V
- Shifts cook-line load off gas
- Lower extraction burden than open flame
- Buffet, front-cook and tight-service settings
Where the electrical supply is available but gas or extraction is constrained, induction moves cooking load onto the electric side and cuts the extraction burden. A strong option for service-limited sites and front-of-house cooking.
Send us your menu, your covers and your services survey and we will build the equipment schedule around your zoning — fabrication, refrigeration, cook line and warewashing, sized to the gas, power and drainage you have. Craven Cooling stocks the shelving, sinks and refrigeration and sources the cook line and fabrication to spec. Call 01792 732702 or email [email protected]. See the ranges side by side at the Swansea showroom, and ask about servicing and planned maintenance from day one.
UK Compliance Checklist
The regulatory touchpoints of a fit-out, in the order an inspection checks them.
Dedicated basins with hot and cold water, soap and hygienic drying in prep, cook and wash zones, separate from food and wash-up sinks, under retained Regulation (EC) 852/2004. A routine and common inspection failure — design them in at zoning.
All gas appliances commissioned and certified by a Gas Safe registered engineer under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, with the certificate on file. No certificate means no legal gas cooking.
Canopy and ductwork designed to a competent standard with access panels, and a documented cleaning regime under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Grease build-up is a fire risk the duty holder is responsible for controlling.
Adequate lighting, ventilation, temperature control and staff welfare facilities under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, plus safe circulation space so the workflow does not create trip and collision risks.
Fridges holding 8°C, freezers −18°C, with a temperature-logging routine, and a HACCP plan built around the actual layout and equipment. Commission the refrigeration and prove the temperatures before loading and opening.
Pre-Opening Fit-Out Checklist
Work through this before the kitchen serves its first cover.
-
Brief and survey documents complete and signed off
Menu, covers, space dimensions, access route and services capacity all recorded before any equipment was ordered. -
Zoning plan drawn as a one-directional flow
Goods-in to wash, clean and dirty flows never crossing, handwash basins placed in every food-handling zone. -
Services sized to the equipment schedule
Gas capacity, electrical load, drainage falls and extraction volume all confirmed against the appliances they must serve. -
Fabrication fixed before appliances positioned
Shelving, tabling and sinks installed to the zoning plan, then the equipment landed against the structure. -
Gas commissioned and certified, electrical signed off
Gas Safe certificate and electrical test certificate on file before any appliance is used in anger. -
Refrigeration pulled down 24–48 hours, holding temperature
Fridges at 8°C, freezers at −18°C and stable before a single item is loaded. Never stock a warm cabinet. -
Extraction tested and balanced, make-up air correct
Airflow proven, no negative pressure pulling fumes back through the building, ductwork access panels in place. -
Compliance file assembled: HACCP, cleaning schedule, certificates
Everything an inspection or insurer will ask for, built during commissioning rather than scrambled afterwards.
A commercial kitchen fit-out is a fixed sequence: brief (menu and covers) → survey (space, access and services) → zoning (goods-in to wash as a one-directional flow) → services (gas, electric, water, drainage, extraction sized to the zones) → equipment schedule (built to the services you have) → install (services, finishes, fabrication, then equipment) → commission (certify and prove everything before opening). Getting the order right saves more than any single equipment discount. The handwash-basin rule under retained Regulation (EC) 852/2004 — dedicated basins in every food-handling zone, separate from food and wash sinks — is a routine inspection failure, so design them in at zoning. Services are the budget-killers when found late, so survey them first; extraction sized to the cook line, ducted with access panels, and cleaned under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. Fabrication is the skeleton — shelving, tabling and sinks fixed before the appliances land. Commission with Gas Safe certification under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, electrical sign-off, 24–48 hours refrigeration pull-down to 8°C fridge and −18°C freezer, and balanced extraction. Craven Cooling stocks the fabrication, sinks and refrigeration (Vogue shelving £76–£144 + VAT, Vogue 2400mm double sink £596.21 + VAT, Polar upright fridge £1,099.88 + VAT, Polar GN prep counter £1,199.87 + VAT) and sources the cook line and fabrication to spec, including induction ranges (Steelite PowerCell £2,150.60 + VAT) where services are constrained. Call 01792 732702 or visit the Swansea showroom. 2-year parts warranty.
Frequently Asked Questions
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