Commercial
Commercial gym fit-outs: floors, sound and change rooms
What goes into a commercial gym fit-out, with Monday Club: solid timber floors in a Balmain heritage building, fitted out by Laidre for DCM Group.
On plan a gym looks simple: an open floor, change rooms and a front desk. Then the weights start dropping. The floor, the sound, the showers and the air are what make or break a commercial gym, and all of them need sorting before the equipment turns up.
Start with the floor
What the slab or floor framing can carry, and what the neighbours below will hear, decides where the heavy zones go. In an older building with timber floors, we check that before the layout is locked in.
Plan for sound and vibration
Dropped weights, music and classes travel through a building. Acoustic flooring, isolated ceilings and class rooms placed away from neighbours are far cheaper to build in than to add later.
Change rooms carry the budget
Members judge a gym by its change rooms. Showers, toilets, lockers and the waterproofing under them take up a big share of the budget and the program, so they get detailed early.
Air and power
The mechanical services have to cope with a full class on a summer evening. Treadmills, lighting and screens need power where they'll actually sit, which means fixing the equipment layout before the electrician starts.
Monday Club, Balmain
Monday Club is a strength and social club for people over 50, in a heritage building on Darling Street, Balmain. We delivered the fit-out as the builder for DCM Group, Chris and Jill Baynes' business and the people behind DCM Institute. The club opened in 2026.
It's a gym, but not a typical one. There's a Technogym strength circuit, a movement and dance studio, treatment rooms, a kitchen and a members' lounge, all on solid timber floors. We worked with Technogym on the equipment install, and with the certifier and consultants to get the heritage building, its stairs and ceilings signed off.
When the building is heritage, the gym has to work with it, and our heritage work helps there. Thanks to Chris, Jill and the DCM Group team for trusting us with it, and to our site team and trades who built it.
Before you sign the lease
Get a builder to look at the floor, the services and the approvals before you commit. It costs very little and can save a tenancy that won't work. More on how we run fit-outs in commercial fit-outs in Sydney.
Opening a gym or refurbishing one? Talk to Dylan, Matt or Neil, or see our commercial work.
Questions people ask
Can you build to our brand's fit-out standards?
Yes. We build from your designer's drawings or your brand's fit-out guide and coordinate the services around them.
Does a new gym need approval?
Usually, if the tenancy wasn't a gym before. A change of use generally needs council or certifier approval. We'll help you confirm the pathway before you sign up to an opening date.
Can you design it as well?
Yes. Under a D&C contract we take on the design and the build, so you have one contract and one point of contact.
Can an existing gym stay open during a refurbishment?
Often, in part. We stage the work so some of the floor stays open, and do the dusty work outside peak hours.
Commercial & hospitality
Dylan, Matt or Neil can walk the site and talk it through with you.