Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Real estate costs from building out a float center, especially in an urban area, can get costly really quick. Sometimes compromises need to be made. But how much of a compromise is too compromised?
As with the best float center mistakes, Graham and Ashkahn can speak to their personal experience on this issue. They talk about opening a four tank center with less than 1,000 square feet and how much of a mistake it is. They also provide helpful planning tips so you can find out how much space you need at an absolute minimum for your float center.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Here we go with today’s question. The one coming in is, “I’m looking at a pretty small space for a four-tank center, a little over 1,000 square feet. How small is too small?“
Ashkahn: How small is too small? Okay.
Graham: I mean we started Float On with four tanks and a little under 1,000 square feet.
Ashkahn: Yes, which was too small.
Graham: It was … That was not big enough.
Ashkahn: It was too small. So that small is too small. I think I can say that.
Graham: The things that you don’t have space for that you might think that you do as you’re building out are things like storage for just about everything you can throw in the float tank center.
Ashkahn: I mean that’s really the one that took us the most by surprise; storage and a back workspace. We’d figured out we wanted the rooms to be a certain size cause the float tank has to fit in there. And we still screwed that up. It’d be nice to have a little bit more room around the filtration system when you want to go work on something.
Graham: That’s what I was going to say for point number three too, was just the ability to actually access your pump systems.
Ashkahn: Alright, well let’s hold on for point number three then. Let’s start with point number one.
Graham: Storage.
Ashkahn: Okay. Storage. Storage, you just need a bunch of stuff. It’s surprising how much stuff you need for a business that’s focused on nothingness. It’s insane. The salt is huge, right? The more salt you can buy the cheaper you get it. So that’s a big chunk of things. And we just started putting salt into our lobby, just making giant salt stacks all around the lobby area.
Graham: They have salt furniture that people can sit on.
Ashkahn: That’s right. Salt people working the front desk.
Graham: And then the other thing, really honestly, it’s a lot of space in order to do the types of cleaning that you need to do, right? So things like actually cleaning off all of the neck pillows in between every person and sanitizing them. That actually takes a lot of space to allow them to dry. An area to dump your filters into a big filter-soaking area and let those both soak and then leave room for them to dry afterwards.
Ashkahn: Definitely way more utility sink space. I did not realize how much having a giant awesome utility sink was the greatest thing in the world.
Graham: We started with a very, very tiny utility sink, which we later upgraded to a slightly larger but still small, one-bay utility sink. And that was not nearly enough.
Ashkahn: No. We’re still … We have a nice three-bay stainless steel utility sink with wings on either side of it. And I still kind of want it to be bigger. I want 12-bay … You just have a giant, huge utility sink running the entire expanse of a wall. It sounds awesome to me.
Graham: When your staff needs to take a break they just go chill out in one of the utility sink bays.
Ashkahn: Yeah. One just has Otter Pops in it waiting for you, just totally decked out.
Graham: So 1,000 square feet is not enough to make any of that happen.
Ashkahn: Just forget about that space.
Graham: So what was point number two, other than storage?
Ashkahn: So we had storage. Point number three is on its way.
Graham: You’re the one who said point number two.
Ashkahn: I said point number two?
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: Um-
Graham: So point number three was being able to move around your pumps, and actually being able to access them and do pump-related repairs and things like that. And even now that we have a little more room-per-float space that we have in our facility, it’s still a little tight. It’s one of the biggest things that we recommend a larger space for, is actually being able to do everything that you’d want around your pumps. Right now it takes us a couple hours to actually disconnect all the parts that tie into a single pump system, just because we have to unhook everything that’s above the pump in order to get down to it. It’s all kind of stacked and compressed in a way that takes up the least amount of space possible.
Ashkahn: For sure. And it’s not enjoyable either. It’s not just that it’s time-consuming. It’s kind of like the idea of going to do something on your pump is like, “Oh man. Okay. I’m going to have to sit crooked and twist my arm back behind this thing for two hours to unscrew this bolt.” It’s not really enjoyable work.
Graham: No. So that was point number three.
Ashkahn: Point number two: I’m going to make up point number two. Point number two is the extreme circumstances where you need to get a float tank in and out of a room or down a hallway. Those are moments where you really appreciate space. Being able to have enough space to have a five-foot hallway instead of a four-foot hallway, or slightly bigger doors, or something like that comes in real handy when you’re trying to navigate a eight-foot or nine-foot tub around a corner. It doesn’t come up very often. We’re not every week pulling float tanks out of our rooms. But when it does, the difference between pulling a float tank out and knocking a wall out or pulling the door frame off to get it through is a pretty big one.
Graham: Definitely. Seating for people going in an out of your float tanks is another big one. If you want a lobby, that’s something. If you want a lobby and a post-float lounge where people can hang out just with people who’ve come out of floats, not with the riffraff coming in off the street. That’s kind of nice.
Ashkahn: So what’s our … We have six tanks now and how many square feet? 1,600-
Graham: We have just above 1,600 square feet with six tanks, and that’s still … We are on the low, low side of square footage for a float tank center.
Ashkahn: And that … Even that number is a bit deceptive, right? Cause we have our 1,600 square foot building. But then in the parking lot behind us, we have a storage until filled with … ranging from extra retail items to extra whatever stuff that we have, supplies. Then we have another storage unit down the street in the parking lot of our office that just holds our salt. So that’s where all of our salt goes. And then we have another storage area under our office in the basement. That’s another, I don’t know, 20 feet by 8 feet, or something like that, that is full of our tools and stuff that we don’t want to put in our flimsy storage units.
Graham: And up in the office we have our actual office space where we can actually meet. We have a bunch of our reference materials, and books, and areas where we can use computers and printers and things like that. Again, we get by with our float tank center with a little over 1,600 square feet. But as far as the space needed to run that float tank center, obviously it expands out actually in many directions outside of there.
Ashkahn: It’s definitely nice. It comes with the very obvious compromise of as soon as you have space, your income is restricted by how many float tanks you can fit into it. I wouldn’t … I don’t think I’d go back. I’m not sure I’d rebuild our space with five float tanks instead of six, necessarily. Even knowing what I know now, because when you can put in a source of income versus making your life slightly nicer it can be a difficult decision to make.
Graham: And I would probably look for something a little bigger though. I’d probably … I really like our six tanks that we have. But the idea of having six tanks in a space that also has even 400 more square feet, or bringing us up into more of the 2,000 square feet region would be really nice for sure. And so that’s actually around what we recommend. Somewhere in the 350 square feet per float tank room that you want, assuming you’re only running floats, up to around 400 square feet per float tank room, is the minimum that we recommend for actually having a sane life and sane storage experience in your float tank center.
Ashkahn: How to do it not like us.
Graham: So with a four-tank center, what would that bring us up to? That’s about 1,400 square feet for a four tank center that we recommend at the minimum?
Ashkahn: With around 400 square feet a tank?
Graham: That’s at 350. So then 400 would be 1,600. So 1,400 to 1,600 square feet in the minimum sense. So a little over 1,000. Again, we did it, and it was very uncomfortable, and we had to compromise in a lot of different places. So it is doable. But more space is definitely preferable
Ashkahn: For sure.
Graham: Thanks for the question, and see you all tomorrow.
Ashkahn: Alright if you guys have other questions for us, you can go to floattanksolutions.com/podcast and submit them there.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Should I Wire my Float Tanks into the Wall? – DSP 265
Ashkahn is currently recovering from his talk and the after-party last night, but Jake and Graham have gracefully taken the time to answer a construction question again today.
On the docket today is a question about wiring a float tank directly into the wall. Graham and Jake provide an overview of why some people may prefer this (it’s much easier to keep waterproof, e.g.), and why at Float On they use the twist lock for their outlets and how to properly utilize them.
Can I Keep My Old Ceiling With My Buildout? – DSP 264
Hopefully everyone had a lovely time at the Friday Activities and the after-party.
Ashkahn is still busy running the conference, but Graham and Jake have stepped in to talk about construction!
Today the guys talk about keeping a drop ceiling or T-bar ceiling in an existing space that you’re converting to a float center. The short answer is don’t keep it, as it can cause problems, but the guys do have some workarounds if your landlord is opposed to changing the ceiling.
What to Expect When Expanding from 1 to 3 Tanks? – DSP 263
Ashkahn is busy preparing for everything that happens tonight and tomorrow for the Conference, but that doesn’t mean Daily Solutions will stop being daily.
Graham and Jake talk construction and what to expect when you’re expecting… a giant expansion for your float center. What’s it look like when you go from one tank to three? How do the demands change? What needs to be put in place to make sure that you’re not hitting snags?
Fortunately, these guys know the score and are happy to share.
All About Floor Drains – DSP 262
As Ashkahn gets everything ready for the Start a Center Workshop (happening today) and the Float Conference this weekend, Graham and Jake tackle answering construction questions on the podcast.
Today they’re talking about floor drains. What to consider for drains and how they might pair with different types of flooring. Given the hefty price tag for these more advanced drains, having as much research before making a decision on these is essential. Luckily, the guys have done the hard part already and identified a lot of things to consider.
How to Deal with Float Room Humidity – DSP 261
Graham and Jake are at the helm again while Ashkahn puts the finishing touches on the Float Conference.
Today, the guys are talking all about humidity and how to deal with it when constructing your float rooms. They talk about all the little nuances that you (or your contractor) might not think about when it comes to humidity and how soundproofing and regular airflow may not always go hand in hand.
Latest Blog Posts
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #24
Alberta is often called the Texas of Canada. Part large oil industry, part cattle country.
Don’t Mess With Alberta!
At the base of the Rocky Mountains, replete with an Olympic Stadium, Calgary is a world-class destination for winter sports. The float community developed here similarly to Edmonton – there wasn’t anything nearby except for one or two residential float tanks, and then, in a short period of time, several centers opened all at once. Instead of competing, they’ve decided to work together and have developed one of the tightest knit float communities we’ve seen. They even have monthly Float Dinners, much like we do with the float centers in Portland. They don’t keep meeting minutes, so it’s hard to determine what they talk about at these dinners; my guess would be salt, the effects of salt on various substances, and how salty salt damage can make someone salty.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #23
After Montana, we blazed our way back into Canada. The drive was long, but the scenery was beautiful. We followed the Rockies north, driving up to Edmonton. It’s a bit of a detour but, there are so many float centers in Edmonton, it seemed crazy not to stop by.
The city itself is primarily made up of workers from the oil fields – high risk, high income jobs that fuel the economy. At least until recently. Our visit was right in the middle of the Fort McMurray wildfire which has displaced a lot of the workforce, forcing 100,000 people to leave their homes. Many came to Edmonton, being the nearest metropolitan area to Fort McMurray. Some already split their time between the two cities, living in Edmonton and traveling to Fort McMurray for weeks or months at a time for work.
It’s understood that, in economic hardship, luxury commodities are typically the first thing people cut back on. Surprisingly, this doesn’t seem to be the case for floating. In fact, more people seem to be trying it to help alleviate the stress, many centers even offering free or discounted services to those displaced in an effort to help in a small way.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #22
We’ve got two more stops in Colorado Springs before heading west. It’s a town known for its military base and long history of weapons testing. With such a large military presence, it comes as no surprise that the float center owners here are veterans, themselves.
After that, we shoot across to Salt Lake City. Utah is filled with gorgeous sights, from breathtaking lakes to stunning painted hills. With an international landmark famous for its effects on buoyancy, Salt Lake City should be pretty familiar with the concept of floating. With five different float centers, and the manufacturer of the Zen Tent out there, there could be some cause and effect.
After that, we head up into Idaho and Montana to close out the Central United States portion of our Tour. We’ll follow the Rocky Mountains north, taking in the scenery along the way.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #21
Denver has been home to a vibrant float community for a long time. Some of the earliest commercial centers that started up in the ‘70s and ‘80s were out here. 30 years is a long time, and most of the old centers aren’t around anymore, but there’s a conscious community that has been floating since the old days and they love how much the industry has evolved and grown.
