Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Still no Ashkahn today. He’s taking a couple of post-conference days to himself.
Jake and Graham are on the scene though to answer construction questions, though. Even the straight forward ones, like today. Jake informs us which to choose when doing construction, light or heavy gauge studs when constructing a float center, while getting a little sidetracked when comparing wooden and metal studs.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Alright, welcome everybody. This is Graham over here.
Jake: And this is Jake over here.
Graham: The man with the lesson.
Jake: Oh, something with the lesson.
Graham: And today’s-
Jake: We have a question.
Graham: Question. Yeah, I guess, first of all there’s no Ashkahn so if you’re expecting Ashkahn, you were wrong and you should feel bad about it. And so it’s just Jake and I rocking it out. Answering some construction stuff. And today’s question is “what are your thoughts on heavy versus light gauge studs?”
Jake: My thoughts on heavy versus light gauge studs.
Graham: So they’re talking about metal studs.
Jake: Of course.
Graham: Because you don’t have gauges of wood.
Jake: No, they’re talking about metal studs here and you have a whole range of gauges. What do we see? A lot of 20? 20 gauge is what we’ve come across as the most common.
Graham: Yeah, I think especially when you’re dealing with commercial construction, not residential, when we’re gonna be putting some heavy sheets of drywall on our walls most commonly. So I think a lot places 25 is the requirement, but 20 is really common.
Jake: Yeah, definitely. Probably more common for what we want with our very heavy walls like you’re saying. But to get back to the question, light gauge versus heavy gauge.
Graham: And so either of those would be light gauge.
Jake: Right.
Graham: 20/25, that’s light.
Jake: Absolutely. I guess the answer there is light gauge. Unless it’s load bearing. If you’re not holding up part of the property, if you’re not putting tanks on the second floor, if it’s not load bearing, then light gauge studs are definitely the answer.
Graham: And that’s pretty much the alternative to wood studs. You don’t really see heavy gauge steel studs used as just an alternative to standard wood studs in framing or anything like that. Light gauge is the alternative.
Jake: And we like metal studs for a couple reasons. If you do end up with a moisture problem in your wall or something like that, metal stud holds up better than a wooden stud. A wooden stud is gonna swell, it’s gonna flex. Mold and mildew can grow through it. Whereas a metal stud is not gonna suffer that sort of damage. What else do we like about them?
Graham: Well, in some places they’re required for commercial construction.
Jake: Yeah. In some places you just have no choice. So we love them.
Graham: They don’t flex with the seasons as much in general.
Jake: If you have a good thermal barrier. If you have a good thermal break in between an exterior environment and an interior environment. When we were down in Australia they were mentioning that they’d experience some problems with that from time to time if they didn’t have a good thermal break because it would be really, really hot outside.
Graham: Oh, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s Australia too.
Jake: Yeah, right. Usually in spring and fall is when the houses were changing and stuff like that. That’s what we heard.
Graham: So does that mean that the metal actually expands and contracts more than the wood is going to change with the seasons?
Jake: It has worse thermal resistance. Yeah, that is kinda one of the down sides of metal studs. The thermal resistance is not as high as it is for wood.
Graham: But does it actually grow and shrink more with the thermal changes? I mean it definitely is affected more but-
Jake: I think it is, right? Because that’s where you’re getting those popping. That’s where you’re getting that sound. And they do flex. Especially if you go lighter gauge studs. If you’re looking at 25 gauge, those flex much more than 20 gauge which is flexing more than 18.
Graham: This is why we have Jake on the show for construction stuff. Yeah, I thought the metal flexed less than wood. That’s interesting.
Jake: I mean I don’t know the difference between the two. What I know is that metal is flexing. Metal is doing something. I don’t know which is flexing more.
Graham: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, totally. No, it makes sense. Especially in Australia.
Jake: Yeah.
Graham: Okay. So just ignore that whole flexing. But that’s no longer a point of benefit for the metal.
Jake: They don’t rot like wooden ones do. They can be considered greener because they’re using recycled content as opposed to wood.
Graham: Okay. But back to the original question. So light versus heavy gauge studs.
Jake: Light gauge studs, unless it’s load bearing.
Graham: Ding. A little extra bonus content with wood versus steel in there too. But yeah, anything else?
Jake: No, no, no, great. I love them.
Graham: Good question.
Jake: Yeah, great question.
Graham: Bravo. Bravo. Encore.
And if you have questions of your own, just head on over to floattanksolutions.com/podcast. We’ll be there waiting. We’re always waiting. Talk to you tomorrow.
Jake: Goodbye.
Recent Podcast Episodes
Tips on Website Copywriting – DSP 239
In another jam packed marketing episode, Derek and Graham get into the nitty gritty of how to write out all the content you need on your website.
They dive in and explain the importance of layout, how to keep things succinct, and some really great resources for copywriting, A/B testing, and general marketing knowledge.
What’s the Best Way to do Referral Programs? – DSP 238
Derek and Graham talk about the many tactics they’ve tried at Float On with developing referral programs. They’ve tried many things with varying success, from affiliates to endorsements to discount codes. All with varying success. The favorite tactic at Float On, of course, is giving away free floats and developing relationships with others in the community.
Are Chatbots a Good Idea? – DSP 237
Graham and Derek break down the benefits of chatbots. They discuss the usefulness of popular marketing tools like these and what place they have in brick and mortar businesses like float centers. They might be marginally useful, but there are almost definitely better things to focus on if a float center is having difficulty with marketing.
Should I Copy Marketing Ideas? – DSP 236
There’s so many inspiring and creative float centers out there, many of who keep coming up with ingenious new ways to get the word out for their centers.
What’s the protocol for borrowing marketing ideas like this? How does proximity factor into it?
Graham and Derek break down the nuances of marketing strategies and where to pull from and what to avoid. It’s all about etiquette.
Getting Salty with Speakers: James Nestor – DSP 235
James Nestor, a science-adventure journalist with a focus on reporting about humans relationship to water. He is speaking at the Conference this year and Ashkahn took the time to ask him about some of the research John Lilly did on dolphin communication back in the day. He shares cool stories about Lilly’s work at that time as well as the impacts it’s had throughout the scientific community since.
Latest Blog Posts
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #7
As we move further into the desert lands of America, we find that while the temperatures outside are downright unbearable, people seem to fall in love with the warm salty sensation that is float therapy.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #6
San Diego, Palm Desert, and Landers California wrap up our visit of Float Tank Centers in California. We were fortunate to visit old friends, make some new ones, and even go to Float Camp!
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #5
As you may have read in Issue #4 of The Float Tour Blog, we began diving into the Los Angeles area float centers and visited the current largest float center around as well as the freshly opened second location of a long time float center owner.
There were so many to cover that we decided to split this into two blogs. In this issue, we round out our L.A. journey as we begin to head further south toward San Diego.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #4
Los Angeles is a major hub for almost every industry in the world in one way or another. Building on the foundations of Hollywood and their harbor, it’s the 2nd largest city in the United States.
Given its population density, it’s large enough to support almost any industry, which for a burgeoning niche like float tanks is especially beneficial. Also, if you’ve ever experienced rush hour traffic on the I-405, you’ll know this city deserves to float.
