Commercial Construction in The Gambia
Commercial buildings are judged on what they let a business do: how goods move through them, how customers reach them, how much they cost to run, and whether they are ready on the date the business committed to.
What should a business consider before commissioning a new building?
Four things, in this order: whether the site has the access, power and water the operation actually needs; whether the layout suits how goods and people will move through the building day to day; what it will cost to run once occupied, which is largely fixed by design decisions; and whether the programme has enough slack that a business commitment made against the handover date is safe.
The constraints that shape these builds
- A handover date the business has already committed to.
- We programme backwards from your date, identify the critical path early, and tell you before signing if it is not achievable rather than after.
- Sites that delivery vehicles cannot actually reach.
- Turning circles, surface loading and approach width are assessed before design, not discovered by a stuck truck after handover.
- Yards and parking that break up within a season.
- Compacted laterite base to adequate depth, correct falls and real drainage. Our own quarry supplies the base material.
- Running costs locked in by design decisions.
- Roof insulation, shading, natural light and ventilation are decided once and paid for every month afterwards. We raise them at design stage.
- Buildings that cannot adapt as the business changes.
- Where the brief allows, we plan structure and services so partitions can move and space can be re-let without structural work.
What we build in this sector
- Office buildings and business premises
- Warehouses, stores and distribution buildings
- Showrooms, shops and retail units
- Mixed-use buildings with commercial ground floors
- Workshops and light industrial units
- Yards, hardstanding, parking and access roads
- Boundary walls, security fencing and gatehouses
- Fit-out of shell buildings
What to decide before you build
These are the decisions that are cheap now and expensive or impossible later.
- Access drives the design
- How the largest vehicle that will visit gets in, turns and leaves determines the site layout. It is the first thing to establish and the most expensive to fix later.
- Floors are engineering
- A warehouse or workshop floor carries point loads from racking and vehicles. Slab thickness, reinforcement and sub-base are designed to the actual use rather than to a standard detail.
- Power and water for the operation
- Three-phase requirements, generator provision, water storage and drainage capacity are established from the operation, not estimated from the floor area.
- Plan for the fit-out
- Leaving service routes, ceiling voids and floor boxes in the right places during construction is nearly free. Cutting them into a finished building is not.
- Security designed in
- Boundary treatment, gatehouse position, lighting and sightlines work better as part of the layout than as additions to a finished site.
Work in this sector
Commercial: common questions
Can you build to a fixed completion date?
We programme against your date and commit to milestones in writing. What we will not do is agree to a date we do not believe is achievable — if the programme is unrealistic we say so before contract, because a date agreed to win work and missed afterwards helps nobody.
Do you build warehouses and storage buildings?
Yes, including the floor slab, yard and access that make them usable. Warehouse floors need designing to the point loads that racking and forklifts impose, which is a different exercise from a domestic slab.
Can you fit out a shell building we are leasing?
Yes — partitions, ceilings, services, finishes and external works. We will need to see the landlord’s conditions and the existing services capacity before pricing.
Do you build mixed-use buildings?
Yes. Commercial ground floors with residential or office space above are common, and the structural grid and service separation need planning for both uses from the start.
Planning a commercial project?
Send us the location and what you have in mind. For construction we visit the site before quoting, because that is the only way to give you a price that holds.
Monday to Saturday, 8:00 – 18:00. We use your details only to answer your enquiry.