Services
Twenty licensed activities, five services, and one honest exclusion
Trade licence 1651263 lists twenty contracting activities. That is what the Department of Economy and Tourism has authorised us to do. It is not the same as a list of what a sensible client should hire us for today, so this page separates the two.
Two documents
What we may do, and what we should be doing
Two separate things decide what a contractor in Dubai can take on. The trade licence, issued by the Department of Economy and Tourism, says which activities the company may carry out. The contractor classification, held by Dubai Municipality, says what scale of building it may work on, and it is set by the engineers and resources on the payroll.
Since Dubai Law No. 7 of 2025 came into force in January 2026 there is a single contractors' register, classification is compulsory, and working outside it carries penalties up to AED 200,000, downgrade, and removal from the register. That is a risk to your project as much as to the contractor's, because the problem surfaces at inspection.
So: mains, bridges, power lines and district cooling plants are on our licence. They are listed further down this page because they are on the document and we are not going to pretend otherwise. They are not in the five services above, because a company registered in September 2026 has no business tendering for them, and any contractor who tells you differently is telling you something about himself.
01
Fit-out and finishing works
Villas, apartments, offices, clinics and retail units. Strip-out and rebuild, or finishes on a new shell. This is the group we self-perform almost entirely, which is why it is first.
Seven of the twenty activities on our licence sit here: floor and wall tiling, plaster works, painting contracting, carpentry and wood flooring works, wallpaper fixing works, engraving and ornamentation works, and exterior building cladding contracting. We hold them in order to carry them out with our own people rather than to subcontract them and mark them up.
What that changes for you: one programme instead of five, one supervisor answerable for sequencing, and no gap between the plasterer finishing and the painter arriving because the painter's firm has a job elsewhere that week.
On the licence
- Floor & Wall Tiling Works
- Plaster Works
- Painting Contracting
- Carpentry & Wood Flooring Works
- Wallpaper Fixing Works
- Engraving & Ornamentation Works
- Exterior Building Cladding Contracting
02
MEP and electromechanical works
Air conditioning, ventilation and air filtration systems, installation and maintenance. Electrical fittings and fixtures, repair and maintenance. Electromechanical works contracting.
MEP is where fit-out projects in this city go wrong, and they go wrong for a predictable reason. In a Dubai tower the air conditioning is a landlord system, the electrical load is a landlord allowance, and both come with a building management approval that the interior contractor discovers he needs three weeks after starting. We establish the building's constraints and the landlord's NOC requirements at the scope stage, before you commit to a layout that the riser cannot serve.
On villas the equivalent question is DEWA load and whether the existing distribution board takes what you are adding. It is a cheap check at scope stage and an expensive one after the ceilings are closed.
On the licence
- Electromechanical Works Contracting
- Air-Conditioning, Ventilations & Air Filtration Systems Installation & Maintenance
- Electrical Fittings & Fixtures Repairing & Maintenance
03
Building and structural works
Building contracting, steel constructions contracting, and pre-fabricated concrete houses contracting. New build, extensions, and structural alteration to existing buildings.
Two things are worth saying plainly about this group. The first is that the scale of building we may take on is set by our Dubai Municipality classification rather than by our licence, and we will tell you at the first conversation whether your project sits inside it. The second is that where we hold the main contract on a building, articles 821 to 824 of the UAE Civil Code make us and the engineer jointly liable to you for ten years from handover for structural safety, by statute and regardless of fault.
Structural alteration to an existing villa or unit is the commonest version of this work and the one most often started without approval. Removing a wall in a Dubai property is a submission, not a decision, and doing it without one surfaces at the point of sale.
[to confirm]: this group is blocked. As written it implies a Dubai Municipality classification exists. It does not ship until the client confirms one, or confirms he has none.
On the licence
- Building Contracting
- Steel Constructions Contracting
- Pre-Fabricated Concrete Houses Contracting
04
Exterior cladding and facades
Exterior building cladding contracting: installation on new build, replacement on existing buildings, and remedial work to facades that no longer meet current requirements.
Facade work in Dubai runs alongside Civil Defence rather than after it. Materials, fixings and cavity treatment are a fire and life safety matter before they are an appearance matter, and the approval route is different from the rest of the building. We will tell you at survey stage what the existing system is, what it would take to replace it, and what can be repaired instead.
On the licence
- Exterior Building Cladding Contracting
05
Authority approvals and submissions
Which authority approves your project depends on where the property sits, and this is the first thing to establish because it changes the timeline and sometimes the design. Mainland plots go to Dubai Municipality. TECOM areas, including d3, Internet City, Media City and Studio City, go to DDA. Nakheel communities such as Palm Jumeirah, Jumeirah Islands and Jumeirah Park, and the port areas including JAFZA, go to Trakhees.
Running alongside, and separately: Dubai Civil Defence for fire and life safety on any commercial premises, DEWA for a power and water NOC, and a no-objection letter from the community developer or the building owner, which is the item that most often stops a fit-out that everybody thought was approved.
We handle the submissions, and you get a written calendar at the start with each item, the authority it goes to, who is responsible for it and a realistic duration. Not a promise of a date, because approval timelines are not ours to promise. A map of what is coming, so that a four-week wait is something you planned for rather than something you discover.
Tell us the community and what you want to do. We will send you the approvals route for that address, whether or not you use us for the work.
On the licence
- Building permit: DM, DDA or Trakhees
- Dubai Civil Defence, fire and life safety
- DEWA power and water NOC
- Community or building owner no-objection letter
- Inspections and the building completion certificate
The rest of the schedule
Also on our licence, and not currently offered
These seven activities appear on trade licence 1651263. They are listed here because the licence is public and leaving them out would look like concealment when someone checks.
We are not tendering for them. Infrastructure of this kind is awarded on prequalification, which means audited accounts across several years, comparable completed projects and a classification to match, and a company registered in September 2026 has none of those. When that changes we will say so here, with the date.
- Road Contracting
- Sewage & Drainage Contracting
- Water Pipelines & Stations Contracting
- Bridges & Dams Contracting
- Electric Power Lines Contracting
- District Cooling Plants Contracting
- Dredging & Reclamation Contracting
If you have come here looking for one of these, tell us anyway. We would rather point you at a contractor who can do it than take the enquiry and work it out later.
How we price
What a price depends on
We price against a bill of quantities: every line item with a quantity, a rate and a total. It is more work to produce than a lump sum and it is the only format in which you can compare us with anyone else, which is why we use it.
Specification
The gap between a serviceable finish and a high specification one is the largest single variable on most fit-out jobs, and it is decided by you rather than by us. We price both where it is close.
Condition of what is there
On a strip-out, what is behind the wall is not known until the wall is open. Provisional sums are named as provisional sums, with the assumption written down, rather than absorbed into a headline number.
Depth of MEP
Moving a wet area, changing a riser connection or increasing electrical load turns a finishes job into a services job. This is the item that most often separates two quotes that looked comparable.
Approvals route
Mainland, TECOM and Nakheel communities have different submission requirements and different durations. The route affects the programme, and the programme affects preliminaries.
Send drawings, a unit number or a plot address. You get a written scope and a priced bill of quantities you can put next to anybody else's.
Where we submit
Which authority signs off your project
Which of these applies depends on where your property sits, and it is the first thing we establish.
Set as text on purpose. No authority logo, emblem or crest appears on this site: reproducing one would imply an endorsement the company does not have.
Which of these is your project?
Send drawings, a unit number or a plot address and tell us what you want done. You will get back a written scope of works and a priced bill of quantities. If the job is not something we should be doing, we will say so and tell you who to call.
Call +971 54 545 4152 · WhatsApp +971 54 545 4152 · Landline [to confirm] · Email [to confirm]