Turn headcount, lab type and area into a real furniture and casework scope — bench linear feet, fume hoods, sinks, casework modules, storage and seating — plus the information your architect or vendor will ask for next. This is the scope a budget gets built from.
Nobody can budget a lab from a headcount and a hope
The first real question a new or expanding lab has to answer is not what it costs. It is what it consists of. How many linear feet of bench does twelve people actually need? How many hoods does that imply, and how many sinks? How many base cabinets is that, and is the room even big enough?
Those quantities are what a budget, an architect conversation and a vendor quote are all built on — and they are exactly what nobody has at the point where somebody first asks for a number. So a placeholder gets invented, the placeholder becomes the budget, and the project spends the next six months trying to fit a real lab inside a guess.
This tool produces the quantities instead. From lab type, headcount and area it derives bench linear feet, hood count, sink locations, casework modules, tall storage and seating, states the planning factor behind each one, and lists the information that has to be settled before any of it can be released to fabrication.
Who this is for
- Lab managers and principal investigators standing up a new lab or an expansion
- Facility and project managers assembling a budget request
- Architects and lab planners sizing a programme before layout
- Clinical, analytical, environmental, cannabis and QC labs at the feasibility or budgeting stage
What you need to hand
- Lab type — analytical, clinical, research, teaching, wastewater, cannabis or industrial QC
- How many people will work in the lab
- Lab area in square feet, if the space is already known
- Chemical exposure on the worksurfaces — this decides the material
- Target occupancy date and the project’s current stage
- Anything you already know: hood count, bench linear feet, cold storage positions
Don’t have all of it? Every field that can be left blank, can be — the tool tells you which missing number would change the answer most.
Build your lab scope
Your full scope, the assumptions behind every quantity and the checklist of what to settle next appear on this page. We ask for your details only if you want it emailed, priced, or reviewed with a lab planner.
Prefer a full window? Open the lab scope planner in a new tab.
How it works
Describe the lab
Type and headcount are what drive the planning factors. Area is optional — without it we tell you how much space this headcount typically needs.
Override anything you know
If the hood count or bench footage is already decided, enter it and it replaces our planning factor rather than competing with it.
Read the scope
Bench linear feet, worksurface material, base and wall cabinets, tall storage, hoods, sinks and seating — each with the basis it came from.
Have it priced or reviewed
We price the scope against your equipment schedule, and a lab planner will tell you where the quantities look wrong for your protocols before you commit to them.
How to read your scope
Bench linear feet is the number everything else keys off. Casework modules, sink count and much of the utility coordination scale from it, which is why it is worth replacing our factor with your own figure as soon as you have one.
Fume hoods are the schedule item. Hood quantity and type drive exhaust and make-up air, which drives the mechanical design, which is normally the longest lead path in a lab fit-out. If one number on your scope deserves an early decision, it is this one.
Worksurface material follows chemical exposure, not preference. Heavy acid or mixed chemical use points to epoxy resin; solvent work can go either way depending on span and load; light-duty areas do not need to pay for either. Changing this after casework is quoted means re-quoting the package.
Area fit is a warning, not a verdict. If your area is well below what the headcount typically needs, the honest options are fewer bench positions, a shared-equipment layout, or a phased expansion — and it is much cheaper to choose between them now.
We publish scope, not prices. A real budget number comes from a quoted package against your equipment schedule and utility plan, because that is the only version of the number that survives contact with the project.
What this tool does not do
This is a planning scope for budgeting conversations. It is not a lab design, an engineered layout, or a code-compliance review.
- Planning factors are conventional starting points and vary by protocol, accreditation and equipment; your lab planner may differ for good reasons.
- Fume hood quantity, type and placement must be confirmed with your mechanical engineer.
- The scope does not address utilities, exhaust design, egress, ADA, or any accreditation requirement such as CAP, ISO 17025 or SEFA compliance.
- No pricing is produced here, and no quantity should be released to fabrication from this output alone.
Lab furniture, hoods and design tools
Laboratory casework and cabinets
Base, wall and tall storage casework in steel and wood.
Fume hoods
Bench, walk-in and specialty hoods — the item to settle first.
Laboratory countertops and worksurfaces
Epoxy resin, phenolic and stainless options against real chemical exposure.
Lab bench designer
Configure benches directly once the scope is settled.
Free lab planning tool
Lay the room out and test whether the scope fits.
Laboratory casework specifications
Specification data for division 12 35 53 sections.
Common questions
What comes first — the lab layout or the equipment scope?
Why doesn’t the tool give me a budget in dollars?
How accurate are the planning factors?
What if I already know my hood count?
Do you work with our architect?
Which lab types does it cover?
Is my project information kept private?
Have your scope priced against a real equipment schedule
Send us the scope and your equipment list. We will price the casework, hoods and worksurfaces, and tell you where the quantities need to change before they become your budget.