Building or renovating a laboratory involves hundreds of interconnected decisions — bench layout, ventilation requirements, utility routing, safety compliance, and furniture selection. Labs USA provides complete lab design and planning services so every element works together from day one.

Our Design Process

1. Needs Assessment

We start with your workflows, not a catalog. How many people use the lab? What instruments and processes do you run? What chemicals and gases are involved? What regulatory standards apply? The answers drive every design decision.

2. Space Planning & Layout

CAD-generated floor plans optimize bench placement, aisle widths, instrument locations, and emergency equipment access. We balance workflow efficiency with safety code compliance — ADA accessibility, egress paths, and chemical separation requirements.

3. Furniture & Equipment Selection

Material recommendations based on your specific use case: epoxy resin for chemistry, phenolic for general science, stainless steel for cleanrooms, ESD laminate for electronics. Every work surface, cabinet, and fixture is specified for durability and chemical compatibility.

4. Ventilation Design

Fume hood placement, air change rates, supply and exhaust balancing, and ductwork routing. We coordinate with your HVAC engineer to meet ASHRAE 110 fume hood performance standards and ANSI Z9.5 lab ventilation guidelines.

5. Utility Coordination

Electrical, plumbing, gas, vacuum, and data utility planning. Point-of-use locations coordinated with bench and hood positions. Service chase and ceiling carrier options for flexible utility access. For critical instruments and cold storage, see our laboratory UPS and backup power planning guide.

6. Installation & Commissioning

Professional installation crews handle furniture assembly, fume hood placement, utility connections, and final adjustments. We commission fume hoods, verify safety equipment, and walk through the completed lab with your team.

Lab Types We Design

  • Chemistry & Wet Labs — Corrosion-resistant surfaces, fume hoods, chemical storage, emergency equipment
  • Biology & Life Science — BSC placement, autoclave rooms, tissue culture suites, cold rooms
  • Clinical & Pathology — CLIA/CAP-compliant layouts, specimen processing, analyzer placement
  • Cleanrooms & Controlled Environments — ISO-rated rooms, gowning areas, pass-throughs
  • Teaching & Education — Student bench layouts, instructor demo stations, prep rooms
  • Quality Control & Industrial — Manufacturing QC labs, materials testing, environmental labs
  • Cannabis Testing — State-compliant testing labs with proper security, ventilation, and workflow

Why Design Matters

Labs planned with proper design consultation cost 15–30% less over their lifetime. Fewer change orders during construction, lower energy costs from efficient ventilation, less wasted floor space, and longer furniture service life from proper material selection. A lab designed for your actual workflows — not a generic template — pays for design services many times over.

What to Expect When This Is Your First Lab Project

You do not need a finished room or a complete equipment list to start. Labs USA can develop an early planning package from a sketch, preliminary floor plan, equipment list, or photos. Unknowns such as the final building, utility locations, and exhaust responsibility can be listed as open items rather than guessed.

A single project scope can bring together fume hoods, casework, tables, work surfaces, chemical storage, and eyewash or shower equipment. This reduces gaps between separate quotes, but the architect, engineers, EHS team, contractor, and authority having jurisdiction still review building systems, utilities, ventilation, and applicable requirements.

From your first sketch to an approval package

  1. 1
    1. Establish a working scope We identify the rooms, users, processes, chemicals, instruments, storage needs, and large equipment paths. If the floor plan is still changing, we can begin with assumptions and clearly mark what must be confirmed. You can also upload a floor plan for review.
  2. 2
    2. Build and revise the layout The first layout turns requirements into bench runs, hood locations, cabinets, tables, safety equipment, and service points. Your lab users, EHS staff, facilities team, architect, and contractor can comment before selections are finalized. Revisions should also account for installation access, demolition, doors, columns, and equipment that must be moved through the room.
  3. 3
    3. Prepare documents for internal approval A useful submittal is more than a price-only list. Depending on project stage and product, ask for dimensioned drawings, product cut sheets, reference images, named materials, finish information, and an itemized equipment list. Architects may also use the lab architect specification package to organize product literature and design files.
  4. 4
    4. Confirm scope boundaries Before ordering, identify who provides exhaust fans and ductwork, utility connections, permits, unloading, installation, startup, and field verification. Final code and ventilation decisions should be confirmed by the project engineer and authority having jurisdiction. Product requirements can be tracked in the Lab Project Binder.

International plans and reference images

Metric drawings are welcome. Labs USA can review dimensions in millimeters or meters and coordinate them with commonly available U.S. casework sizes. Converted dimensions should be checked against actual room measurements, equipment clearances, utility points, and local requirements before release.

For export work, provide a bill of quantities, delivery destination, and requested freight point. The quote should state which items are materials, freight, installation, or excluded services, along with who handles import taxes, duties, customs clearance, inland delivery, and local labor. These responsibilities vary by destination and contract.

Reference photos are useful, including images from overseas projects, but they do not define the final scope. Features such as glass-front display cabinets, unusual drawer arrangements, or nonstandard dimensions may not match typical U.S. laboratory casework. We will separate the functional requirement from the pictured construction and identify a standard option or a custom item.

To get the project right, send the latest floor plan or room dimensions, photos, equipment list, chemical and process summary, desired storage, utility information, reference images, metric or imperial dimensions, approval-document requirements, and any BOQ or freight instructions. Mark unknown items so they can be tracked instead of assumed.

Send those details through our contact form or call (801) 855-8560, and a Labs USA specialist will review them with you.

Common Questions

Can planning start before we select a building?

Yes. An early layout can be based on process needs, expected equipment, and planning assumptions. Final dimensions, hood exhaust, utilities, access, and installation scope must be revisited after the facility is selected.

What should I request if management will not approve a price-only quote?

Ask for the available drawings, cut sheets, product images, material descriptions, finishes, dimensions, and itemized scope. Tell Labs USA who will review the package so the documents can be organized for facilities, EHS, procurement, or an architect.

Can Labs USA work from metric drawings?

Yes. Send the original metric dimensions rather than converting them yourself. Any proposed conversion to available U.S. furniture sizes should be reviewed against field dimensions and local project requirements.

Does an export quote include freight, duties, and installation?

Not automatically. State the destination, freight point, installation expectations, and preferred BOQ format, then confirm which party handles freight, customs, taxes, duties, unloading, and local labor.

Planning a Lab in a Small or Irregular Room

Converted offices and other constrained rooms can work as labs, but the room shape must be documented accurately. A wall jog, angled corner, column, radiator, low ceiling, or inward-swinging door can determine whether a bench run fits and whether installers can place it. Measure the room as it exists, not only from an older architectural plan.

Start with the least flexible elements. Locate the fume hood first, where the exhaust route and overhead space are practical. Then place sinks near usable drains. Fit benches, storage, instruments, and carts around those fixed points. Labs USA can test more than one arrangement and revise the layout with your team before quoting.

What to measure and photograph

  • Measure every wall from finished surface to finished surface at bench height. Record each segment around wall jogs, recesses, and angled walls.
  • Show columns and other projections. Give their width, depth, and distance from two nearby reference points.
  • Mark every door. Include the opening width, frame location, swing direction, and the space the open door occupies.
  • Record window width, sill height, and distance from adjacent corners. Do the same for radiators, convectors, ledges, and existing shelving at bench height.
  • Measure the finished ceiling height. Above proposed hood locations, identify beams, soffits, lights, sprinkler piping, ducts, and other obstructions that could affect exhaust routing.
  • Mark existing sinks, drains, water lines, outlets, panels, data ports, gas points, and other services. Note whether each item will remain, move, or be abandoned. Have the appropriate engineer or contractor verify that existing utilities are suitable.
  • Provide the actual dimensions of instruments and other large equipment. Include required access areas and service connections. Do not size a bench from a nominal equipment description.
  • Take clear photos from every corner, plus close-ups of unusual conditions. A short video walking around the room can also clarify geometry that is hard to show on a plan.

Layout tactics for difficult rooms

Corners and angled walls

An L-shaped or U-shaped run can recover useful work area. Depending on the geometry, corner cabinets may help. Filler panels and field-fitted scribes can close small gaps where cabinets meet uneven walls. See this corner casework example.

Irregular perimeter walls

Tables can be more forgiving than continuous fixed casework when walls are uneven or likely to change. Mobile tables also allow equipment and work zones to be rearranged. Compare options for mobile lab tables.

Low or crowded ceilings

Check the full path above a hood, not just the ceiling height directly over it. The exhaust connection, duct route, and building systems need coordinated space. Existing hood projects can also use the fume hood replacement guide to identify field conditions.

Tight circulation

Keep routes to doors and safety equipment clear. Account for people standing at benches, open cabinet doors, stools, carts, and equipment service access. Required clearances vary by use and jurisdiction, so confirm them with the design team, project engineer, and authority having jurisdiction.

How the layout is refined

  1. 1
    1. Map fixed constraints Labs USA places walls, columns, doors, windows, overhead conflicts, utilities, and equipment on a working plan.
  2. 2
    2. Test layout options The team compares hood, sink, bench, storage, and mobile-table arrangements against workflow and circulation needs.
  3. 3
    3. Resolve uncertain dimensions Measurements that control fit are verified before the layout is used for quoting. If a wall angle or obstruction is unclear, send added dimensions and photos rather than estimating.
  4. 4
    4. Review and revise Lab users, EHS, facilities, the architect, and the contractor can flag conflicts before selections are finalized. You may also upload a lab floor plan for review.
  5. 5
    What to send Labs USA Send a dimensioned sketch or current plan, wall-to-wall measurements at bench height, column and jog locations, door swings, window sill heights, ceiling height and overhead obstructions, utility locations, equipment dimensions, and photos from every corner. Mark dimensions that still need field verification.

Send those details through our contact form or call (801) 855-8560, and a Labs USA specialist will review them with you.

Common Questions

Can a fume hood go wherever there is open wall space?

Not always. Hood placement also depends on the proposed exhaust path, overhead obstructions, room airflow, utilities, and safe circulation. Coordinate the location with Labs USA, the mechanical engineer, EHS, and the authority having jurisdiction.

Should fixed casework or tables be used against an uneven wall?

It depends on how irregular the wall is and how much flexibility the lab needs. Fixed casework may use fillers or scribes to finish small gaps, while freestanding or mobile tables can be easier to fit and rearrange.

How should an angled wall be measured?

Measure each adjoining wall segment and locate the points where the angle starts and ends. Add diagonal measurements from known corners and send photos so the geometry can be checked instead of inferred.

Do old architectural drawings provide enough information for layout work?

They are a useful starting point, but field conditions may differ. Verify finished dimensions, door swings, utilities, ceiling obstructions, windows, columns, and wall jogs before the layout is finalized.

Equipping a New Lab: Equipment and Supply Guides

Furniture is only half of a lab move-in. These guides cover the instruments and supplies teams ask us about while they plan bench space and storage.

Start Your Lab Project

Schedule a free lab design consultation — call (801) 855-8560 or request a consultation.