Laboratory Fitouts

Where does the air go?

Almost every laboratory project is decided by that question before anything else is settled.

A fume cupboard or a biological safety cabinet needs dedicated exhaust, and that exhaust needs a discharge point at roof level that the landlord will permit and the building will accommodate. If the answer is no, the tenancy isn’t a laboratory.

After that comes containment level, which is a decision made with your scientific staff and not with a builder. AS/NZS 2243.3 defines physical containment levels, and most pathology and clinical laboratories work at PC2. The level sets room separation, surface requirements, hand washing, cabinetry, waste handling and signage.

Then services to each bench position, which on a laboratory means some combination of power, data, water, waste, gas and vacuum, and a bench that can carry it.

What goes into a laboratory

Specimen reception

Separated from analytical space, with a one-way handling path from arrival through triage and accessioning. The point at which most laboratory layouts either work or do not.

Analytical benching

At working height with services to each position, chemically resistant surfaces, and enough run that instruments aren’t queued behind one another.

Fume and safety cabinets

Dedicated exhaust with a compliant discharge, make-up air so the room does not go into negative balance, and commissioning with documented face velocities.

Cold storage

Refrigerators, freezers and sometimes ultra-low units. Real power, real heat rejection, and an alarm path when something fails overnight.

Waste and decontamination

Biological, chemical and sharps streams handled separately, with autoclaving where required and a route out that doesn’t cross clean space.

Write-up and office

Separated from the laboratory instead of a desk at the end of a bench. Quiet, with normal finishes and no consumption of laboratory floor area.

What has to be satisfied

AS/NZS 2243.3: Safety in laboratories, microbiological safety and containment. Defines the physical containment levels and what each requires of the room. Settle your level before design begins.
AS/NZS 2243.8 and 2982: Fume cupboard performance and laboratory installations, covering exhaust, face velocity and commissioning.
NATA accreditation: Where the laboratory will be accredited, the requirements reach the building: environmental control, separation, equipment and record keeping. Worth understanding at concept not at assessment.
AS 1668.2: Mechanical ventilation, including make-up air so that exhausting a fume cupboard does not pull the room into imbalance.
National Construction Code: Classification, and where hazardous substances are stored or handled, the provisions that come with them.

What a laboratory fitout costs

Collection and small clinical

$1,800–$2,600

per m², warm shell, ex equipment

Specimen reception, limited benching, cold storage and a collection room, without significant fume management.

Overlaps with a pathology fitout in a medical centre.

PC2 analytical

$2,200–$3,800

per m², warm shell, ex equipment

Containment construction, fume cupboards and safety cabinets with dedicated exhaust, full benching and services, waste handling.

Mechanical services carry the largest share of this.

Exhaust discharge

Establish first

before the lease, not after

A duct route to roof level, a compliant discharge point and the landlord's agreement to both. Without them the tenancy won’t work at any budget.

The single most common reason a laboratory site is abandoned.

Related: radiology and pathology within a medical centre, and every published range.

Questions

What is a laboratory fitout?

The design and construction of a space for analytical or diagnostic work: benching and fume management, services to each position, containment appropriate to what is handled, and specimen paths that don’t cross. It sits closer to an industrial fitout than to a consulting suite.

What is a PC2 laboratory?

Physical Containment Level 2, defined in AS/NZS 2243.3, and the level most pathology and clinical laboratories work at. It brings requirements for room separation, surfaces, hand washing, biological safety cabinets, waste handling and signage. Which containment level applies is established before design, because it changes the room.

How much does a laboratory fitout cost?

Indicatively $2,200 to $3,800 per square metre on a warm shell, excluding equipment and GST. The spread is wide because containment level, fume management and services load vary enormously between a small collection laboratory and a PC2 analytical facility.

What drives the cost?

Mechanical services first: fume cupboards and biological safety cabinets need dedicated exhaust with a discharge point, and that discharge has to go somewhere the building will allow. Then benching and services, then containment construction. Finishes are a rounding error.

Can a laboratory go into a standard commercial tenancy?

Sometimes, and the deciding factors are usually exhaust discharge, floor loading, incoming power and whether the landlord will permit penetrations to roof level. Establish those four before signing.