An existing wall may not be perfectly flat, may have services buried in unexpected places, or may sit at a slightly different angle than the original drawings suggest. A site survey before design work starts is far more important in a renovation than a new build, where the wall is being built to spec and none of these surprises exist yet.

In a new build, wall preparation, electrical routing and even lighting can be planned specifically around where the bespoke wall will sit, since nothing is fixed yet. This tends to produce a cleaner result with fewer compromises than retrofitting the same design into an existing space that was built for something else.

A renovation frequently happens while the rest of the building stays in use, which limits installation timing and access in ways a new build simply doesn’t face. This affects scheduling more than it affects the design itself, though it’s worth planning around from the earliest possible stage.

A new build’s bespoke wall is usually approved as part of the overall fit-out budget from the start, while a renovation project sometimes needs a separate business case for adding it to an already-completed space. This is worth planning for, since it can affect timing more than the design itself.

Whether it’s a renovation or a new build, treating the bespoke whiteboard wall as part of the brief from the start, rather than an addition once construction is underway, produces a better result either way. The difference is mainly in what needs surveying first and how much of the wall’s condition is already known.

See how a Chameleon bespoke whiteboard wall can be specified for either a renovation or a new build project.