Zone your gym floor
Total area and the kind of gym. Support areas come off first.
Gym floors zoned for peak hour, not for the equipment list
How this calculator works
- Support area = total × share. Defaults are 12% for a society gym, 25% for a commercial gym and 18% for a boutique studio, covering changing, showers, reception and stores.
- Equipment floor = total − support.
- The equipment floor is split by gym type across five zones using published percentages, listed in the table below.
- Stations = floor(zone area ÷ area per station). Cardio 40, selectorised 50, free weights 60, functional 25 sq ft per user.
- Stretch and recovery is left as open floor rather than converted to stations, because that is what it is.
- All-in area per simultaneous user = total area ÷ total stations, the benchmark for comparing one gym against another.
| Zone | Area per station | Society gym | Commercial gym | Boutique studio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardio | 40 sq ft | 35% | 30% | 15% |
| Selectorised resistance | 50 sq ft | 30% | 25% | 15% |
| Free weights | 60 sq ft | 15% | 20% | 20% |
| Functional / studio | 25 sq ft per user | 12% | 15% | 40% |
| Stretch and recovery | open floor | 8% | 10% | 10% |
| Support and changing | — | 12% of total | 25% of total | 18% of total |
A society gym carries a low support share because residents change at home, and a high cardio share because that is what a residential membership actually uses. A commercial gym needs full wet areas and a deeper free-weight offer.
Worked example — a 3,000 sq ft commercial gym
| Zone | Area | Stations |
|---|---|---|
| Support and changing at 25% | 750 sq ft | — |
| Equipment floor | 2,250 sq ft | — |
| Cardio at 30% | 675 sq ft | 16 machines |
| Selectorised at 25% | 563 sq ft | 11 machines |
| Free weights at 20% | 450 sq ft | 7 stations |
| Functional at 15% | 338 sq ft | 13 users |
| Stretch at 10% | 225 sq ft | open floor |
| Total | 3,000 sq ft | 47 stations |
| All-in per user | 3,000 ÷ 47 | 63.8 sq ft |
What the station count does not tell you
Peak-hour behaviour. A gym with 47 stations does not serve 47 people comfortably, because usage is not evenly distributed — at 7 pm everyone wants the same three pieces of equipment and the cardio row is empty. The planning response is not more stations, it is duplicating the specific items that queue: the squat rack, the bench, the cable crossover and the treadmills nearest the window.
The second thing it misses is the free-weight floor. Sixty square feet per station assumes a rack or a bench with room to work around it. A dumbbell zone is different — it needs a run of racking along a wall plus a clear floor depth of at least 8 ft in front of it for bent-over and floor work. Squeezing that to 6 ft is the commonest mistake in a society gym and it makes half the equipment unusable.
Third, and specific to residential buildings: acoustic transmission. A dropped barbell on a 20 mm rubber mat over a structural slab transmits straight into the flat below, and no thickness of mat solves it. The answer is an isolated lifting platform — a plywood and rubber sandwich on resilient pads — under the deadlift and clean areas. It costs about ₹45,000 for two platforms and it prevents the single most common complaint about a society gym.
Every constant on this page comes from Greenbox site records — measured drawings, signed BOQs and completion certificates from projects delivered between 2023 and 2026 — rounded to the figures an estimator would actually write down. We publish them so the arithmetic can be audited rather than trusted. Treat the output as a planning figure: accurate enough to brief a landlord, a bank or a family, and not accurate enough to sign a contract against.
What this tool does not cover
- Equipment cost, which for a 47-station commercial gym runs well above the fit-out.
- Structural loading. Free-weight zones want a slab rated around 7.5 kN/m², which an existing residential slab may not offer.
- Ventilation and air conditioning, which for a gym is 1.5 to 2 times an office load per square foot.
- Changing rooms, showers and lockers in detail — the support percentage is a planning allowance, not a layout.
- Mirrors, acoustic treatment, AV and the flooring build-up itself.
- For the fit-out rate, start with the commercial fit-out calculator and add flooring and equipment separately.
Amenity and commercial fit-outs delivered by Greenbox Design Studio.
Frequently asked questions
How much space does one gym machine need?+
Forty square feet for a cardio machine, 50 for a selectorised resistance machine and 60 for a free-weight station such as a rack or a bench. Those figures include the working space and access around the equipment, not just its footprint.
How big should a society gym be?+
For a building of 80 to 100 flats, 1,200 to 1,800 square feet is a realistic brief — enough for six or seven cardio machines, a multi-station, a dumbbell run and a small functional area. Below 900 sq ft you are choosing between cardio and weights rather than providing both.
What ceiling height does a gym need?+
Ten feet clear for machines and free weights, twelve for rope work, overhead pressing and functional training. Below nine feet you should say so in the brief and restrict the free-weight zone to seated and bench work.
How do I stop gym noise reaching the flat below?+
An isolated lifting platform, not a thicker mat. A dropped barbell on rubber over a structural slab transmits straight through. A plywood and rubber platform on resilient pads under the deadlift area costs about ₹45,000 for two and prevents the complaint that otherwise closes a society gym at 9 pm.
What flooring does a gym need?+
Fifteen to twenty millimetres of rubber over the slab across the equipment floor, thicker under free weights, and a sprung or vinyl surface in a functional studio. Cardio areas can take a thinner rubber; the free-weight zone is where the specification has to be right.