Commercial MEP Renovation Budget Calculator
Budget a renovation from what the survey found, not from a multiplier. Price each item you will replace or refurbish, mark what stays, and add the costs a renovation carries that a new build does not — strip-out, temporary services and access — for doing the work with the area vacated, in phases with it occupied, or both.
What this tool estimates
A before-tax and with-tax budget for a commercial MEP renovation from your own line items and your demolition, temporary-services and access costs, for a full-access and a phased way of working — with the replacement value of anything you retain shown apart.
What it cannot decide
- Whether retained equipment is serviceable — only a condition survey and tests can say, and the tool never assumes it.
- Your rates or quantities: every figure is yours, and there is no renovation multiplier.
- Landlord consent, building rules on working hours, or permits for hot work and shutdowns.
- The programme, or business-disruption costs outside the MEP scope.
Result
| Line | Full access | Phased |
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| Line | Action | In the budget | At risk, not in the budget |
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| Case | Full access | Phased |
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Method version 6 October 2026. A screening estimate, not a design: see the limits below.
How this calculator works — and where it stops
What it calculates
A budget before and after tax for a commercial MEP renovation, built from the survey's line items and the costs only a renovation carries — strip-out, temporary services and access — for a full-access and a phased way of working, with the replacement value of anything retained shown apart.
Inputs
- Survey line items: description, quantity, unit, action (replace, refurbish and test, or retain) and a rate in ₹ per unit. For a lump sum, quantity 1 and the amount.
- For a retained item, an optional replacement rate — what it would cost if it cannot stay.
- For each way of working you want to compare — full access (area vacated) and phased (occupied, in stages): demolition and strip-out, temporary services, and access and working-hours costs. A way of working left completely blank is not compared; 0 is a valid figure.
- Contingency as a percentage, and what it applies to: the direct cost or the line-item works only.
- The tax basis of your figures and, unless tax is left out, the GST rate your contract carries.
- Optional: where the rates came from and their date, carried into the export.
Method
- Works = Σ quantity × rate over the lines marked replace or refurbish and test. Retained lines add nothing.
- For each way of working: direct cost = works + demolition and strip-out + temporary services + access.
- If your figures include GST, it is taken out once (÷ (1 + rate)) so that every later step is before tax.
- Contingency = your percentage × the base you chose (direct cost, or works only). Total before tax = direct cost + contingency.
- Tax = GST rate × total before tax, as its own line; total with tax = the two together.
- Phased compared with full access = the difference between the two totals, kept with its sign — phased can cost less.
- Value at risk = Σ quantity × replacement rate over the retained lines that have one. It is reported beside the budget, never inside it.
- Sensitivity: totals before tax with the line-item rates 10% lower and higher, and with every retained item that has a rate replaced as well.
Assumptions
- Every quantity and rate is yours. No renovation multiplier, no cost per square foot and no default rate is applied.
- The line items are the same in both ways of working; what changes between them is strip-out, temporary services and access. If phasing changes the works themselves, model it as two separate runs.
- Retained equipment is not assumed to be serviceable. The tool only shows what it would cost if it is not.
- No GST rate is assumed: the rate is yours to enter and to confirm.
Limitations
- It cannot judge condition: whether a retained chiller, panel or pipe run can stay is for a condition survey and tests.
- Hidden services, hazardous materials found during strip-out and landlord base-build limits are not modelled — they arrive as changes to the lines you entered.
- Landlord consent, building working-hour rules and permits for hot work or shutdowns are outside the tool.
- Programme and business-disruption costs outside the MEP scope are not included.
- Rates without a source and date are flagged, not checked.
Worked example
Produced by running this calculator with the inputs below.
Inputs
- HVAC terminal units: 1 LS, replace, ₹6,00,000
- Lighting: 1 LS, replace, ₹2,50,000
- Sprinkler branches: 1 LS, refurbish and test, ₹1,50,000
- Main LT panel: 1 no., retain, replacement value ₹4,00,000
- Full access: strip-out ₹1,00,000, temporary services ₹50,000, access ₹0
- Phased: strip-out ₹1,00,000, temporary services ₹1,20,000, access ₹80,000
- Contingency 10% of the direct cost; tax left out (illustrative lump sums, not rates)
Working
- Works = ₹6,00,000 + ₹2,50,000 + ₹1,50,000 = ₹10,00,000; the retained panel adds nothing.
- Full access: direct cost = ₹10,00,000 + ₹1,00,000 + ₹50,000 + ₹0 = ₹11,50,000; contingency 10% = ₹1,15,000; total before tax ₹12,65,000.
- Phased: direct cost = ₹10,00,000 + ₹1,00,000 + ₹1,20,000 + ₹80,000 = ₹13,00,000; contingency ₹1,30,000; total before tax ₹14,30,000.
- Phased compared with full access: ₹14,30,000 − ₹12,65,000 = ₹1,65,000 more.
- Retained LT panel: ₹4,00,000 at risk, outside both totals.
Result. ₹12,65,000 (₹12.65 lakh) before tax with full access and ₹14,30,000 phased — ₹1,65,000 more for keeping the floor occupied. A further ₹4,00,000 is at risk if the retained LT panel cannot stay.
Sensitivity — what moves the answer
- Line-item rates 10% lower: ₹11,55,000 with full access and ₹13,20,000 phased; 10% higher: ₹13,75,000 and ₹15,40,000.
- If the retained LT panel has to be replaced as well, the totals become ₹17,05,000 and ₹18,70,000 — a larger swing than the ±10% on the rates.
- Putting the contingency on the works only (₹10,00,000) gives ₹12,50,000 with full access instead of ₹12,65,000: strip-out, temporary services and access then carry none.
- The gap between the two ways of working is entirely in strip-out, temporary services and access, which is why those are entered separately for each.
How engineers use the result
To decide early whether a renovation should be done with the area vacated or in phases, and to put a number on the risk of keeping existing equipment — before a survey's line items become a BOQ.
When a professional design must replace it
Before committing to a budget or a way of working: the retained items need a condition survey and tests, the line items need measuring into a bill of quantities, and the landlord's base-build provisions and working rules need confirming.
Sources
- Method: arithmetic only — quantity × rate, sums, a percentage for contingency and tax on the total before tax — no renovation multiplier, external rate or code clause is applied by this tool
- Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), retrofit and energy-efficiency publications — background on commercial retrofit scope; no cost figure is taken from it
- Cushman & Wakefield, India office fit-out cost guide (2026) — context only: its all-in fit-out costs are not MEP renovation rates and are not used here
Questions people ask before using it
What do I need before using the renovation budget calculator?
A survey list of the MEP items in the area — what is there, how many and in what condition — with a decision for each: replace, refurbish and test, or retain. Rates for the work, with their source and date. Then your estimate of strip-out and disposal, temporary services (power, lighting, cooling, fire cover) and access costs (scaffolding or lifts, protection, out-of-hours working) for each way of working you are considering, and the landlord's or building's rules on working hours and shutdowns.
Which site conditions could change a renovation budget?
Retained equipment that fails its test; services hidden above ceilings and in shafts that the survey could not see; hazardous materials found during strip-out; landlord base-build limits such as riser space, chilled-water or power allocations and sprinkler interfaces; out-of-hours and noise restrictions in an occupied building; the number of phases; and shutdown windows for live systems. Most of these land in demolition, temporary services or access, which is why the tool keeps those as separate lines for each way of working.
What should I send an engineer for a renovation scope review?
The existing layout and whatever as-built drawings survive, the survey list with photographs, the landlord's fit-out rules and base-build provisions, the new layout, and this tool's CSV or JSON export. An engineer checks what can stay, tests it where it matters, and turns the line items into a measured bill of quantities.
Why doesn't the calculator use a per-square-foot renovation multiplier?
Because a renovation's cost follows what is being replaced and how the work has to be done, not the floor area. Two floors of the same size can differ several-fold: one needs new fan-coil units and a full strip-out in a building that stays open, the other keeps its ductwork and is handed over empty. A multiplier would hide exactly the lines — retained equipment, temporary services, access — that decide the budget.
Optional: ask an engineer to look at it
The result above is yours with no form. If you want an engineer to check it against your drawings, schedules or bills, send a request. Nothing is sent until you press the button.
Request saved
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