The usual way to fit out a new gym is for the owner to sit with a supplier, page through a catalogue, and pick whatever looks good within budget. Six months later the result is familiar: a row of treadmills of which two are running at peak and the rest stand empty, a permanent queue at one machine or a lone rack, and a wide patch of floor given to a machine bought because it was in the photograph and untouched since opening day.
The mistake is not in the brand chosen; it is in the unit of measurement. Buyers compare machines on price, while gyms are run on capacity: how many people does this piece serve during the peak hour, and how many square metres does it take to do it? That one question reorders the entire shopping list.
Start from the peak hour, not the catalogue
Your gym is not tested at eleven in the morning; it is tested between six and nine in the evening. Estimate how many people you expect in that hour — a common rule of thumb is that peak attendance runs at roughly 8 to 12% of your active members — then design the floor for that number rather than for total membership. A gym targeting 600 members needs to hold about 60 people at once, comfortably.
Then work out what each type actually serves. A treadmill is occupied by one person for thirty minutes or more — two people an hour. A squat rack rotates three or four between sets. An open functional area the size of two racks holds eight in a group session. The difference is not a detail: the same budget buys you either an angry queue or comfortable capacity, depending on how you split it.
New, refurbished, and used: where each one belongs
The practical rule is simple: the more electronics and moving parts a machine has, the more buying new is worth. The more it is silent steel, the better a used purchase becomes. That split alone can save a third of your budget with no difference a member will ever notice.
| Category | Recommendation | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cardio (treadmills, ellipticals, bikes) | New, or refurbished from an authorised dealer | Motors, control boards, and belts wear by the hour — and a fault here is instantly visible to members |
| Free weights, plates, and bars | Used, without hesitation | Iron does not age; 20kg today is 20kg in twenty years, and a scratch changes nothing |
| Racks, cages, and benches | Used, commercial grade, after inspecting the welds | A steel frame lasts decades; check welds, holes, and corrosion — and never buy home-grade |
| Cable machines and multi-stations | Refurbished, provided spares are available locally | Cables and pulleys are cheap consumables, while the weight stack itself does not degrade |
| Rubber flooring | Always new | A safety item rather than a cosmetic one — used flooring arrives warped and separating, and replacing it later means emptying the floor |
The lines that never appear on the quotation
The price of a machine is not its cost. Budgets that blow up in the final month before opening always blow up on the following lines, every one of which is knowable in advance and can be priced:
- Freight, customs, and clearance — can add 15 to 30% to the factory price on imported machines, and it varies with country of origin and trade agreements.
- Lifting and installation: machines weighing hundreds of kilos in a building with a small lift means a crane or a labour crew — priced by the day, not by the piece.
- Floor loading and power: a free-weight area may need structural reinforcement, and a row of treadmills may need dedicated circuits. Ask the engineer before you buy, not after.
- Lead time: 10 to 16 weeks is common on imported orders. A delayed delivery delays opening, and the rent keeps running throughout.
- Warranty and the annual service contract: read what is covered and what is excluded, and note that many warranties are voided if anyone other than the dealer installs the equipment.
Buy in two phases, and let usage decide the second
The strongest temptation at opening is to fill every metre from day one. Resist it. A gym that opens with eighty per cent of its equipment and holds the rest in cash owns two things the one that spent everything does not: working capital to cross the first months, and the ability to buy based on what its members actually use rather than what it guessed before it knew them.
- Phase one: what no gym opens without — a complete free-weight area, at least two racks, a graduated dumbbell set, cardio sized to your expected peak and no more, and an open area.
- Trade for three months while measuring: your real peak hours from the check-in log, the machines that grow a queue, and the areas that stay empty in the evening.
- Phase two: buy against the bottleneck you observed. It will usually be a third rack, heavier dumbbells, or a wider functional area — rarely more treadmills, which is nonetheless what you would have bought had you purchased everything at once.
And whatever you buy, record it the day it arrives rather than a year later: serial number, purchase date, supplier, warranty expiry, and which branch it sits in. That register is what turns "the third machine is making a noise" into a warranty claim resting on a documented date instead of a conversation with a supplier who does not remember. It is also what makes the repair-or-replace decision five years on a matter of arithmetic: what you have spent on this piece against the price of its replacement.