Design & Planning

Home Bowling Alley Design Guide

Plan For the Construction of Your Ideal Private Bowling Alley.

Table of contents
What's the process? What are the steps involved in buying a bowling alley?

The answer to this question gets its own cute little flow chart on its own web page. See our Process page.

What's the lead time?

It can take 4 months or more to get the equipment ordered, prepped, and ready to ship.

How long does it take to install a bowling alley?

A pair of lanes take about one week to install. Single lanes take about six days, and 4-lane projects take about  11 days.

When do you install the equipment?

The window of opportunity is after HVAC is up and running but before flooring is installed.

How long should the room be?

A regulation bowling alley requires about 89 feet of length for the equipment itself (approach + lane + pinsetter + service aisle). If you want a nice size seating area in front of the lanes, tack on another 11 feet, which means your room needs to be about 100 feet long.

Will you just sell us the equipment so we can install it ourselves?

Our relationship with our main vendor (Brunswick) and our love for humanity prevent us from doing that. A two-lane bowling alley is comprised of thousands of parts — about 16,000 pounds of equipment and materials — It requires specialized training, specialized tools, and knowledge of carpentry, mechanical engineering, electronics, and software. It takes more than being just a "good handyman."

My room isn't quite long enough. Can you install slightly shorter lanes that are non-regulation length?

Yes!

My room is only about 50 or 60 feet long. How short is "too short" for bowling lanes?

That's purely a matter of individual taste. It's a little like asking how low we can install a basketball goal and it still be fun? If your bowlers will be mostly kids or people who haven't bowled much, they might not mind extremely shortened lanes. But, serious league and tournament bowlers won't like a non-regulation size.

Do I get a discount if my lanes are short?

It actually requires more labor to cut and splice the materials. But we'll call it a wash.

Who does the ongoing maintenance on the equipment? What if I need someone to do a repair?

Most of our customers form a relationship with a 3rd-party individual technician from a nearby bowling center. There are also some bowling maintenance companies that serve certain regions of the country. Check our Maintenance page for some options.

Are there any special requirements for room temperature or humidity?

The bowling room needs to be climate controlled just like any other room in the house. The main thing is to keep the temperature constant.

Is labor and shipping included?

Yes. We also include pre-installation site visits, accessories, under-lane structure, scoring system with monitors, training, and as much consultation as you need during the design phase.

Design & Planning - Frequently asked questions

We’ve got answers.

Browse some answers to our most common questions, or you can drop us a line to ask something else.

Are you ready?

Start your custom bowling alley project.

Be sure to check out our pricing page for details, and reach out to our team with any questions or concerns about starting a project.

Bowling alley