Employee and Workplace Lockers: How to Choose Lockers for Break Rooms, Plants, Warehouses and Offices

• Break rooms and entrances: coats, bags, lunches and phones for office, retail and back-of-house staff.
• Manufacturing plants and warehouses: street clothes, uniforms, PPE and tools, often in a dedicated locker room.
• Hospitals and clinics: staff lockers for scrubs and personal items, often with day-use lockers for shift workers.
• Fire stations and public safety: turnout gear lockers with open fronts and ventilation.
• Hybrid offices: shared day-use lockers so people without an assigned desk still have a secure spot.

Tiers are the number of compartments stacked in one locker column. More tiers serve more people in the same wall length; fewer tiers hold longer items.

• Single tier: full-length coats, uniforms, gear.
• Double tier: the common choice for employee locker rooms; room for a coat and a bag.
• Triple tier and up: bags, lunches and small items where space is tight.
• Z-tier (two-person): each person gets a full-height hanging space in an interlocking Z-shaped door, a good fit for uniforms in tight rooms.
• Box lockers and cubbies: phones and valuables.

See the locker tiers and types on our lockers page.

More detail in metal vs. plastic vs. phenolic lockers.

• Solid doors with louvers: standard for coats and bags.
• Perforated or ventilated doors: for uniforms, PPE and anything that goes in damp.
• Open-front or mesh lockers: for turnout gear and items that need to dry, and for quick visual checks.
• See-through doors: where contents must be visible for security.

• Padlock hasps: lowest cost; employees supply their own locks.
• Built-in keyed or combination locks: no loose padlocks; a master key or control key lets managers open lockers.
• Keypad and RFID locks: no keys to lose; badge access can tie into the cards employees already carry; resettable for day-use banks.
• Smart lockers: cloud-managed lockers such as List Industries LokrIQ, with RFID, mobile and PIN access, for day-use, package or equipment hand-off.

• Accessible lockers: where lockers are provided, accessibility standards generally require a share of them to meet reach-range and hardware requirements. Confirm with your code official.
• Benches: plan clear aisle space in front of open doors and room for benches in changing areas.
• Bases and tops: closed bases keep debris out; sloped tops stop items from being stored on top.
• Anchoring: lockers are typically anchored to the wall or floor so they can't tip.
• Delivery and access: check doorways, elevators and the install path before ordering assembled lockers.

LG2 handles the takeoff, submittals, delivery and installation, and offers the brands side by side so you can compare.

• Where the lockers go and who uses them.
• Assigned or day-use, and how many at peak.
• What goes inside: coats, bags, uniforms, PPE, phones.
• Tiers and sizes.
• Material for the room conditions.
• Door style and ventilation.
• Lock type and who holds master access.
• Accessible units, benches, bases and sloped tops.
• Wall length, install path and schedule.