Looking for something specific?
Search our nearly 100 blog posts.
Float On has been around for nearly 9 years, and in those 9 years, we’ve gone through lots of floors. Some have held up better than others. Some didn’t hold up at all. At one point we tried putting down textured pebbles with epoxy grout, pebbles that turned to putty within a few months. Lessons about flooring are the kind of lessons you learn quickly. Each time you replace your floors, it means hours of tearing out existing floors, working around plumbing, hours and hours of downtime (in our case for the entire shop, given how small it is).
Throughout the years, we’ve tried lots of floors. We’ve learned from our mistakes and seen the mistakes of others and learned from those too!
We’ve collected a few tactics that have helped ourselves – and others – pick out the best floors for a variety of different scenarios. Fortunately, we’ve written everything down so you don’t even need to take notes!
Let’s start with how we protect our floors from falling apart.
First off, we choose the right waterproofing (and salt-proofing) material and remain ever vigilant about preventative maintenance.
Not only did we inspect every single seam and potential weak spot upon initial installation of our floors, we continue to crawl around and check every last one for damage during deep cleans each week. When any small installation imperfection or random pinhole can lead to catastrophic failure, it pays to stay en garde.
Float tank center floors endure a constant barrage of saltwater, repetitive scrubbing, and high foot traffic. They must remain slip-resistant when drenched with silky smooth float tank water and, preferably, look stylish while doing so.
It’s much easier to flush salt water down a floor drain than it is to mop it up. So put floor drains everywhere. Obviously, you’ll need a floor drain in your shower area. We also like to install one near the dressing area and another one near the spa pack of the float tank. It’s a lot nicer to discover a salty leak that’s trickling down a floor drain instead of one that’s pooling in the middle of your float room.
Slip-resistant vinyl flooring is an excellent option for a float tank room, especially for hardwood floors. With heat-welded seams and the installation of surface-level membrane clamping floor drains, vinyl flooring has the potential to protect your substrate for years to come. We have noticed that hard-soled shoes definitely have an impact on the appearance of vinyl sheet flooring over the years. We’ve also noticed that it can become brittle where the material is coved up the wall in a float room.
Epoxy resin is another excellent option for protective flooring in a float tank room. Epoxy resin is rigid and can crack if your substrate is flexible like a wood floor. You will need to add something to the resin for slip resistance, though. There are many fine options including glass beads, aluminum oxide, and our personal favorite: multicolored quartz. It’s like sand art on your floors!
It’s important to pay special attention to the bond between the resin flooring and the edge of the drain body. Talented installers will “key in” the resin around the floor drain. This means grinding a very narrow/shallow trough around the drain and letting the first pour of epoxy fill the trough. Sometimes, installers will even use heat to disperse any small bubbles within the resin.
Porcelain tile and epoxy grout is another option for flooring within a float room. It’s not our first choice, though. The tiles tend to be a little slippery. We often see float centers use interlocking rubber mats to provide slip resistance in these situations.
Even with the best-constructed floor, it’s not going to matter if you don’t maintain it. Keep an eye out for damage as time goes on. Flooring is one of those areas where small problems become large problems very quickly. Being proactive can save you money, not just on materials, but on downtime with float rooms, as smaller fixes take less time to repair.
If you’d like a detailed guide on our best practices for floors as well as your entire float center construction build-out, check out our complete Float Center Construction Package. Literally hundreds of pages written and reviewed by the best electricians, flooring experts, contractors, sound-proofers, and float center owns in the industry.
The Most Ambitious Float On Project Yet
We have a new endeavor that we’ve been working on in private for awhile now, and we think that it’s going to make a big splash in our salty little industry. After many years of testing behind closed doors, we’re finally ready to take the plunge and release our secret project to you, the floatation community.
You might want to sit down for this one….
The Start-a-Center Giveaway Returns!
Everyone knows that, when it comes to gifts, it’s much more fun to give than to receive. With this year’s Start-a-Center Giveaway, however, I’m not so sure anymore. With over $13,000 in Float Tank Solutions products going to one lucky duck (plus $4,000 worth of goodies from other float industry homies), we humbly suggest that we may have finally tipped the scales in favor of the recipient.
If you’re Charlie, this Giveaway is the Golden Ticket, which I guess makes the Construction Package a Wonka bar and the Ninja Fans are the Fizzy Lifting Drink. So, what do you have to do for a chance at all the Everlasting Gobstoppers?
It’s been three years since our last Giveaway, and we thought that it was long overdue for another one. So, what’s the dealio? The Giveaway is a chance to give a big ol’ boost to a deserving Float-Center-To-Be. This time around, we’re taking things to a whole new level, with over three times the value of products and services being given away. To you. For free.
Dear Everyone: Please reconsider building your own tanks
Look, we get it. Really. Float tanks are expensive – especially for what can seem, from the outside, like a glorified bathtub with spa parts attached. It doesn’t take long to go from, “Why is this so expensive?” to “I’ll bet I could save money by making my own tank!” After you start mulling it over, you get excited. You could be offering something no one else does right now… because it’d be your own creation! How hard can it possibly be?
As experts in only thinking about half of the consequences of our actions (at best), we’d like to say, “Incredibly hard, actually!”
Location Checklist – The Search for Your Float Center’s Home
In honor of our newly minted, fresh off the press, prize winning Construction Packet, we are releasing one of its more succinct components, the Location Checklist, as a free resource. Don’t let the fact that it’s only one page fool you – this set of questions breaks down the major site and location considerations for your center.
Financing Your Center With Bank Loans
If you are looking to open a center, at some point, you have to face the reality that you’re going to need to spend, and thus track down, a good chunk of money. There are many ways to fund a float center – personal capital, family and friends, sending travel funds to the exiled Liberian prince that you met on the internet and using the forthcoming reward money, etc. This post, however, will focus on financing using bank loans.
A Peek Into Our Construction Packet: Planning Your Space – Square Footage and Number of Float Rooms
For anyone opening a float center, one of the earliest questions they’ll have to tackle is, “How big should my space be?” This can be one of the most difficult queries to answer, because it hinges on many variables.
Will you be offering other services? What types of tanks are you getting? What other rooms will your space need? If you’re planning on installing a float tank water slide, that’ll take up extra space, too. I know it’s unreasonable, but Jake really wants someone to do it.
All of these questions aren’t even factoring in thinking about profit margins. It quickly becomes a daunting task that can feel overwhelming.
How to Launch a Successful Kickstarter Campaign
At Float Tank Solutions, our main goal is simple.
We want to provide access to floating for as many people as possible. That’s why, this week, we are opening up our blog to our friend, Shane Stott. Shane, an avid float ambassador, life coach, and founder of Zen Float Co., will walk us through the essentials of running a Kickstarter campaign, with a highlight on his current efforts to raise money through Kickstarter for a documentary on floating.
4,937 Things to Know About Buying a Used Float Tank
You’re thinking about buying a used float tank. Whether this is for a new center, an addition to an existing operation, or a purchase for your home, this is a big decision.
We’ve compiled together some of the major questions and considerations to entertain before making a purchase. While you do have the opportunity to save some money and snag a good deal, there can be hidden costs and unknowns to weigh against those savings.
Offering Overnight Floats
Almost three years ago, we discussed the merits of running overnight floats from an employee’s perspective, focusing on the opportunities of this unique experience as well as its challenges. We’d like to take a deeper dive into this issue because, while the majority of floaters come through our tanks during “normal” business hours, overnight floats form an important part of not only Float On’s identity, but also its business structure and broader culture.
How to Talk About Floating
You step into the elevator and shuffle to the side to make room for the kind-eyed, old woman with the miniature poodle.
“Good morning,” you say with a smile.
“Good morning,” she beams back, her gaze resting briefly on your water bottle with the logo from your float center’s annual party.
After a brief pause, she asks, “What is Float-a-Palooza?”
You take a breath, smile, and launch into your literal elevator pitch.
So, what do you say?
Don't Miss a Thing!
Get new blog posts emailed to you.
Browse by Topic
