Garden Gym Rooms: Floors, Ventilation and Layout

A gym puts loads on a building that an office never does: dropped weights, repeated impact, heavy static equipment and a great deal of moisture. Designing for it from the start costs very little; retrofitting for it is disruptive.

The floor

We increase the joist specification or move to a solid insulated slab where free weights are involved, then build up with an impact layer and a hard-wearing rubber or engineered surface. Where a platform for deadlifts or Olympic lifting is planned, we set the structure out to sit over the strongest span and isolate it so impact does not travel through the frame.

Ventilation and humidity

• Cross ventilation with openings on two sides, ideally high and low
• Mechanical extract for winter, when you will not want the doors open
• Wall build-up that manages the extra moisture load without trapping it
• Hard-wearing, wipeable finishes at contact height

Layout and mirrors

Plan around the largest piece of kit and its clearance zone, not the floor area. A rack needs pull-up clearance overhead and space to walk behind it. Mirrors on the wall opposite the glazing double the perceived light and let you check form; they also need a solid backing built into the wall, so decide early.

Power and sound

Treadmills and rowers want dedicated sockets on a circuit that is not shared with everything else, positioned where you will actually place the equipment. Speakers, a wall-mounted screen and a fan all need cabling designed in. And because gyms are noisy, we usually add mass to the wall facing the neighbouring boundary.