Cleanrooms represent one of the most critical infrastructure investments across industries ranging from pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to semiconductor manufacturing and aerospace. These environments must maintain strict contamination limits, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency while supporting complex manufacturing processes.
For anyone designing a cleanroom, whether it’s one suite or an entire facility, the choice between stick-built and modular construction is one of the first big decisions. That decision affects not just what the room costs today, but how easy it is to run, maintain, and adapt five or ten years down the road.
This article examines both construction approaches, with particular attention to how modular cleanroom systems deliver substantial reductions in operating and maintenance costs over the facility lifecycle.
Understanding stick-built cleanroom construction
Stick-built cleanrooms are constructed using conventional building materials such as metal studs, gypsum wallboard (drywall), fibreglass insulation, field-applied wall coatings, and standard suspended ceiling systems. As with any traditional construction, everything is built on-site from the ground up according to project-specific designs and specifications with quality dependent on both material selection and workmanship.
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