Should You Expand, Relocate, or Consolidate Your Laboratory?

Growth can create an exciting turning point for a laboratory, but it can also raise difficult questions about what comes next. As research programs expand, new instrumentation is added, and teams grow, a laboratory that once worked well may begin to limit the organization.

At that point, leadership may consider expanding the existing facility, relocating to a new laboratory, or consolidating multiple spaces. The right choice depends on more than square footage. Equipment requirements, scientific workflows, infrastructure, research continuity, cost, staffing, and future growth all need to be considered.

At Overbrook Support Services, we work with organizations throughout the laboratory life cycle. That experience gives our team a firsthand understanding of the equipment and operational considerations to evaluate before choosing a path forward.

When Does Expanding Your Current Laboratory Make Sense?

Expanding your current laboratory may make sense when the facility has enough space and infrastructure to support additional equipment, personnel, and research activity without limiting scientific workflows or future growth.

Before committing to an expansion, consider whether the facility can support increased electrical demand, HVAC and ventilation requirements, specialty gases, plumbing, storage, and new instrumentation.

Workflow is equally important. An instrument may technically fit into the available space but create congestion, restrict service access, or interfere with how scientists use the laboratory.

Expansion works best when the existing facility can support not only today's needs, but also the organization's anticipated growth.

When Is Laboratory Relocation the Better Option?

Relocating your laboratory may be the better option when your existing facility no longer has the space, infrastructure, or flexibility needed to support current operations and future growth.

A laboratory may lack space for additional instrumentation, but it may also be constrained by electrical capacity, ventilation, equipment access, utility infrastructure, or an inefficient layout.

A new facility creates an opportunity to address those limitations, but evaluate the space around the laboratory's actual equipment and workflows before finalizing plans.

Consider equipment dimensions, utility requirements, service clearances, infrastructure, and future instrumentation early. A successful laboratory relocation also requires careful sequencing to minimize downtime and maintain critical research activities throughout the transition.

When Should You Consider Consolidating Multiple Laboratories?

Consolidating multiple laboratories may make sense when bringing equipment, personnel, and scientific operations into one facility can improve workflows, equipment utilization, collaboration, or operating efficiency.

The process provides an opportunity to identify duplicate or underutilized equipment, improve workflows, consolidate support functions, and determine what assets should be moved, replaced, redeployed, or retired.

However, reducing the number of facilities does not automatically improve laboratory operations. The consolidated space still needs to support the combined equipment load, workflows, personnel, infrastructure, and the organization's future growth.

What Should You Evaluate Before Choosing a Laboratory Strategy?

Before choosing between expansion, relocation, and consolidation, laboratory leaders should evaluate several key areas together.

• Equipment and infrastructure: Can the facility support current and planned instrumentation, including electrical, HVAC, ventilation, gases, plumbing, floor loading, and service requirements?
• Scientific workflows: Will the new environment improve how scientists move between equipment, samples, storage, and work areas, or create new inefficiencies?
• Future growth: Will the solution still work if staffing, instrumentation, or research programs expand over the next several years?
• Research continuity: How will active research be maintained during construction, relocation, or consolidation?
• Cost: What are the short-term project costs as well as the long-term costs of operating, maintaining, and potentially modifying the facility?
• Staffing and timing: How will the change affect employees, and can the project realistically be completed within the organization's required timeline?

“The decision to expand, relocate, or consolidate shouldn't start with square footage alone. You have to understand what the science requires, what the equipment requires, and whether the facility can support both today and as the organization grows.” — Ted Palashis

Looking at these factors together can help prevent an organization from solving today's space problem while creating tomorrow's operational problem.

Why Should Equipment Planning Happen Early?

Laboratory equipment planning should begin before an expansion, relocation, or consolidation plan is finalized because instrumentation requirements can determine whether a proposed space will actually support scientific operations.

A laboratory may look suitable on a floor plan but lack the utilities, environmental conditions, clearances, or access its equipment requires. An instrument may fit inside a room but be unable to travel through a doorway, hallway, freight elevator, or loading area.

Finding those problems after a lease is signed or a design is finalized can lead to redesigns, delays, and additional costs.

An equipment-based laboratory test fit allows organizations to evaluate instrumentation, utilities, workflows, and infrastructure before major facility decisions are locked in. Accurate laboratory asset information can further clarify what equipment needs to be accommodated and how those assets support current and future operations.

How Do You Choose the Right Path for Your Laboratory?

Choosing whether to expand, relocate, or consolidate your laboratory requires comparing how each option will affect equipment, infrastructure, scientific workflows, research continuity, cost, staffing, and future growth.

Expansion may work when the existing facility still has the capacity and flexibility to grow. Relocation may make more sense when infrastructure or space limitations have become difficult to overcome. Consolidation may create efficiencies when multiple laboratories, teams, and equipment inventories can operate more effectively together.

The decision should ultimately come back to a more important question than simply, "Where can we create more space?"

Which option will best support the science our organization needs to perform next?

Plan the Next Stage of Your Laboratory

Overbrook Support Services helps organizations evaluate equipment, workflows, infrastructure, and facility requirements before finalizing major laboratory decisions.

Whether you are considering laboratory expansion, relocation, or consolidation, early planning can help identify potential constraints and determine which path best supports your laboratory's long-term needs.