Most people designing a kennel block for the first time think about the sleeping area first. That’s the wrong starting point. The decisions that will cost you the most to fix later (drainage fall, service run positioning, isolation bay location, run length) all need to be locked in before you lay a single block. I learned that the hard way working through the layout for my own Ayrshire block. Get those wrong and you’re either re-pouring concrete or running biosecurity that doesn’t actually work.
This guide covers the structural and layout design of a commercial kennel block: what it contains, how the bays should be dimensioned to meet welfare standards, how the drainage needs to fall, and where to put the bits that most plans forget until it’s too late.
What a Kennel Block Is (and Is Not)
A kennel block is a standalone structure housing multiple individual dog kennel units in a single building. Each unit consists of a sleeping bay and an attached exercise run, with a service corridor giving staff access without entering the runs. The whole structure functions as a single building with shared walls, shared drainage, and shared service infrastructure.
It is not a row of separate kennels. The distinction matters for welfare, for biosecurity, and for construction cost. Common walls allow full-height partition design (which the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018 requires for isolation units). A single shared drainage run replaces six separate falls. Roofing and service runs built once across the whole block reduce material cost and maintenance overhead significantly compared to individual structures.
The block as a building type is what all commercial boarding kennels use. A flat-pack “kennel block” product from a timber supplier gives you the frame; it does not give you the drainage, services, biosecurity zoning, or the concrete base. Those are the design decisions this article is actually about.
Bay Layout: Single-Row vs Double-Row
The two standard configurations for a commercial kennel block are single-row (also called single-sided corridor) and double-row (face-to-face runs). The choice affects your footprint, your cleaning workflow, your biosecurity, and how stressed the dogs will be.
Single-Sided Corridor Design
In a single-row block, all the sleeping bays and runs are on one side of the service corridor. Staff enter the corridor and have direct access to every sleeping bay door. The runs extend out from the front of the block with their own access pathway. Dogs in adjacent runs can see each other along the run front, but they cannot see each other through the sleeping bay partitions if those are solid.
Single-sided is the simpler build. The service corridor is narrower (1.2 m is workable; 1.5 m is comfortable with a wheelbarrow). The footprint is long and narrow, which suits a plot alongside a fence line. It is the right configuration for a small block of four to six bays where you want simplicity.
One thing I decided early for my block: single-sided with the run front facing south. Dogs get afternoon sun through the covered run section, the corridor is on the north side where temperatures stay cooler, and the waste drainage exits the site at the low end of the property. That orientation decision dictated where the block could actually sit on the plot.
Double-Row Facing Runs
In a double-row block, two rows of bays face each other across a central service corridor, with runs extending outward from both sides. The corridor doubles as the staff access route for both rows. This is more efficient per square metre of corridor width; you are servicing twice as many bays from the same walkway.
The welfare trade-off is direct eye contact between dogs in facing bays. If the runs are mesh-fronted and face each other across a shared passageway, every dog sees the dogs opposite. For some dogs that is manageable; for reactive animals it is a stressor that compounds across a multi-day stay. Good design adds a solid visual barrier of at least 1.2 m height along the run fronts, or alternates bay positions so no two runs are directly opposite.
Double-row suits a larger block of eight or more bays where corridor efficiency matters more. Below eight bays, the added biosecurity complexity and the visual management requirements usually make single-sided the cleaner choice.
Bay Dimensions That Actually Meet Welfare Standards
Welfare dimensions for boarding kennels are not uniform across the UK. England and Scotland operate under different regulations, and if you are in Scotland (as I am), you are working to the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (Scotland) Regulations 2021, which specify larger minimums than England’s 2018 framework.
Sleeping Area Sizing
Under England’s 2018 Regulations (Schedule 4, Part 2), new-build sleeping areas must be at least 1.9 m² per dog. Scotland’s 2021 guidance (Annex C) sets a weight-based scale: 4 m² for dogs between 10 and 15 kg, scaling up from there for larger animals. That is more than double England’s minimum for a medium-sized dog.
My sleeping bays are designed at 1.8 m wide by 1.6 m deep (2.88 m²). That clears Scotland’s floor area for a small-to-medium dog (up to 10 kg, which requires 4 m² in total kennel area but allows the activity area to carry some of that load), keeps the overall block width manageable, and gives enough room to swing a mop properly. Going narrower than 1.5 m makes cleaning awkward and bedding placement a puzzle. Going wider than 2.0 m wastes space that is better used on run length.
The height requirement under Scotland’s 2021 guidance is 2.0 m. England requires dogs to be able to stand at full height with room to spare. Both are practically satisfied by a standard 2.1 m internal finished height. That also gives staff comfortable access for cleaning without chronic back strain, which matters when you are the only person doing it.
Run Length and Covered Run Design
Run length is where most off-the-shelf kennel block products fall short. England’s 2018 Regulations require each exercise run to have a waterproof roof over a minimum of half its total area. Scotland’s guidance similarly requires a covered section. But the regulations do not specify a minimum run length, and the default products from many timber suppliers deliver runs of 1.8 to 2.4 m.
That is too short for anything above a Springer Spaniel. A dog needs to take at least three full strides in the run to get meaningful physical relief during a short release. For a medium-large dog, three full strides is roughly 3.0 m. My run design is 4.0 m: 2.0 m covered (solid roofed, weather protection) and 2.0 m open-topped mesh. The covered section sits adjacent to the sleeping bay pop-hole, so the dog exits into covered space immediately, which matters in a Scottish winter. Beyond that, the open section provides light and air.
This covered/open split also serves the welfare requirement for natural light access. Dogs must have exposure to natural daylight for part of the day. A fully roofed run with no transparent section fails this unless you use translucent panels for at least part of the roof, which the England 2018 guidance recommends specifically (“ideally translucent” material to filter UV and provide shade).
Drainage That Works at Scale
Drainage is the structural decision you cannot retrofit cheaply. Get the fall wrong and you have standing water in the runs every time it rains or you hose out a bay. Standing water in a kennel environment is a biosecurity problem, a disease transmission risk, and an unpleasant experience for the dogs standing in it.
Floor Fall Calculations
The standard floor drainage fall for kennel runs is 1:40, which is 25 mm of fall per metre of run length. Over a 4.0 m run, that is 100 mm of total fall from the sleeping bay threshold to the drain channel at the front of the run. That is enough to clear hosing water at a reasonable flow rate without the floor angle becoming uncomfortable for a dog standing in the run.
Steeper than 1:30 (33 mm/m) and the floor starts to feel sloped underfoot for the dog. Shallower than 1:50 (20 mm/m) and slow-flow hose water starts to pool, especially if the concrete cures with any minor undulation. 1:40 is the practical middle ground used in most professionally built blocks.
The sleeping bay floor should have a gentler fall: 1:60 (roughly 17 mm/m) directed toward the pop-hole threshold where it joins the run. This stops bedding getting wet from run drainage that backs up in heavy rain while still draining any urine or cleaning water that gets into the sleeping area.
Channel Placement and Wastewater Routing
The drain channel sits at the front edge of the run. Not mid-run, not at the back. Front placement means wastewater exits the run without crossing the area where the dog stands most often. It also means the channel is accessible from outside the run for inspection and rodding without entering the bay.
Each run drains into a shared channel that runs along the front of the block, then into an inspection chamber and out to a soakaway or mains connection. If you are in a rural location (as most kennel blocks are), you will need a septic tank or package treatment plant rated for the volume. A six-bay block at full occupancy plus daily hosing generates more wastewater than many domestic systems are sized for, and that calculation needs to go into your planning application.
Channel covers should be stainless steel or heavy-duty polymer. Cast iron is out (dogs can chip teeth on it), and lightweight plastic deforms under pressure washing and creates trip hazards for staff.
Service Runs: Water, Electric, Wastewater
Every bay needs three services: cold water, electrical (for lighting, heating, and auto-drinkers), and wastewater drainage. Routing these after the block is built is expensive and disruptive. Plan service runs into the slab and wall design from the start.
Water supply enters the block via a single mains connection with a stopcock accessible outside the building. Within the block, a service pipe runs along the rear wall of the sleeping bays (inside the wall if blockwork, surface-mounted in conduit if timber frame). Each bay takes a branch from this pipe to supply an auto-drinker or bowl holder. Frost protection matters in Scotland; the supply pipe should be insulated, and the stopcock should be inside a heated section of the building or fitted with a trace heating cable.
Electrics follow the same logic. A single consumer unit (RCD-protected, as required by the 2018 Regulations and their Scotland equivalent) feeds the block. Separate circuits for lighting, for socket outlets (hoover, pressure washer), and for any under-floor heating or supplementary heating panels. All wiring sits in cable conduit rated for a damp environment, because the inside of a kennel block during hosing-down cycles is wet, and standard domestic installation standards are not sufficient.
Wastewater is covered in the drainage section above. The one additional point worth noting: the connection between the individual bay drains and the shared front channel should use swept bends, not right-angle elbows. Dog hair and bedding material will find its way into every drain in a kennel; swept bends clear themselves under flow pressure. Right-angle elbows block.
Biosecurity Zoning: Where to Put the Isolation Bay
Every licensed boarding kennel needs at least one isolation unit: a space for a dog showing signs of illness that is physically separated from the main block population. But isolation does not mean a kennel at the end of the row with a sign on the door. Physical separation means a separate air supply (or at least no shared ventilation circuit), separate drainage (or drainage that cannot back-flow into the main block), separate entry, and separate cleaning equipment.
Isolation, Whelping, and Puppy Bay Positioning
The isolation bay should be at one end of the block with its own door accessible without passing through the main service corridor. If a dog comes in showing early kennel cough symptoms, you need to be able to move it from your reception area to the isolation unit and back out for collection without walking it past six other bays. That routing should be designed into the site layout, not figured out on the day.
Whelping and puppy bays have different requirements: they need to be warmer (supplementary heating circuit separate from the main block), quieter (away from the busiest part of the building), and accessible for frequent welfare checks without disturbing the other dogs. In a six-bay block, a sensible layout is four main boarding bays, one isolation bay at one end, and one whelping/puppy bay at the other. Each end bay has its own door as well as corridor access.
The Scotland 2021 guidance specifies that bitches with litters require double the normal floor area for their weight category. If your whelping bay is designed at standard dimensions, it will not meet regulatory requirements for a bitch with pups. Design it at a minimum of 6.0 m² combined sleeping and activity area from the start.
Entrance and Pathway Layout
The biosecurity logic extends to the site layout around the block. The main entrance for dog arrivals and departures should not require walking dogs through or past the main kennel building. Kennel cough spreads through airborne droplets; a dog coughing in a holding area just outside the main block can infect six dogs through ventilation openings before you have finished checking it in.
A secure holding pen or reception area at the site entrance, physically separate from the block, gives you space to assess incoming dogs, check documentation, and allow owners to leave before moving the dog to its bay. That 30-second visual check before a dog goes into the block is much easier to do calmly if you are not managing an owner, a dog, and a door at the same time.
Pathway surfaces between the reception area and the block should be non-porous (concrete or block paving) and easy to disinfect. Grass pathways are pleasant until week two of heavy rainfall, when they become a mud slick and a disease vector in one.
What My Block Looks Like in Practice
My Ayrshire block is a six-bay single-sided design. The sleeping bays are 1.8 m wide and 1.6 m deep. The covered run section is 2.0 m long with translucent polycarbonate roofing, and the open-topped mesh run section extends a further 2.0 m. Total run length is 4.0 m per bay.
The block sits on a reinforced concrete slab with a 1:40 drainage fall to a stainless steel channel at the run fronts. That channel drains via 110 mm soil pipe to an inspection chamber at the corner of the site, then to a package treatment plant sized for commercial use. Service pipes for water and electrics are chased into the blockwork rear wall before plastering. The consumer unit is in a lockable cabinet at the building end, outside the main kennel area.
Bay one (south end) is the isolation unit with its own external door facing the site entrance road rather than the main yard. Bay six (north end) is the whelping/puppy bay, designed at 2.3 m wide to give additional floor area. It has an under-slab heating circuit connected to its own thermostat.
The block is not yet operational and does not yet have a licence. These dimensions and layout decisions are design choices made to meet the Scotland 2021 standards at the planning stage. The final sign-off is the inspector’s call, not mine, but designing to the published standards rather than to the minimums gives you a realistic shot at a first-time pass.
Planning and Licensing: What Inspectors Will Look For
A kennel block for commercial boarding requires both planning permission (change of use, or new build consent in most rural settings) and a boarding establishment licence from your local authority. These are separate processes with separate applications, and neither guarantees the other.
Planning consent in Scotland and England requires demonstrating that the development is appropriate for its setting, that drainage and wastewater are handled properly, that noise impact on neighbours is addressed, and that vehicular access is sufficient. For an agricultural property, kennel use may require a change-of-use application even if you are using existing outbuildings. The East Ayrshire planning committee has previously approved change-of-use applications for agricultural buildings to dog kennel use on this type of rural property.
The boarding licence application follows the AWLAIA 2018 framework in England or the Scotland 2021 equivalent. Inspectors assess the physical premises against the regulatory standards before granting a licence. They will measure sleeping areas, check run dimensions, verify drainage, inspect electrical installations, review biosecurity protocols, and assess whether the isolation facility is genuinely separate. Designing to the published standards rather than trying to negotiate marginal dimensions on the day is the only sensible approach.
The DEFRA statutory guidance for local authorities on dog kennel boarding licensing is the most useful single document for understanding what inspectors are looking for. Read it before you draw a single floor plan. The ADCH kennel sizing reference is worth reading alongside it for the jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown of space requirements.
One more thing worth knowing upfront: building to minimum standards gets you through licensing. Building above minimum standards means your dogs are less stressed, your cleaning workflow is easier, and your inspector visits are shorter. That trade-off is worth thinking about before you finalise your dimensions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is a Dog Kennel Block?
A kennel block is a standalone structure housing multiple individual dog kennel units in a single building. Each unit has a sleeping bay and an attached exercise run, with a service corridor giving staff access without entering the runs. It is the standard building type for commercial boarding kennels.
What Size Should a Kennel Block Sleeping Bay Be?
In England, the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) Regulations 2018 require new-build sleeping areas of at least 1.9 m² per dog. In Scotland, the 2021 regulations set a weight-based scale: 4 m² total kennel area for dogs between 10 and 15 kg, scaling up for larger animals. Designing above the minimum is recommended for welfare and operational reasons.
Do I Need Planning Permission for a Kennel Block?
Yes. A kennel block for commercial boarding typically requires both planning permission (change of use or new build consent) and a boarding establishment licence from your local authority. These are separate processes. For agricultural properties, a change-of-use application is usually required even for existing outbuildings.
What Drainage Fall Does a Kennel Block Need?
The standard drainage fall for kennel runs is 1:40 (25 mm of fall per metre of run length). The sleeping bay floor should use a gentler 1:60 fall directed toward the pop-hole threshold. Shallower than 1:50 causes pooling; steeper than 1:30 is uncomfortable for dogs standing in the run.