Carve Interiors Dubai vs Alternatives: How to Vet a Fit-Out Contractor

What Carve publishes about itself

Carve trades from wecarvespaces.com and calls itself a bespoke interior fit-out and joinery specialist based in Dubai. Its own copy says the business was born in 1991 in Dubai, that it has more than thirty years in the Middle East interiors industry, and that it belongs to the Linus International group of companies. The sectors it lists are residential, retail, hospitality, food and beverage, and corporate offices.

Linus International FZCO describes itself as a family-owned holding with operations in scaffolding, interiors, joinery manufacturing and real estate across the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and North America, based out of Mina Jebel Ali National Industries Park. Treat the group link as ownership context, not as proof of capacity on your particular job.

The company keeps a LinkedIn page at /company/wecarvespaces, an Instagram account at @wecarvespaces, a Facebook page and a contractor profile on Love That Design. Two named jobs surface in public. SVD Arabia came to Carve with a store concept designed in Spain, and Carve delivered the fit-out and manufacturing that launched it in Dubai Design District, covering coordinated civil and MEP works, custom retail units and speciality finishes. There is also a turnkey fit-out and joinery project for Chat Corner, published on the company's own Instagram.

One practical note before you call. Near-identical positioning copy also appears on a second domain, carvedxb.com. Nothing in the public material states which legal entity holds the licence. Ask for the trade licence, read the exact legal name printed on it, and pay only that entity.

Where a joinery-led contractor earns its keep

Fit-out firms in Dubai fall into two rough shapes. Some are main contractors who buy joinery in from a workshop down the road. Others own the workshop and treat carpentry as the core skill, with civil and MEP work wrapped around it. Carve presents itself in the second group, and Linus International lists joinery manufacturing among group activities.

That distinction is worth more than most marketing claims, because late joinery causes more missed handovers in this city than any other trade. Once cabinetry, wall panelling and a reception desk are subcontracted, every revision joins somebody else's production queue. You usually learn about the slip in week ten instead of week four.

Retail shows it most clearly. A mall unit runs on the operator's fit-out manual and its approved contractor register, with night working hours and a fixed handover date baked into the deal. Shopfront joinery, display units and speciality finishes make up most of the visible scope, and they have to land right the first time. We built a boutique in Dubai Hills Mall under exactly that regime, and the operator's register set the shortlist before anyone priced anything.

The test is physical, not conversational. Ask whether the workshop is owned or hired, ask for its address, then go and walk it. A firm that genuinely manufactures will put you on the factory floor within a day.

What the public record does not cover

What is missing from Carve's public material is the part you would actually shortlist on. No prices, no contract values, no completion dates, no client list beyond the two projects above, and no trade licence or contractor register number on the public pages.

That is unremarkable in this market and says nothing about the standard of the work. Plenty of long-established contractors here keep licence numbers off the website and quote strictly on request. It does mean you cannot benchmark this contractor from your desk, and we are not going to close the gap with headcount or revenue estimates from aggregator sites, because those are modelled from scraped signals rather than filed accounts.

The thirty-year claim deserves the same handling. A 1991 founding date is a strong signal if the trading entity you sign with is the one that carries the history. Groups restructure, and the licence in front of you may have been issued far more recently than the story on the About page. The licence copy settles it in about a minute.

Carve also does not appear in the "best fit-out companies in Dubai" roundups that dominate this search. That is worth less than it looks. Most of those lists are published by fit-out companies themselves, which makes them content marketing rather than ranking.

What this work costs in Dubai, and how long it takes

Since Carve quotes on request, arrive with market bands already in your head so the first comparable number you see is not one written by someone who wants the job.

Commercial fit-out in Dubai currently runs roughly AED 220 to 450 per square foot on a Category A landlord base, AED 280 to 600 for standard Category B, AED 600 to 900 for premium specification, and AED 900 to 1,500 or more for luxury turnkey. Contractors quote in both units here, and one square metre is 10.76 square feet, so check the unit before you compare two figures. The full per-square-foot breakdown by space type sets out where each band applies.

Our own residential benchmarks start at AED 1,500 per square metre for cosmetic work and AED 3,000 per square metre for a capital renovation, with turnkey including furniture, appliances and decor at AED 8,500 to 16,000 per square metre. A design package starts at AED 10,000 and takes three to six weeks. Quotes in Dubai are normally shown before the five per cent VAT line, so confirm that two numbers you are comparing sit on the same basis.

On the clock, a straightforward apartment fit-out with no structural change usually runs eight to sixteen weeks on site. A 150 square metre apartment taken from design through approvals to handover more realistically runs two to six months. Authority and community approvals sit outside any contractor's site control, so treat a firm date offered before the scope is frozen as a sales number rather than a schedule.

Payment structure matters as much as the total. The Dubai pattern is a non-refundable design fee, an advance of 15 to 20 per cent, milestone payments released against verified progress, and 5 to 10 per cent retained through a defects liability period that normally runs twelve months. Anything above 30 per cent upfront hands over your leverage on day one, and retention held to the end of the defects period is the only leverage you keep once the crew has left.

Checking any contractor before you sign

The verification route changed this year, and it applies to Carve, to us, and to every other name on your list.

• Trade licence. Check it through the Department of Economy and Tourism or invest.dubai.ae. Confirm three things: the licence is active, the registered name matches the company printed on your quotation, and the listed activity actually covers interior decoration or fit-out contracting rather than trading or design only.
• Contractor register entry. Dubai Law No. 7 of 2025 came into force on 8 January 2026 and pulls contracting activities, fit-out included, into a unified contractor register run by Dubai Municipality with mandatory classification by technical, financial and administrative capacity. Existing contractors have until 8 January 2027 to regularise. Reported penalties range from AED 1,000 to AED 100,000 per violation, doubling on a repeat offence within a year up to AED 200,000, on top of possible suspension or deregistration. Ask for the register entry, not only the licence PDF.
• The right authority for your address. Mainland districts go to Dubai Municipality. Palm Jumeirah and the port-linked zones go through Trakhees. Dubai Design District and the DDA-governed areas go through the Dubai Development Authority. Ask which one governs your unit and whether the firm has submitted there before.
• Written scope. A schedule of finishes with brands, models and quantities, plus drawings, beats a lump sum with a paragraph of description. Vague scope is where variation orders are born.
• Defects liability in writing. The clause should name the period, what it covers, and who you call in month eight when a hinge fails.
• Insurance and the named project manager. Current certificates in the same legal name, with the sum insured checked against your contract value, and the mobile number of the person who will actually run your site.

Alternatives worth the same scrutiny

Sort these by the shape of your job rather than by size.

• Antonovich Group, for heavily decorative luxury residential. The company states more than twenty years of work, in-house manufacturing and a flagship Luxury Antonovich Design showroom in Dubai, and it covers architecture, design, construction, fit-out and furniture production under one roof.
• RadyInterior, for residential and commercial turnkey with landscape included. Its site describes fit-out contracting, joinery, MEP coordination and renovation under one roof, with projects across Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi.
• DNL Interiors, for joinery and upholstery-led work. Based at Warehouse 12, 19A Street, Al Quoz Industrial Area 2, it publishes an in-house facility making bespoke sofas, dining tables and chairs, and lists restaurants, hotels and luxury residences among its work.
• MGM Interiors, for commercial, salon and spa fit-out. The firm states it has traded since 1998, publishes over 500 completed projects, and says it is approved by Dubai Municipality and Dubai Civil Defence, which is exactly the claim to verify against the register.
• DOMECO, for premium residential and commercial fit-out with design, approvals and construction under a single contract. We work with our own crew rather than per-job subcontractors, run a Russian-speaking team, fix the estimate at signature with no additions after mobilisation, carry a one-year workmanship warranty, and put a daily penalty on ourselves for missing the agreed handover. Delivered work includes a boutique at Dubai Hills Mall, apartments at City Walk and Dubai Creek Address, villa work on Palm Jumeirah and an office in JLT.

Signals that should slow you down

No visible licence is not by itself a problem, but a refusal to send the copy is. Any established contractor can email a licence PDF the same afternoon. Hesitation there tells you more than the portfolio does.

Watch the advance next. A push toward 40 or 50 per cent upfront, especially framed as a discount for fast payment, moves your entire risk to the front of the job.

A price with no written scope behind it is another warning sign. If the quotation does not name finishes, brands and quantities, the number is a placeholder and the variations will arrive later.

So is a missing defects liability clause, or one with no stated period. Without it there is nothing holding the contractor to the site after handover, and nothing to release retention against. If a firm will not put twelve months in writing, that answer is your answer.

One more that costs us work. If your scope is paint, flooring and no MEP change, a turnkey contractor is the wrong hire. A single competent trade contractor with a decent drawing set will serve you better and you avoid paying a coordination premium for coordination you do not need. The rest of the filter sits in our guide on choosing an interior design company in Dubai.

FAQ

Who are Carve in Dubai?

Carve is a fit-out and joinery contractor trading from wecarvespaces.com. The company says it began in Dubai in 1991, has over thirty years in Middle East interiors, and is part of the Linus International group. It publishes work in residential, retail, hospitality, food and beverage, and corporate offices, including a store for SVD Arabia in Dubai Design District.

Does Carve publish prices?

No. Carve quotes on request, which is normal for design-and-build in Dubai because the base condition of your unit moves the number more than the district does. As reference points, commercial fit-out here runs roughly AED 220 to 450 per square foot on a Category A base, while premium residential turnkey sits at AED 8,500 to 16,000 per square metre.

Is Carve part of a larger group?

The company states it belongs to Linus International. Linus International FZCO describes itself as a family-owned holding with operations in scaffolding, interiors, joinery manufacturing and real estate, based out of Mina Jebel Ali National Industries Park. The group link is ownership context and does not by itself tell you which entity would sign your contract, so read the legal name on the trade licence.

How do I check that a Dubai fit-out contractor is properly registered?

Verify the trade licence through the Department of Economy and Tourism or invest.dubai.ae, confirming that it is active, the name matches your quotation, and the activity covers fit-out contracting. Then ask for the entry in the Dubai Municipality contractor register introduced under Law No. 7 of 2025, which came into force on 8 January 2026 with a compliance deadline of 8 January 2027.

What payment structure is normal for a Dubai fit-out contract?

A non-refundable design fee, an advance of 15 to 20 per cent, milestone payments released against verified progress, and 5 to 10 per cent retained through a defects liability period that usually runs twelve months. Anything above 30 per cent upfront removes your leverage before work starts. Retention is the only leverage you keep after the crew leaves site.

Which alternatives to Carve are worth shortlisting?

Match the firm to the job. Antonovich Group for heavily decorative luxury residential, RadyInterior for residential and commercial turnkey with landscape, DNL Interiors for joinery and upholstery-led work from its Al Quoz facility, MGM Interiors for commercial, salon and spa fit-out, and DOMECO for premium residential and commercial work under a single fixed contract. Run the same licence and register check on all of them.

*Written by the DOMECO Design and Fit Out team, Dubai.*