Salon fit out Dubai: what a turnkey job includes

A salon fit out in Dubai is one contract that runs from measured drawings to the last snag, with joinery, MEP, finishes and the permit held by the same party. Split that across four suppliers and the backwash drainage, the reception desk and the approval drawings stop agreeing with each other, which is where dates slip. A fair quote prices each of those as its own line.

What a turnkey salon fit out covers

Design and build under one contract means the desk you approve on paper is the desk that arrives. Almost nothing in a salon is off the shelf, so the drawing set and the workshop have to be the same conversation. Our interior design and fit out services run on that basis.

Scope normally takes in the measured survey, the layout, joinery shop drawings, first and second fix MEP, ceilings and partitions, floor and wall finishes, mirrors, lighting, joinery installation and snagging before handover. It also takes in the permit drawings and the NOC pack the landlord asks for. Demolition of the previous unit, the final clean and authority fees need to be written in or written out on purpose, never left to assumption.

We build the joinery in our own workshop in Jebel Ali. A dimension that turns out wrong on site gets fixed at the bench that week rather than waiting in another company's queue.

The joinery items that make or break a salon

A salon is judged at three pieces of furniture before anyone notices the paint.

The reception desk has to hold the till, the card terminal, a printer and client files, and often a retail shelf on the customer side, while leaving legroom for staff. Depth, cable routing and the counter top overhang are settled at drawing stage. Retrofitting them means cutting a finished piece.

Styling stations come next. Mirror heights, ledge width for tools, a drawer that actually holds towels, sockets where the dryers hang, and spacing wide enough that a client is not sitting inside the next client's reflection. Small numbers decide whether the room reads generous or cramped.

The backwash bench is a joinery item and a plumbing item at once. Tilt mechanism, bowl, tiling behind it and the trap underneath all have to agree before the unit is built.

Retail display shelving is the piece owners underspecify. Shelf depth, lighting and the sight line from the door decide whether product sells or sits.

Our salon and commercial fit-out projects show how these pieces sit together in a finished room.

Joinery, stone and appliance integration from our workshop. The same bench builds reception desks and backwash units.

Wet points, drainage and ventilation at the backwash area

If one thing moves a salon programme, it is the backwash wall.

Each bowl needs a trapped waste with a route to a gully or stack, hot water capacity for back to back washes, and extraction that carries chemical vapour and dryer heat out of the room. In a mall or podium unit the floor is usually slab, so bowl positions are set by where drainage already runs or by what the landlord will let you core. Settle that before the lease is signed.

Ventilation repeats the argument in a different place. The extract duct has to reach a facade, a riser or a roof, and the route crosses ceilings that belong to someone else. Ask for the route in writing at design stage. A duct with no route is a redesign, not a variation, and it lands on your schedule.

Get the drainage positions and the MEP sketch approved before joinery goes to the bench. That habit is what keeps a salon fit out approval in Dubai from stalling at the first inspection.

Approvals: permit, drawings and the landlord NOC

The fit-out permit sits with Dubai Municipality. The trade licence sits with DET. Civil Defence signs off fire and life safety where the unit needs it. The contractor prepares and submits the drawing set: layout, joinery, MEP and fire drawings. You sign the application and the contractor's undertaking as the tenant.

The landlord or mall NOC is a separate approval and often the slower one. It wants the method statement, insurance certificate, contractor trade licence and the working hours you intend to keep. Ask which of those the contractor produces and which you have to collect.

A complete set submitted once moves faster than a partial set submitted three times. Ask to see it before it goes in. There are more fit-out guides on this site if you want the wider picture on how stages fit together.

What a fair salon fit out quote should itemise

No single number survives contact with a real unit, so treat a one line price as a placeholder. Ask for these as separate lines.

Design and drawing package, including shop drawings and as-builts. Joinery schedule item by item, with materials, hardware and edge details named. MEP scope listing wet points, drainage, water heating, extract, and electrical points with their loads. Ceiling, partitions, flooring, wall finishes and mirrors. Lighting with colour temperature and fitting type. Signage. Permit and approval responsibility, including which authority fees are yours and which are the contractor's. Supervision, the programme with dates, and payment milestones tied to those dates. Snagging, handover and the period covered afterwards. Exclusions, written down.

Two questions worth adding. Who builds the joinery, the contractor or a third party. And what happens to the price if the landlord asks for a change after the NOC is issued.

Kanchan Ramani, one of the five reviews behind our 4.8 Google rating, wrote this:

Sanal and his team are very professional and easy to work with. Extremely good on timelines as well as wirh thie designs and experience. Kanchan Ramani, 5 stars

Timeline and phasing, and the snags that show up late

Approvals go first because they sit outside your control and outside ours. While the permit moves, joinery can be built in the workshop, and that is the one real way to compress a salon programme. On site the order is demolition, first fix MEP and drainage, ceilings and partitions, tiling and wet area work, joinery installation, second fix, then snagging.

Finishes and lighting settle a room. On site they come after the wet works and the joinery, never before.

The snags that land late are predictable. A socket sitting behind a mirror. A dryer circuit nobody sized. An extract route blocked by a beam. A floor drain in the wrong place for the bowl chosen. Retail shelving too shallow for the product line. Each is cheap at drawing stage and expensive once the tiles are up.

If your unit is in Jebel Ali or anywhere south in Dubai, the workshop is a short run. That matters more than people expect on installation day, when a counter top arrives and the service door is a few centimetres too narrow.

Send us the floor plan with dimensions, photos of the empty unit, the location and building, the landlord or mall NOC requirements, and a rough layout wish list for stations, backwash and retail. WhatsApp on 0508570938 is the fastest way to request a salon fit out quote, and it is the right place to send plans and photos.