For the changing room, a gym mainly needs 4-door or 6-door lockers with 82 × 28 cm compartments: they take the sports bag, street clothes and shoes, and every metre of wall gives six members a compartment. You count them by the number of people inside the centre at peak time, not by membership: with 70 inside at once, that comes to 12 six-door lockers and 11.64 m of wall. Further down is what changes if there is a pool, if members arrive in winter coats or if nobody is on reception.
What compartment does a sports bag need?
In a normal session, a member leaves the bag, the clothes they came in, their street shoes, phone and keys. All of that fits in an 82 × 28 cm compartment, the one in the 4-door (177 × 65 × 40 cm) and 6-door (177 × 97 × 40 cm) lockers. The jacket and the bag go above or below the removable shelf.
What decides whether the bag goes in is the opening, because the door measures 78 × 28 cm. A rucksack or a soft holdall squeezes through; a rigid bag needs at least one side of 28 cm or less.
If members arrive in winter coats, or come straight from work in a suit, the full-height compartment of the 2-door locker (28 cm wide) lets them put their clothes in whole, without folding. It costs twice the wall: three people per metre instead of six.
The 12-door locker, with 41 × 28 cm compartments, is for something else: the phone, wallet and keys of people who arrive already changed and skip the changing room. It fits next to the gym floor or by the entrance. A sports bag does not fit in 41 cm.
| Locker | Compartment | For whom | Members per metre of wall |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 doors, 177 × 65 × 40 cm | Full height × 28 cm | Arrives in a coat or suit and stores it unfolded | 3 |
| 4 doors, 177 × 65 × 40 cm | 82 × 28 cm | Sports bag, street clothes and shoes | 6 |
| 6 doors, 177 × 97 × 40 cm | 82 × 28 cm | The same, in three columns | 6 |
| 12 doors, 177 × 97 × 40 cm | 41 × 28 cm | Phone, wallet and keys next to the gym floor | 12 |
For a home gym or a garage you count by household: a 4-door locker gives each of four people their own 82 cm compartment. Our guide 2, 4, 6 or 12-door locker: which to choose covers how to split a wall between models, and the single-column locker for narrow gaps.
What about damp if there is a pool or showers?
Gym kit goes in sweaty and, if there is a pool, wet. It sits shut in the locker for an hour and, if the changing room is not ventilated, the smell lingers. Put the lockers in the dry area, away from the shower exit, with the extractor running.
If the changing room opens straight onto the pool and the floor is soaked every day, send us a photo of the space on WhatsApp (+34 614 39 49 16) before you buy and we will get back to you straight away.
Key or padlock?
TwinThink lockers have a key lock on every door, and each lock comes with two keys. In a gym with a staffed reception, the usual set-up is that reception holds the keys, hands one to the member on the way in and takes it back on the way out, with the second key for each door on a numbered key board. If members rent a locker by the month, each keeps one key, the centre keeps the other and records who has which door.
Keys get harder in a 24-hour gym with card access and nobody on reception: someone has to hand keys out and collect them every shift, and a member's own padlock or a coin lock saves the centre that work. What suits each case, and what the regulations ask of the staff changing room, in lockers with or without a key.
How many lockers does a gym need?
One for each person whose belongings are stored at the same time, not one per member. At peak time that means everyone training plus everyone getting changed. Your access control system tells you how many people are inside in your busiest hour; add a margin.
In numbers: with 70 people inside at peak time you need 70 compartments. With 6-door lockers that is 12 lockers, 72 compartments and 11.64 m of wall, or two facing rows of 5.82 m, about 2.1 m apart, with the benches in between. If 14 of those members arrive in winter coats and want to store them unfolded, swap 2 of the 6-door lockers for 7 of the 2-door model: that leaves 60 compartments of 82 cm in 9.70 m and 14 full-height ones in 4.55 m. The total is 14.25 m of wall, 2.61 m more than before, for 14 coats.
For your own centre, work out how many lockers your changing room needs: the calculator runs this sum with the real measurements of the range.
How many benches do you need?
Benches are counted by the people changing at the same time, which is fewer than the people with a locker in use. For the staff changing room, regulation 24 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 asks for facilities "provided with seating", without saying how much. The German workplace rule ASR A4.1 does put a number on it: at least one seat for every four workers using the changing room at the same time. For the members' changing room it works as a benchmark. If 24 of the 70 people in the example are changing at once, that is 6 seats.
TwinThink sells two benches: the 90 × 32 × 45 cm one seats two people and the 150 × 32 × 45 cm one seats three. Those 6 seats come to three 90 cm benches or two 150 cm ones. We explain how far from the lockers they go, and how much walkway to leave, in changing room benches: regulations and measurements.
Do they have to be fixed to the wall?
Yes. A 177 cm locker with two doors open and someone leaning on it can tip over if it is not fixed, and in a gym people are in a hurry and the floor is sometimes wet. Screws and wall plugs are not included, and the plug depends on your wall, whether brick, concrete or plasterboard, so check it before assembly day.
How long do they take to assemble?
They arrive flat-packed, with a manual and an assembly video, and go together with screws in under 15 minutes per locker. The 12 in the example add up to less than three hours of work plus the wall fixing, so two people from the centre can have them ready in a morning. Delivery takes 2-3 working days from our UK warehouse; the details are on the delivery and tracking page.
And the staff changing room?
If your instructors or cleaning staff change clothes for work, their changing room comes under its own rules. Where changing facilities are required, the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 require accommodation that "provides suitable security" for the clothing not worn at work (regulation 23), and changing facilities "provided with seating" (regulation 24). A compartment that locks for each person who changes is the simplest way to give that security. If staff share the changing room with members, a different colour for their lockers tells them apart at a glance: the range comes in grey, white, black, and black and white. How to size it, in lockers in the staff changing room: what the Workplace Regulations 1992 require.
Before you ask for a quote
- People inside the centre at peak time, and how many are changing at once.
- What they leave: bag and street clothes (82 cm compartment) or a coat kept unfolded (full-height compartment).
- Metres of free wall, with room for benches in front.
- Type of wall, for the wall plugs.
- How you will hand out keys: at reception for each visit, or by the month to each member.
- If staff change on site, how many do so at once.
With those answers, request a quote for your changing room and you will usually have it the same working day. From 15 units there is a 5% volume discount, and from 30 units, 10%. If you are buying for a business, give your VAT number and the invoice is made out to your company.
Sources: Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (SI 1992/3004), regulations 23 and 24, on legislation.gov.uk. German benchmark for seating: ASR A4.1 "Sanitärräume", section 7.4(1), published by BAuA. This guide is not legal advice; before an inspection, check the current text and ask your health and safety adviser.