Commercial Kitchen Buildout: What Every GC Needs to Know About Restaurant Construction

If you’ve been running commercial projects for any length of time, somebody’s eventually going to ask you to build out a kitchen. Maybe it’s a new restaurant in a strip mall. Maybe it’s a cafeteria inside an office building or a commissary kitchen for a catering company. Whatever the case, commercial kitchen work is a different animal compared to your standard tenant improvement.

The mechanical loads are enormous. The code requirements are layered. The number of inspections will make your head spin. And if you don’t plan for things like grease interceptors and makeup air before you start, you’re going to be eating change orders for lunch.

This guide breaks down what GCs actually need to know before taking on a commercial kitchen buildout, from the early planning stages through final health department sign-off.

Understanding the Scope: Why Commercial Kitchens Are So Different

A typical tenant improvement project might involve framing, drywall, paint, some electrical, and maybe a little plumbing. A commercial kitchen takes all of that and multiplies the complexity by a factor of five.

Here’s what makes these projects unique:

Massive utility demands. A single commercial kitchen can pull 200 to 400 amps of electrical service. Gas loads for cooking equipment can require 2-inch or larger gas lines. Water supply needs to handle multiple sinks, a dishwasher, ice machines, and sometimes a mop sink, all at the same time. Your standard tenant space won’t have any of this roughed in.

Specialized drainage. Every drain in a commercial kitchen needs to connect through grease management of some kind. Floor drains, three-compartment sinks, prep sinks, and dishwashers all need to route through a grease interceptor before hitting the municipal sewer. That interceptor is usually a 1,000 to 2,000 gallon concrete or fiberglass tank buried outside. If you’re working in an existing building that doesn’t have one, you’re looking at saw-cutting concrete, trenching, and a separate civil scope.

Exhaust and makeup air. Commercial cooking equipment needs Type I or Type II exhaust hoods, and every cubic foot of air you pull out of the building needs to be replaced. Makeup air units on restaurant projects are often the single most expensive piece of mechanical equipment. They need to be sized, ducted, and coordinated with the hood system before anything else gets laid out.

Health department oversight. Beyond your typical building department inspections, commercial kitchens get reviewed by the health department. They have their own set of requirements for wall finishes, floor materials, handwash sinks, food prep surfaces, and equipment placement. Their plan review happens separately, and their final inspection happens after your certificate of occupancy process.

The bottom line: if you bid a commercial kitchen the same way you bid a standard TI, you’re going to lose money. Every time.

Planning and Pre-Construction: Get the Kitchen Design First

The single biggest mistake GCs make on restaurant projects is starting work before the kitchen design is finalized. And I don’t mean the architect’s floor plan. I mean the actual kitchen equipment layout from a food service consultant or equipment dealer.

Why? Because the kitchen equipment layout drives everything:

• Electrical panel schedules depend on which pieces of equipment are electric vs. gas
• Plumbing rough-in locations are dictated by where sinks, dishwashers, and ice machines sit
• Hood placement and sizing depend on the cooking line configuration
• Floor drain locations need to align with equipment that produces wastewater
• Gas line routing follows the equipment plan

Thousands of contractors have made the switch. See what they have to say.

If you rough in plumbing and electrical based on an architect’s best guess, and then the restaurant owner changes equipment or the food service consultant adjusts the layout, you’re re-doing work. I’ve seen projects where the plumber had to come back three times because the equipment plan kept shifting.

What to do instead: Make it a contract requirement that the owner provides a finalized kitchen equipment schedule and layout before you start MEP rough-in. Include a cutoff date in your schedule. If they miss it, the schedule shifts. Protect yourself.

This is also where good estimating pays off. When you’re pricing a kitchen buildout, you need line items for every piece of infrastructure, not just the obvious stuff. Grease interceptors, makeup air units, fire suppression systems, stainless steel wall panels, FRP, floor coving, and walk-in cooler pads all need to be in your estimate. Miss any of them and your margin disappears.

MEP Coordination: The Heart of Every Kitchen Buildout

If there’s one thing that makes or breaks a commercial kitchen project, it’s MEP coordination. The mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems in a commercial kitchen are dense, overlapping, and interdependent. You cannot figure this out in the field.

The exhaust hood system is the centerpiece. A Type I hood over a cooking line might be 12 to 20 feet long, 4 feet deep, and connected to ductwork that runs up through the roof. That ductwork has to be welded stainless steel or black iron (depending on jurisdiction), wrapped in a fire-rated chase, and it cannot share space with other mechanical systems. The hood also needs a fire suppression system, which means Ansul or similar wet chemical piping routed to every appliance under the hood.

Makeup air is the piece that catches most GCs off guard. Building codes require that you replace the air exhausted by the hood system. A large cooking line might exhaust 5,000 to 8,000 CFM. That’s a lot of conditioned air leaving the building and a lot of fresh air that needs to come in. The makeup air unit sits on the roof (usually), needs gas and electrical connections, and has its own ductwork that feeds into the kitchen. Coordinate this with your HVAC contractor early, because the makeup air system and the building’s HVAC need to work together without creating pressure problems.

Electrical rough-in in a commercial kitchen is dense. You’ll have dedicated circuits for each major piece of equipment. A single combi oven can pull 60 amps on a 208V three-phase circuit. Walk-in coolers and freezers need dedicated circuits. Dishwashers, hood controls, fire suppression monitoring, and lighting all need their own runs. Plan for a sub-panel in or near the kitchen.

Plumbing is where things get really crowded under the slab. You’ve got hot and cold supply lines to multiple locations, waste lines from sinks and equipment, floor drains (typically one every 10 to 15 feet in the cooking area), and the grease waste line running out to the interceptor. Don’t forget the indirect waste connections. Many pieces of equipment, like ice machines and walk-in coolers, need to drain through an air gap into a floor sink, not directly into the waste line. Health departments are strict about this.

The coordination meeting for a kitchen buildout should happen before any rough-in starts. Get your mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire suppression subs in the same room. Walk through the ceiling space and under-slab routing. Use the equipment plan as your map. If you’re managing this with spreadsheets and phone calls, you’re going to miss something. A solid scheduling tool that lets you sequence MEP rough-in phases and track sub milestones will save you headaches on every kitchen project.

Fire Protection and Code Requirements

Commercial kitchens have fire protection requirements that go well beyond standard sprinkler coverage. If you haven’t read up on fire protection in construction, a kitchen buildout is going to teach you the hard way.

Hood fire suppression. Every Type I hood needs a wet chemical fire suppression system. The system includes nozzles aimed at each cooking appliance, a detection line that runs through the hood plenum, and a manual pull station. When it activates, it dumps wet chemical agent on the cooking surface and automatically shuts off the gas supply to the equipment. This system needs to be installed by a licensed fire protection contractor and inspected by the fire marshal before you can get a final.

Sprinkler modifications. Adding a hood and duct system in the ceiling usually means relocating or adding sprinkler heads. The duct chase creates an obstruction, and your fire sprinkler contractor will need to adjust coverage. If the hood is near a wall, you might need additional heads. The fire sprinkler drawings should be coordinated with the hood shop drawings before installation.

Ansul system and gas interlocks. The fire suppression system ties into the gas supply with an automatic shutoff. When the system activates, it closes a gas valve that kills fuel to all equipment under the hood. This interlock needs to be tested and documented. Some jurisdictions also require the hood suppression system to shut down the exhaust fan and makeup air unit on activation.

Duct access and cleanout. Grease ducts need cleanout access at every change in direction and at regular intervals. Fire codes specify minimum access panel sizes and locations. Plan for these in your ceiling layout, because you can’t just drywall over the duct and call it done.

Permits specific to kitchen work: You’ll typically need a separate fire suppression permit for the hood system, in addition to your standard building, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing permits. Health department plan review is a separate track entirely. Budget 4 to 8 weeks for all plan reviews to come back, and don’t assume they’ll run concurrently. In some cities, the health department won’t review until building permits are issued.

Finishes, Fixtures, and Health Department Requirements

The health department has opinions about everything in a commercial kitchen. And they have the authority to shut down the project at final inspection if things aren’t right. Here’s what you need to nail:

Wall finishes. All walls in the kitchen need to be smooth, nonporous, and washable. FRP (fiberglass reinforced panels) is the standard behind cooking lines and in dish areas. Some jurisdictions accept epoxy-painted drywall in dry storage and prep areas. Tile with proper grout sealing works in some applications. No matter what, the health department wants surfaces that can be sprayed down and sanitized.

Floor requirements. Commercial kitchen floors need to be slip-resistant, nonporous, and sloped to drains. Quarry tile has been the industry standard for decades, but sealed concrete and epoxy floor systems are becoming more common. Floor-to-wall transitions need to be coved, meaning a curved transition instead of a sharp 90-degree angle. This prevents food and water from collecting in corners. Cove base tile or epoxy cove systems handle this.

Handwash sinks. The health department requires dedicated handwash sinks in specific locations. These are separate from prep sinks and dishwashing areas. Each handwash sink needs hot and cold water, soap, and paper towels within reach. You’ll typically need at least two: one in the cooking/prep area and one near the dishwashing area. Some jurisdictions require one at every kitchen entrance.

Three-compartment sink. If the kitchen has a three-compartment sink for manual dishwashing (and most do, even with a mechanical dishwasher as backup), it needs to be properly sized for the largest piece of equipment the kitchen uses. Drain boards on both sides. Indirect waste connection to the grease system.

Walk-in coolers and freezers. These get set on a concrete pad (or an insulated floor panel for freezers) and need proper drainage, lighting, and thermometer placement per health code. Freezers with floor coils need dedicated circuits. Cooler/freezer condensing units can go on the roof or outside, and they need electrical and sometimes plumbing connections for condensate drains.

ADA compliance applies to commercial kitchens too, especially in the public-facing areas. Service counters, customer-accessible condiment stations, and self-serve beverage areas all need to meet accessibility standards. If the restaurant has a bar, accessible seating requirements apply. Don’t overlook this during plan review.

Budgeting, Scheduling, and Protecting Your Margin

Commercial kitchen buildouts are notoriously hard to bid accurately. The equipment changes, the owner adds items mid-project, and the health department throws curveballs at final inspection. Here’s how to protect yourself:

Bid with detailed allowances. For items that depend on the owner’s final equipment selections (like electrical circuit counts, gas line sizes, and drain locations), include allowances in your estimate with clear language about what triggers a change order. If the owner upgrades from a 4-burner range to an 8-burner range with a charbroiler, that’s more hood length, more fire suppression nozzles, more gas, and more electrical. Spell that out.

Build your schedule around long-lead items. Exhaust hoods are typically 6 to 10 weeks lead time. Makeup air units can be 8 to 12 weeks. Walk-in coolers are 4 to 6 weeks. Fire suppression systems need shop drawings approved before fabrication. If you don’t order these items early in the project, they will be on your critical path and they will delay you.

Schedule inspections strategically. A kitchen buildout has more inspection points than a standard TI. You’ve got rough plumbing, rough electrical, rough mechanical, fire suppression rough, insulation, drywall, fire suppression final, mechanical final, electrical final, plumbing final, building final, and then health department final. Stacking these wrong can cost you days or weeks. Use your scheduling software to map out inspection sequences and build in buffer days for re-inspections.

Health department final is the real finish line. Your certificate of occupancy might be in hand, but the restaurant can’t open until the health department signs off. They’ll check everything: thermometers in coolers, proper food storage, handwash sink supplies, and floor drain function. Many health departments require a “pre-opening” inspection where the kitchen is fully equipped and operational. Coordinate with your client to make sure their equipment vendor has everything installed, calibrated, and ready before scheduling this inspection.

Track everything in one place. Kitchen projects have so many moving parts that managing them across emails, texts, and spreadsheets is a recipe for missed details. Whether it’s tracking sub schedules, managing change orders from equipment changes, or documenting inspection results, having a centralized project management system keeps everyone aligned. If you’re still piecing things together manually, it might be time to look at a tool built for how contractors actually work. See how Projul handles this.

Wrapping Up

Commercial kitchen buildouts are demanding, profitable, and repeat-generating when you do them right. Restaurant owners talk to each other. A smooth buildout with a clean health department inspection earns you referrals in a market where owners are constantly opening new locations, remodeling existing ones, or expanding to ghost kitchens and commissary facilities.

The key is treating these projects with the level of planning they demand. Get the equipment layout locked down before you start. Coordinate your MEP subs before rough-in. Understand the fire protection and health department requirements from day one. Build your estimate with detailed allowances, and schedule around long-lead items.

Kitchen work isn’t something you can just figure out as you go. But once you’ve done a few and built your process around the unique demands of food service construction, these projects become some of the most rewarding work in your pipeline. The margins are good, the work is interesting, and the skills transfer to any commercial project with heavy MEP coordination.

Ready to stop guessing and start managing? Schedule a demo to see Projul in action.

Start with one, learn the process, and build from there. Your future self will thank you.