Adjustable Height Workbenches and Wet Stations Across Five Areas | Henderson Health, Stuart, Virginia

The Solution

Labs USA specified the project area by area rather than as a single bench standard. The backbone of the fit-out is ten adjustable height workbenches in six different sizes — thirty six by thirty six, forty eight by twenty four, forty eight by thirty six, seventy two by twenty four, seventy two by thirty six, and eighty by thirty six inches — so each area got the footprint its work actually needs instead of a compromise size repeated ten times.

Three of the benches were specified as fully equipped stations: four upper shelves on two steel uprights, an integrated power bar, and task lighting built into the bench rather than clamped on afterwards. That configuration is what turns a table into a work station. Consumables and instruments live on the shelves at eye level instead of consuming work surface, power is at the bench instead of on an extension lead across the floor, and the light is at the work rather than on the ceiling twelve feet above it. Height adjustment then lets the same station serve seated detail work and standing assembly.

Work surfaces throughout are one inch thick phenolic resin in a black crystal matte finish with a four inch high applied curb, supplied by the linear foot and cut to the areas, with a forty five degree angle cut where a corner condition occurs, wall angles where the surface meets the wall, and service hole cutouts where power and services come up through the bench. Phenolic resin was the right specification for a facility of this type: it is dimensionally stable, resists the disinfectants and cleaning agents used in healthcare-adjacent work, tolerates impact from equipment being set down, and is lighter and easier to work around penetrations than epoxy resin.

Two wet stations were built into the casework. The first uses a thirty five inch wide two door sink base with a twenty five by fifteen by ten inch deep epoxy resin drop-in sink with a corner drain, a resin sink outlet with a removable strainer, and a deck mounted mixing faucet with a rigid and swing gooseneck and vacuum breaker. The second uses a twenty four inch wide single door sink base with an eighteen by fifteen by ten and three quarter inch deep epoxy resin sink with a center drain and the same fittings, plus a deck mounted tin-lined purified water faucet with a self-closing control and a white nylon handle on the left.

That purified water faucet is the detail worth pausing on. Tin lining prevents the metallic ion pick-up that would otherwise contaminate reagent grade water on its way through a brass fitting, the self-closing control stops the outlet being left running, and the white nylon handle is a visual marker so nobody draws purified water from the building supply or vice versa. Side base fillers close the ends of each run. The package was supplied with crating, freight, and installation on an eight to ten week manufacturing schedule. The full range is covered on the Labs USA lab tables and workbenches hub, alongside lab casework, lab cabinets, and lab furniture.

Advantage

The specification decision that carries this project is height adjustment. Fixed benches are cheaper per unit and correct where the work is genuinely uniform — a run of instruments, a wash-up area, a sample drop point. Where the same bench is used by different people across shifts, or for different tasks in the same day, adjustable height stations pay for themselves in output and in avoided musculoskeletal complaints. Ten benches across five areas is a lot of hours standing at a surface.

The second decision is where to put plumbing. Only two of the five areas received sink bases. It is tempting to plumb more areas “for flexibility”, but each sink adds cost, adds a penetration in the work surface, and consumes bench length that gets used every day for the sake of use that may never happen. Concentrating water in two properly equipped stations, one of them with a purified water outlet, gave the facility the capability without diluting the bench.

The third is surface continuity. Rather than individual tops per bench, the areas received continuous phenolic work surface by the foot, with angle cuts and wall angles. That gives a clean, sealed run without joints in the middle of a working area, which is where liquids and debris collect.

Labs USA specifies the whole range that a mixed facility like this needs — laboratory tables and workbenches, casework, cabinets, resin sinks and fittings, fume hoods, and bench level exhaust snorkels — so the mix follows the work in each area rather than a single product line.

Return on Investment

The first return is utilisation. A bench that can be set to the operator’s height and task is a bench that gets used for whatever the day requires. Across ten stations and five areas, that flexibility removes the need to build duplicate stations for seated and standing work, which is a capital saving before it is an ergonomic one.

The second is installation efficiency. Fillers, wall angles, service hole cutouts, sink cutouts, and a corner angle cut were all quoted with the package. That turns installation into assembly of a kit rather than field fabrication with a saw in an occupied building — no phenolic dust in a clean space, no risk of a mis-cut top that has to be remade on an eight to ten week lead.

The third is service life. One inch phenolic resin tops, epoxy resin sinks, and steel bench frames are laboratory grade materials specified for decades of service. Routine disinfection, hot glassware, and dropped tools are normal events for them rather than damage events, which is what keeps a facility of this type from re-fitting benches every few years.

The fourth is protecting the water system investment. A purified water loop is expensive; drawing it through the wrong fitting devalues it immediately. A tin-lined self-closing outlet with a distinct handle is a small line item that protects the integrity of every result that depends on that water.

Serving Laboratories Across Southwest Virginia

Southwest Virginia’s laboratory and light production facilities operate a long way from the major laboratory furniture supply hubs. Stuart, Martinsville, Hillsville, Galax, and the wider Patrick and Henry County corridor host medical, diagnostic, manufacturing, and testing operations in buildings that are frequently repurposed rather than purpose built, and that combination makes coordinated delivery matter more than it does in a metro market.

Two things follow from the geography. First, freight and installation have to be planned as part of the package, not assumed: a partial delivery or a missing filler panel is not a same-day fix when the nearest laboratory furniture inventory is several states away. Second, the specification has to be right the first time, because field fabrication and rework are far more expensive when trades and materials have to travel.

Labs USA supplies laboratory benches, casework, work surfaces, sinks, and fittings to facilities across Virginia, including Stuart, Martinsville, Danville, Roanoke, Blacksburg, Lynchburg, Richmond, and the Hampton Roads region, and quotes freight and installation with the package. Whether the requirement is adjustable height workbenches, a full casework fit-out, lab furniture for a new area, or bench level fume extraction, the specification starts with the work in each room.