A science lab can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars for a basic shared bench to several million for a fully built-out facility. The range is enormous because “science lab” covers everything from a startup’s first wet lab bench to a high-containment biosafety facility. The single biggest factor is whether you’re building new construction, renovating existing space, or renting a bench in a shared incubator.
New Construction and Renovation Costs
Building a laboratory from scratch is one of the most expensive types of commercial construction. Life sciences fit-out costs currently average about $741 per square foot, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s most recent cost guide. That figure covers converting raw or existing space into a functional lab, including mechanical systems, finishes, and basic infrastructure. For a modest 2,000-square-foot lab, that puts the buildout alone near $1.5 million before you buy a single piece of equipment.
Renovating an older facility can be cheaper, but aging buildings often need significant upgrades to plumbing, electrical capacity, and ventilation. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies renovating older labs are a major driver of construction activity right now, even as new building has slowed overall.
Wet Labs vs. Dry Labs
The type of science you’re doing changes the price dramatically. Wet labs, where you work with liquids, chemicals, or biological samples, cost at least double what a dry lab costs. That premium comes from specialized plumbing and drainage, chemical-resistant surfaces, fume hoods, ventilation systems, and safety features like emergency showers and eyewash stations. Wet labs also take up more physical space because of the room needed for fume hoods, sinks, chemical storage, and airflow equipment.
Dry labs, focused on computational work, data analysis, or electronics, look more like high-end offices. They still need reliable power and climate control, but skip the expensive plumbing and ventilation infrastructure. If your work is primarily computational, you can save hundreds of thousands of dollars by designing around a dry lab footprint.
Ventilation and Fume Hoods
Fume hoods are often the single most expensive piece of infrastructure in a chemistry or biology lab, and most labs need more than one. A ducted fume hood, the standard type that vents air outside the building through ductwork, costs $5,000 to $10,000 installed. That price includes the hood itself, labor, ductwork, and modifications to your HVAC system.
Ductless fume hoods run $2,000 to $6,000 and are simpler to install since they recirculate filtered air back into the room instead of venting outside. The tradeoff is ongoing filter replacement costs and limitations on what chemicals you can safely use with them. If your lab needs new ductwork, electrical upgrades, or plumbing modifications to support ventilation, those costs climb further. A lab with four or five ducted fume hoods can easily spend $40,000 to $50,000 on ventilation alone.
Furniture, Benches, and Casework
Lab furniture is more expensive than office furniture because it needs to resist chemicals, support heavy equipment, and meet safety standards. Here’s what typical pieces cost:
- Light-duty lab bench (6 foot): around $790
- Heavy-duty lab bench (6 foot): $1,200 to $1,600, with chemical-resistant countertops
- Modular bench with shelving and power (8 foot): $1,300 to $2,700
- Bench with built-in storage and drawers (6 foot): about $1,570
- Sink cabinet package: around $3,100
- Wall-mounted upper cabinet: about $730
- Lab chairs: $240 to $275 each
A single researcher’s workstation with a heavy-duty bench, upper shelving, a sink cabinet, and a chair runs roughly $3,000 to $5,000 before you add instruments. A 10-person lab can spend $30,000 to $60,000 furnishing the space, and that’s before any major equipment like centrifuges, spectrometers, or sequencers, which can individually cost tens of thousands of dollars.
High-Containment Labs
Labs that handle dangerous pathogens operate at Biosafety Levels (BSL) ranging from 1 to 4, and costs escalate steeply at each level. A modular BSL-3 lab, the type used for tuberculosis or SARS-related research, costs around $200,000 in a container-based design. Traditional brick-and-mortar BSL-3 labs cost two to three times that amount, putting them in the $400,000 to $600,000 range or higher depending on size.
BSL-4 facilities, designed for the most dangerous pathogens like Ebola, are rare and extraordinarily expensive. They require completely sealed environments, independent air supplies, and chemical shower decontamination systems. Full BSL-4 lab construction projects routinely cost tens of millions of dollars. Maintenance is also significant: most BSL-3 labs need servicing twice a year, though newer modular designs have cut that to once annually, reducing maintenance costs by roughly 50%.
Ongoing Operational Costs
The sticker price of building a lab is only part of the picture. Annual maintenance contracts typically run about 10% of each piece of equipment’s purchase price. A lab with $500,000 in instruments can expect to spend $50,000 a year just keeping them maintained and calibrated.
Utility costs are another persistent expense. Labs consume far more electricity and water than standard office space because of ventilation systems, temperature-controlled storage, and equipment that runs around the clock. Utilities typically account for 10 to 15% of a lab’s monthly operational budget. Insurance adds another 5 to 8% of annual operational costs, covering equipment damage, liability, and in some cases environmental contamination.
Consumable supplies, including reagents, glassware, protective equipment, and waste disposal, add thousands more per year depending on the volume of work. For an active wet lab, consumables can rival equipment maintenance as a line item.
Shared Labs and Incubator Spaces
For startups and early-stage researchers, renting bench space in a lab incubator is the most affordable way to get started. These shared facilities provide access to common equipment, fume hoods, and basic infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of building your own space.
Pricing varies widely by location. Lab space in major biotech hubs like Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, commands premium rates, while incubators in smaller cities offer significantly cheaper options. Some mission-driven incubators deliberately price lab rentals at no more than 10 to 15% of a typical federal small business research grant (Phase I SBIR awards are generally around $275,000), which keeps monthly costs low enough that startups can put 90% of their funding toward actual science instead of real estate.
Shared lab space lets you avoid the massive upfront capital of building out your own facility, but you trade flexibility and privacy for affordability. As your team and research needs grow, most companies eventually transition to dedicated space, which brings you back to the buildout costs described above.