Locker Room Benches: Hardwood, Aluminum and ADA Benches

Steel pedestals are the most common locker bench legs. Lyon’s are 14-gauge steel with 1-5/8″ tubing uprights and 8-1/4″ round plates top and bottom, 16-1/2″ tall, powder coated in the same putty or dove gray as Lyon lockers. The plates are pre-drilled to screw to the bench top and anchor to the floor. Lyon sells them in 2-packs and in 3-packs for tops 9 feet or longer.

Tennsco’s LBP-1 pedestal is heavier: 11-gauge plates and an 11-gauge, 2-3/8″ tube, 17-3/4″ overall, enameled to match Tennsco lockers. Lyon also offers single-piece cast iron pedestals for heavy-abuse rooms.

Aluminum pedestals are anodized and naturally weather resistant, so they will not rust where floors are mopped daily or near showers and pools. Lyon builds each from two formed aluminum pieces welded together, for bench tops from 3 to 8 feet, with hardware to attach to a hardwood or aluminum top.

Movable or fixed? Bolt-on rubber feet add about 1 inch of height and turn an aluminum-pedestal bench into a portable bench — useful in multi-use rooms. For a fixed bench, Lyon’s concrete wedge anchors fasten aluminum pedestals to the slab. Lyon’s trapezoid aluminum pedestal is another movable option; Lyon limits bench overhang past its center to 6 inches.

Replacing locker bench legs only? If the hardwood top is sound, new pedestals bring an old bench back. Measure the existing top length (2 pedestals up to 8 ft, 3 beyond), check whether the old legs were steel or aluminum, and match the finish to the lockers. Lyon aluminum pedestals come in 2- and 3-packs, steel pedestals in putty or dove gray.

Never mix a heavy steel pedestal at one end with a light aluminum one at the other, and re-anchor every new pedestal — old anchor holes are often stripped.

Leave a real aisle. People stand at an open locker door while someone else sits on the bench behind them. Keep the accessible route through the room at least 36″ wide — measured with locker doors open where they swing into the aisle — and add more where shifts change all at once.

Count seats at peak. Changing-room planners commonly allow about 18 to 24 inches of bench per person changing at the same time (less for children, more where people bring bags and coats). Thirty workers changing together need roughly 45 to 60 feet of bench. In workplaces with full-height lockers, not everyone sits, so many rooms plan for most rather than all of the peak crowd.

Test the layout first. Tape the locker footprints, door swings and bench outline on the floor and walk a shift change through it. It shows quickly whether the bench blocks doors or leaves the ADA transfer space too tight.

Wall run or island. Narrow rooms get one bench facing the lockers. Wide rooms can take a freestanding island bench between two locker banks, used from both sides. Leave a break in long benches so people can cross the room.

Lyon ships the top and pedestals separately with assembly hardware and anchor bolts, and strongly recommends fastening the bench to the floor. Tennsco says its benches must be secured to the floor. A loose bench gets dragged into aisles, rocks on uneven slabs and can tip when someone sits on the end.

• Screw the pedestals to the underside of the top (Tennsco’s instructions mark holes 6″ from each end).
• Set the bench, check the aisle and ADA clear space, then mark anchor holes through the base plates.
• Use anchors suited to the floor — concrete wedge anchors on slab; follow local code.
• In wet areas, pick aluminum pedestals and a seat that sheds water.