Physiotherapy Fitouts

The mistake is treating a physiotherapy practice as a set of consulting rooms with a gym attached. It is two environments with opposite requirements, sharing a wall, and the wall is usually the part nobody drew.

On one side, people are lying on a plinth with their shirt off, being asked about pain and continence and how the injury happened. That needs the acoustic and visual privacy of a consulting room. On the other, someone is dropping a loaded barbell, a treadmill is running, and the practitioner is counting out loud over the top of it.

Every physiotherapy fitout that disappoints its owner does so at the junction between those two. Either the treatment side is too noisy to have a private conversation in, or the rehab side is too small to run a class, because the plan split the tenancy down the middle instead of asking what each side actually needs.

The plinth bay, and what a curtain does not do

Most practices run curtained plinth bays rather than full rooms, and for good reason: they are cheaper, they flex, and a practitioner can move between three of them. A bay wants around nine to ten square metres, which sounds generous until you account for access down both long sides of the plinth, a stool, a small bench and a chair for the patient’s clothes.

What a curtain does not do is stop sound. It stops sightlines, and that is all. If your practice takes WorkCover, motor accident or any work where a patient discusses their claim, plan at least one fully enclosed room with a solid door and a wall that runs to the underside of the slab. Practitioners consistently ask for this after handover, when it is a construction job rather than a line on a plan.

The same logic applies to the initial assessment. A first appointment is the longest, most detailed conversation a patient will have in the building, and it is the one most likely to cover things they would not say through a curtain.

The rehab floor: height, loading, air

Three numbers decide whether a tenancy can hold a rehab floor, and all three are cheaper to check before you sign than to discover afterwards.

Ceiling height. Overhead press, a chin-up frame, a ball thrown at a wall, or anyone standing on a step or a box: 2.7 metres clear is the practical floor, and clear means under the services, not to the slab soffit. Plenty of office tenancies present at 2.4 once the ceiling grid, ducts and sprinklers are in.

Floor loading. A rack of dumbbells is a concentrated load that base building allowances for an office do not always contemplate, and a suspended slab in an upper-level tenancy is a genuine constraint rather than a formality. This is a question for a structural engineer during due diligence, not for the builder during construction.

Air. Air change rates for a space where people exercise are materially higher than for an office, and base building plant sized for desks will not keep a rehab floor comfortable in February. Under-sizing here is the most common complaint in the first summer, and it is very expensive to fix once the ceiling is closed.

Flooring, and the thing underneath it

The rehab floor takes dropped weights, rolling equipment and constant foot traffic, and it has to be cleanable. Commercial vinyl over an acoustic underlay handles most of it. Rubber matting in the free-weight zone handles the rest, and it is worth laying out where that zone is before you order flooring rather than after.

If there is a tenancy below you, the underlay is not an aesthetic decision. Impact noise travels through the structure and arrives in the space below as a thud that no amount of ceiling treatment down there will fix. It is the single most common cause of a neighbour dispute in a first-floor allied health tenancy.

Last reviewed

7 September 2026
Checked against the standards and planning frameworks current at that date.

What this is based on

AS 1428.1, AS 1668.2 and the National Construction Code, read alongside room areas we use for planning allied health tenancies.

What it’s not

Not a quote, and not a substitute for a site assessment. Floor loading and ceiling height in particular are properties of a specific tenancy and need checking against that building.

Room schedule

Indicative net areas for planning. Circulation, walls and door swings add roughly 25% on top.
Space	Indicative area	What drives it
Plinth bay, curtained	9–10 m²	Access down both long sides of the plinth, stool, small bench, chair for clothes
Enclosed treatment room	12–14 m²	Solid door and full-height walls. At least one, for assessments and claim work
Rehab floor	45–90 m²	Equipment footprint plus safe working space around it, and 2.7 m clear height
Reception & waiting	18–26 m²	Counter with an AS 1428.1 accessible section, seating that suits people in pain
Accessible WC	6 m²	AS 1428.1. Decides some tenancies before anything else does
Change & shower	6–9 m²	Only if you run classes or hydrotherapy. Often skipped, occasionally essential
Store	6–10 m²	Equipment that is not in use is still in the building, and it will not live in a cupboard
Staff area	9–14 m²	Notes, lunch and a conversation the waiting room cannot hear

Put your own room count through the space planner to get a floor area, including circulation.

What has to be satisfied

AS 1428.1 and the DDA: Accessible entry, circulation, door approaches, an accessible sanitary facility and a reception counter usable from a seated position. Patients arrive on crutches, in moon boots and in wheelchairs, so this one is lived rather than theoretical.
AS 1668.2: Mechanical ventilation. A space where people exercise carries a materially higher requirement than an office, and base building plant is frequently sized for the latter.
Structural capacity: Floor loading for racked weights and equipment, particularly on a suspended slab. A due-diligence question for a structural engineer, before you sign.
Acoustic separation: Full-height partitions with cavity insulation to any enclosed treatment room, and impact isolation under the rehab floor where a tenancy sits below.
National Construction Code: Building classification, egress and sanitary provisions. A retail or office tenancy taking a rehab floor may change its classification and its exit requirements.
Ahpra and record keeping: Registration standards assume secure storage of health records and a space in which a private conversation is genuinely possible.

What it costs

Physiotherapy, warm shell

$1,100–$1,750

per m², excluding equipment and GST

Plinth bays, one or two enclosed rooms, an open rehab floor, reception and waiting, staff area, with standard commercial finishes and joinery.

A cold shell adds roughly $350 to $550 per m² on top.

Typical practice

$180k–$310k

around 165 m², warm shell

Four plinth bays, one enclosed treatment room, a rehab floor of roughly 60 square metres, reception and a waiting area for about twelve.

Before equipment, furniture, IT and rent during construction.

What is excluded

Priced separately

every figure on this site

Plinths, gym equipment, GST, council and certifier fees, consultant reports, loose furniture, IT hardware, signage and rent during construction.

A planning figure, not a quote.

Run your own numbers in the fitout cost estimator, or see every published range with its inclusions and exclusions.

Getting the order right

Most of what goes wrong on a clinical fitout is sequencing rather than construction.

Check height, loading and air before you sign. All three are properties of the tenancy rather than the fitout, and none of them can be bought later. A structural engineer and a mechanical consultant looking at a shortlist is the cheapest money in the project.

Decide the split next. How many plinth bays, how many enclosed rooms, and how much open floor. That ratio is a decision about the business you intend to run, and everything on the plan follows from it.

Then acoustics and impact, before the walls close. Full-height partitions to the enclosed rooms, acoustic underlay across the rehab floor. Both are cheap at frame stage.

Flooring zones last. Set out where free weights land before you order, so the rubber goes where the load is rather than where it looked tidy on a drawing.

Questions

How much space does a physiotherapy clinic need?

A four-bay practice with one enclosed room and a modest rehab floor works at around 150 to 180 square metres. The rehab floor is the variable: 45 square metres suits one-on-one rehab, while running classes pushes it past 80 and changes the tenancy you are looking for.

How big should a physio treatment bay be?

Around nine to ten square metres. That gives access down both long sides of the plinth, room for a stool and a small bench, and a chair for the patient’s clothes. Anything tighter and the practitioner works from one side only, which limits what they can treat.

Do treatment bays need walls, or are curtains enough?

Curtains handle sightlines and nothing else. They do not stop sound. Most practices run curtained bays for efficiency but include at least one fully enclosed room with a solid door for initial assessments and for WorkCover or motor accident work, where patients discuss claims.

What ceiling height does a rehab floor need?

2.7 metres clear beneath the services is the practical minimum, and clear is the operative word. Many office tenancies present at around 2.4 metres once the ceiling grid, ductwork and sprinklers are installed, which rules out overhead work and anything performed standing on a box.

How much does a physiotherapy fitout cost?

Indicatively $1,100 to $1,750 per square metre on a warm shell, excluding equipment and GST. A typical practice of around 165 square metres lands somewhere around $180,000 to $310,000 for the build alone. A cold shell adds roughly $350 to $550 per square metre.

Sources and further reading

Australian Physiotherapy Association Visit →

The peak body for Australian physiotherapists, and a starting point for practice guidance and private-practice resources.

Ahpra and the National Boards Visit →

Registration standards for physiotherapists, chiropractors, podiatrists and psychologists, including the practice and record-keeping requirements a premises has to support.

Standards Australia Visit →

Source for AS/NZS 4815 and 4187 reprocessing, AS 1428.1 access and AS 1668.2 ventilation. The standards themselves are purchased, not free.

Australian Building Codes Board Visit →

The National Construction Code: building classification, fire separation, egress, sanitary provisions and access.

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