Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Float centers, more so than some other brick and mortar businesses, tend to be desperate for maximizing the efficiency of their space. And float rooms would have so much extra space if they didn’t have to deal with a door swinging in and out all the time. Why don’t float centers do it this way instead?
Well… Graham and Ashkahn explain exactly why centers don’t do this already, along with the vast majority of other buildings being made currently. It’s likely a code violation and even if it weren’t, it’d probably be unnecessarily hazardous to travel through your center that way.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Alright.
Ashkahn: Welcome. Welcome everyone.
Graham: I think that might have actually been our longest intro that we’ve ever done. Referential intros’ll get like that.
Ashkahn: My name’s Ashkahn.
Graham: I am Graham.
Ashkahn: And, we had a big Q coming.
Graham: Big Q coming your way. And that is, “I haven’t started construction yet.”
Ashkahn: Nice.
Graham: “But, I’m sitting here, looking at my blueprints and wondering; would it make more sense to have the float room doors open into the hall instead of the rooms, to increase usable space in the small float rooms?” That old doors opening into the hall dilemma.
Ashkahn: The old doors going outside instead of inside so you can get more accessible square footage space in the float room question.
Graham: Classic.
Man, if I had a hundred dollar bill for every time someone asked me that, I’d be able to go out some eat some dinner tonight. That would be really nice.
Ashkahn: Yeah. So, yes. It is annoying that your doors take up a bunch of swinging room in these tiny float spaces that you have.
Graham: But only when the door is actually opening or closing, right? Once you set it, then you get the square footage back.
Ashkahn: Well, kind of.
Graham: You can’t hang a shelf on the wall there, or-
Ashkahn: Your float tank can’t be in the way.
Graham: Your float tank can’t be in the way.
Ashkahn: This is a problem. Yeah, but, even in on of our rooms, the door can’t open all the way ’cause there’s a float tank there.
Graham: It’d be really nice if we could open it a little further. I see where they’re coming from.
Ashkahn: I do too.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: That’d be cool.
Ashkahn: In fact, I think I’ve thought this when we were doing our thing. They were like, “Let’s just have these doors swing the frigging other way. What are we doing having them swing in?”
Graham: So, in a world where it’s complete anarchy, and there are no regulations you need to follow, you can totally do this, and it might still cause issues. Like, what if someone’s walking down the hallway and someone opens the door with gusto, and they get slammed in the face with the door?
Ashkahn: I mean, I’m pretty sure that’s the biggest problem here, right? I mean, there’s other specifics
Graham: That is the biggest problem. Yeah.
Ashkahn: People just walk down hallways.
Graham: And, your staff, oftentimes, is walking pretty fast down hallways, and trying to get these rooms clean as fast as they can.
Ashkahn: I’m just picturing our hallway, which has six doors, opening up into it in a matter of 30 feet.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: That sounds really dangerous. And intense. It would be like some sort of video game. Like, some sort of old 90s video game, where you die all the time, and you need to keep starting back at the beginning.
Graham: Paper Boy Extreme.
Yeah. So, that’s the biggest problem, right? If someone is opening the door inward, it’s really rare that someone’s going to be walking into someone’s float room while they’re in there, and specifically right when they’re about to be coming out anyway, on the other side of the door.
Ashkahn: Yeah.
Graham: So, making the person, where the door is going to be swinging, in charge of the motion of the door, is just eliminates the chance of accidents happening.
Ashkahn: And, I mean, there’s probably some ADA laws, and stuff like that. I mean, if you look around you in your life, everywhere you go-
Graham: In your commercial bedroom.
Ashkahn: But anywhere, right? Think about hotels. Think about just the bedrooms in your house. Every door into a room swings into the room instead of out into the hallway.
Graham: In general. There are definitely some exceptions for that. I’ve seen restrooms where the door swings outward, and things like that. Especially in high traffic areas. There are definitely some times when that’s not the case. But, usually it’s when the person on the inside is more likely to get hit by a door swinging, right? Or, just, intuitively makes more sense that that would happen.
Ashkahn: I think it makes more sense, too, more than interior or dead end sort of space that you’re in, the more likely you’re gonna be answering the door for someone.
Imagine having a door where someone knocks on it, and to let them in, you had to open it towards them. Right?
Graham: Yeah, that’s awkward. It’s weird.
So, the other side of that is, it is very likely to not actually pass code in your area.
Ashkahn: Yeah, I’d be pretty surprised if this was legal, unless you had-
Graham: And wide enough hallways might be one case. We’re not code experts. But, maybe if people have such a big avenue to walk down the center of a really wide hallway, that doors opening on either side just aren’t likely to hit them in their main path, then it’s okay.
But, in a float center, you’re usually trying to make the most of your space. Doors will be directly opposite each other. So, again, check your local code, if you really, despite our deterrences, are still really eager beaver to get these doors opening in the hallway direction, but even if you’re convinced for yourself, you might still not be able to do it.
Ashkahn: Yeah. So, I’m sorry.
Graham: Shoot the message, not the messenger. That’s what they say.
Ashkahn: Yeah. And it probably does just make more sense to have your doors open. It just feels right.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: You think about all those Scooby Doo montages or the Benny Hill Show. Think how weird those would look with doors opening out.
Graham: And they’re have to pause right before, which means the ghost chasing them would have to pause, too, just out of politeness.
Ashkahn: Yeah, see, so, yeah.
Graham: But you did the right thing, in that you thought you had a brilliant idea, and then you sent it to us to destroy, which I encourage everyone else out there to do too.
Cruise on down to floattanksolutions.com. If you’re feeling like it, type in /podcast as well. That’ll take you to the page where you can actually submit questions. And, we’ll be here same time tomorrow, if you listen to us at the same time every day.
Ashkahn: Every day. Yeah. We just sleep in this little room that we’re in right now.
Graham: We just sleep in your headphones.
Ashkahn: One of us in each ear.
Graham: We’ll be here when you’re ready for us.
Ashkahn: Snuggled up in there.
Bye everyone.
Graham: Right.
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Latest Blog Posts
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #20
We now follow the trail of our ancestors, Meriwether Lewis & William Clark, whose expedition started in St. Louis and would, eventually, lead them to Oregon – just like us.
Except, unlike them, we didn’t actually start in St. Louis, don’t have a tour guide from the Lemhi Shoshone tribe, and aren’t carrying flintlocks (except for Graham).
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #19
Chicago is home to one of the oldest float centers still in operation – SpaceTime Float Tanks.
We had the misfortune of timing our visit as they were moving to a larger location, the only time in 34 years that they have ever been closed. It is with great regret that we were unable to see their historic float center in operation.
They were trailblazers even before there were trails to blaze – so many float centers in the entire Midwest trace their roots back to a single float at SpaceTime.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #18
We made it back to America, everybody. It was a harrowing experience being in an uncivilized country where they think gravy and cheese curds on french fries is a meal but, thankfully, we’ve crossed the border back to a country where we know that chili and shredded cheese on french fries is a meal. Civilization.
Quite honestly, we might be in love with Canada. We’re definitely making another trip up there. For now, it’s about to MPH not KPH.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #17
We hosted our second Float Tour Workshop here in Toronto and stayed in town a bit longer than we normally do, allowing us to get acquainted with the city. The sprawling metropolis is an amalgamation of old world pioneering days and modern multiculturalism. It was founded in 1787, and some of the currently standing buildings pre-date even that. Ancient architecture stands next to contemporary monoliths, weaving a tapestry of antiquity and avant-garde in this fair city.
