Twenty years.
Six iconic buildings.
One independent
practice.

§01

THE STORY

I arrived in London in July 2005 on a 24-hour coach from Poland. One contact, a rented room in Sutton, and English that was functional but not comfortable. My first job was as a steel fabricator's assistant - cutting, grinding, site deliveries in all weather. Cold and dirty most of the time. I continued because there was no better option.

Within two years I had moved into handyman work, then a supervisor role at Overbury on a £40m development in Kings Cross. I ran the night shift. First time I had been responsible for a team rather than just myself. That was the moment things shifted.

What followed was a career built on one principle: stay in the room until you have learned what it has to teach. Lincoln's Inn - Grade II listed, scaffold to the roofline, heritage constraints I had never worked with before - I read drawings at 7am and 7pm to close the gaps. I thought about quitting more than once. I did not.

The Shard. The Science Museum Wonderlab - 44 specialist contractors from around the world, including a company that generated real lightning strikes for one of the exhibits. Major government programmes - the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice. Live occupied environments where the building never stopped and neither could you.

In 2019 I submitted my MCIOB Professional Review. First attempt. One of the first in a company of 100 to pursue it. I flew my parents over from Poland for the graduation ceremony - my mother, my father, my partner, all in the room. I had arrived fourteen years earlier as a fabricator's assistant. The distance between those two moments is not something I take lightly.

The knowledge is real. The problems it solves are real. That is the only way I know how to build anything.

§02

WHY THIS EXISTS

Most of what I know about this industry I had to earn the hard way - through difficult sites, contracts I had to understand fast, and mistakes I will not make again. Putting it somewhere useful made more sense than keeping it to myself.

FitOut Insider is consultancy and practical guides built from twenty years of delivery. Real projects, real contracts, real commercial decisions - on sites where the stakes were high and the margin for error was small.

This is not a second career. It is a continuation of the first one, from a different angle.

§03

WHAT I'VE DELIVERED

Cat A and Cat B fit-out and refurbishment, £1M to £17M. Primarily design and build environments. Live and occupied buildings - offices, government departments, cultural institutions, heritage and listed buildings, high-security facilities.

Most projects involved fast-track programmes, complex logistics, phasing around daily operations, and stakeholder management across clients, building users, and authorities. Government and secure environments where the margin for error was zero.

§04

CREDENTIALS

Track Record

Qualifications & Training

§05

CONNECT

I write regularly on LinkedIn about UK fit-out delivery, programme management, and the realities of working inside complex environments. Or if you've got a programme question, book a call.