Ordering/purchasing new seating solutions

[studionorth]

Hey guys,

My name is brian and I work at a research lab in MN. I just had a general question for all who work in a research lab environment. I have been assigned the task of ordering/purchasing new seating solutions. I was curious as to how many of you use Sit/Stand stools in your everyday activities. Lab bench/fume hood/ microscopy/etc... I have been getting a few requests and was hoping to get some feedback. Are they accomodating? Should I get ones that are mobile?

Thanks for the Help!

Brian

 

[Moonbear]

Seating solutions? Is that what they call it now? Okay, here's the deal...make sure the seat is tall enough to reach whatever the work surface is...low chairs and high benches, or tall stools and low benches don't work well together, and this apparently is a challenging concept for those who design new labs. Also, the highest position on a low chair should overlap with the lowest position on the higher stools. Otherwise, those of us who are height-challenged find that no chair in the place is the right height for us...half are an inch or two too low, and the other half an inch or two too high to get comfortable. Not everyone is a 6' tall male.

For some purposes, wheels on chairs are nice, but better if they can be locked, or just have some that don't have wheels. Otherwise, when you're trying to sit in one place to do something that requires fine detail work, and the chair is too high for you to reach your feet to the floor, it gets really annoying to keep drifting away from the bench.

Oh, and the last thing is that arms on the chairs usually just get in the way. They may look comfy, but when you're working in a crowded lab, and people need to get around you constantly, the smaller the footprint of the chair, the better. Otherwise, you end up with the outcome I usually have which is to toss all the chairs out except for one or two for functions that really do require you to be seated. It's often easier to just stand and too many chairs just get in the way.