Yes. California requires every X-ray, fluoroscopy, and CT room to have a shielding plan prepared and signed by a Qualified Medical Physicist (QMP), and a post-construction shielding survey performed by a QMP before clinical use.

The physicist’s signed shielding plan is filed with CDPH Radiologic Health Branch as part of equipment registration. The post-construction survey confirms that radiation levels in adjacent occupied spaces meet regulatory limits. Lux Construction coordinates with the physicist from project start so the shielding plan is integrated into construction documents and not retrofitted after framing.

CDPH RHB (California Department of Public Health Radiologic Health Branch) is the California regulatory authority for ionizing radiation sources, including all medical, dental, veterinary, and industrial X-ray and CT equipment.

Every X-ray, fluoroscopy, and CT unit in California must be registered with RHB. The registration requires a physicist-signed shielding plan on file, post-construction survey results, and ongoing equipment inspections. Without RHB registration, you cannot legally operate the imaging unit for clinical use. We handle the construction-side coordination with RHB on every imaging room we build.

A standard medical or dental X-ray room takes 6 to 10 weeks of construction. A dental panoramic or cephalometric room takes 4 to 6 weeks. A CBCT room takes 5 to 8 weeks.

Larger and more complex modalities take longer: fluoroscopy and C-arm suites run 10–16 weeks; CT suites with structural reinforcement run 12–20 weeks; MRI suites run 16–28 weeks. Add 4–8 weeks for design, physicist coordination, and permit plan check before construction begins. Equipment lead time is a separate timeline — typically 8–16 weeks for dental imaging, 16–24 weeks for CT, 24–40 weeks for MRI.

Lead thickness is specified by the Qualified Medical Physicist based on equipment workload, distance to adjacent occupied spaces, and the adjacent space’s use factor — not by a generic standard.

Typical specifications range from 1/32″ lead for low-workload dental panoramic rooms to 1/8″ or thicker for high-workload medical X-ray, fluoroscopy, and CT rooms. The shielding plan also specifies lead-glass thickness for view windows, lead-lined doors, and any required floor or ceiling shielding. We don’t size the lead — the physicist does. Our job is to install it correctly to the spec on the plan.

In most cases, no — at least not without re-engineered shielding. CBCT units operate at higher kVp and higher workload than panoramic X-ray, which means the shielding sized for a pano unit usually fails the CBCT shielding survey.

The most common path is engaging a physicist to evaluate whether your existing room can be upgraded with additional shielding, or whether a new CBCT room needs to be built. We see CBCT installations regularly fail surveys because the contractor assumed the existing pano room shielding was sufficient. Don’t make that assumption.

Yes. We build X-ray and imaging rooms inside operating practices regularly, with phased construction, infection control protocols, and dust containment to allow the rest of the practice to continue seeing patients during the build.

This is one of the more common scenarios in dental and medical office construction — practices add CBCT, upgrade from CR to DR, or expand imaging capacity without closing for the construction period. Construction takes slightly longer in occupied facilities (typically 1–3 weeks longer), but it preserves practice revenue.

An X-ray room houses 2D digital radiography (DR) or computed radiography (CR) for general medical or dental imaging. A CBCT room houses cone-beam CT for 3D dental and ENT imaging. A CT suite houses full-body diagnostic computed tomography, which is significantly heavier, larger, and more shielding-intensive.

CT suites involve substantial structural considerations (units commonly weigh 4,000–6,000 lbs and require slab reinforcement), dedicated electrical service and HVAC capacity, equipment cooling integration, and heavier shielding. Construction cost is roughly 2–3x that of a standard X-ray room. CBCT sits between the two: more demanding than 2D X-ray, less demanding than diagnostic CT.

Yes. MRI suite construction is the most construction-intensive imaging room category, and we build 1.5T and 3T suites for hospital, urgent care, and freestanding imaging center applications.

MRI construction includes RF shielding (a Faraday cage to block external radio interference), magnetic-field-zoning the surrounding space, helium quench vent line installation, and non-ferrous construction within the magnet room. We work with specialty RF shielding subcontractors on every MRI build. MRI suite costs run $1,500–$3,000+ per square foot, and timelines run 16–28 weeks.

Lux Construction Group builds imaging rooms across Los Angeles County — including Beverly Hills, Westwood, Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Culver City, West Hollywood, Long Beach, Malibu, and Torrance.

Our office is on Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood — walking distance from UCLA Health and minutes from Cedars-Sinai. Each LA jurisdiction runs its own plan check department, and several incorporated cities (Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Pasadena) have their own building departments distinct from LADBS. CDPH Radiologic Health Branch coordination is the same across every California jurisdiction.