Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Is it better to plan out your center for one float tank and build out from there, or should you future-proof your design in case you want to expand? Graham and Ashkahn break down the logistical issues of planning out both and the reasons someone might decide to go one way over another. Construction costs, hiring specialists, and shipping costs are all things to consider when making a decision like this and it can be expensive either way. There are smart ways to build out a center while saving up to expand later, and Graham and Ashkahn make a point to give advice about that as well.
Listen to Just the Audio
Transcription of this episode… (in case you prefer reading)
Graham: Today’s question for us is, “did you begin with only one tank? Did you pick a location for multiple tanks? It seems as though the construction/moving process would make you lean towards a larger location if that’s what you’re going for.”
I say “multiple tanks” is what they mean by “if that’s what you’re going for”. Not like if you’re going for a larger location, then you should definitely get one, because that’s pretty self-evident.
Ashkahn: That’s pretty obvious. Hard not to do that.
Graham: So no.
Ashkahn: Did we start with one tank? No.
Graham: No, we started with four tanks.
Ashkahn: Yeah, but we do advise people to start with one tank. In their house, not build your center out for one tank.
Graham: I see, yeah. So we kind of advise the opposite in terms of actually building a designated float center.
Ashkahn: Yeah, yeah.
Graham: If someone says, “Should I have a one-tank center or four-tank center?” Usually we say four tanks.
Ashkahn: I’m thinking maybe that’s what they … Maybe they heard that we say stuff like, “Start out with a single float tank,” you know?
Graham: In your house.
Ashkahn: Right.
Graham: Just to bring some people in, learn the ropes, and then when you move to your bigger float center …
Ashkahn: An actual … Like when you’re leaving your house.
Graham: Then, you can use that tank in that center and add it to your three other units, or whatever it is.
Ashkahn: Or you could sell it.
Graham: And get out of the industry altogether, yes. And just leave.
Ashkahn: Move out of your house.
Graham: Once you realize how much salt cleaning there is, yeah. And that is one of the reasons I say people should get a float tank in their house when I’m pitching it. It’s like you may decide you hate this.
So, no we didn’t start with one tank, but the idea of launching a float center with fewer tanks and later expanding in that same location to more tanks is also something that we advise people to do.
Ashkahn: Yeah, basically, it’s expensive to start up a float center.
Graham: Yeah.
Ashkahn: And rather than cutting corners on all of your construction, we usually recommend people save money by maybe not launching with the full amount of tanks they want and saving money on, first of all, the purchasing of those extra float tanks. And there’s some of the room construction that you don’t really need to do until the point that you actually want to put float tanks in there. And there’s some that you want to do in your normal round of construction too.
Graham: Yep. So basically, what happens here is that as much construction as you can get done all at the same time, even if you’re not launching with all your float tank rooms … Let’s just say that you’re starting with two tanks, you have room for five rooms. In a totally ideal world, you’d actually build out the entirety of those five rooms and just not put the float tanks in, essentially. And that’s because every time you have a contractor come out, there’s a certain amount of money just to get them on the jobsite to get the contract signed, to start construction, and to do whatever work is going to be done.
So as much as you have done at one time, it’s going to make each room that much cheaper for every room that’s added on, right? In that sense, a single room is the most expensive thing to build, so if you build out a float tank room in your hypothetical five-tank center, and that’s all you do? Then next time you’re going to have to call in all the soundproofers, you’re going to have to call in the plumbers, you’re going to have to call in the waterproofers, and they’re going to have to build a second room. And the third time, repeat that process over and over. Every time you’re calling them out, you’re kinda paying a premium to get them out there to begin with.
So the more work you can get done all at once for any of your construction is, of course, better.
Ashkahn: Right. It goes with float tanks too. You’ll probably save on some shipping cost, and if someone’s coming out to install them and all that sort of stuff.
Graham: Yeah, for sure. Just getting all your float tanks at once is definitely the ideal.
Ashkahn: But it does scale back, so there’s certain things like, obviously, your float tanks would be the first thing to go if you were trying to consider not building a room out fully. You don’t want to just buy float tanks and then put them in storage. That would be really silly.
And then from there, it would probably be your waterproofing because all that is a layer that goes on top of stuff. So if you build a room out and then later you bring someone in to actually put in the kind of floors you’re looking for, or maybe you put the floors in already but you want to put up wall paneling, or something like that, that’s kind of a layer that can be just added on top of the existing construction you did.
Graham: Though we do see some centers, it’s really funny going into a place … Just to back up slightly, a lot of people use these extra rooms for storage.
Ashkahn: Massage.
Graham: Yeah, practitioner rooms so they can rent it out in the meantime, and it’s really funny to go into a massage room that has fully waterproof floors, and drains, and an actual shower fixture. It’s really obvious it’s going to be a float tank room as soon as they can afford the tank to actually put in there, but in the meantime there’s a massage table, and some nice ambient lighting, and things like that. So that is a funny experience.
Ashkahn: And then soundproofing is way harder to not do at first because ideally … It’s not like soundproofing is just something you add on top of non-soundproof material. You’re usually either buying normal building material or soundproof building material when it comes to things like sheetrock, or doors, or stuff like that. So you could save money. You could build double-stud walls and then put normal sheetrock on top of them, and then tear that sheetrock out and replace it with soundproof sheet rock, but that starts to get more and more difficult. And you’re starting to spend more money on temporary things when you’re getting to that point.
Graham: Although extra layers can also be a place to cut corners, so if you could just put a single layer of soundproof drywall or of your soundproofing wall assembly and then later, before you’re adding on all the waterproofing, you know that you’re going to go on and add that whole second layer of walling? That’s doable. You are only wasting the money for mudding and painting and stuff like that.
Ashkahn: And then, pretty much plumbing is where I would really draw the line. You really don’t want to have to … In the middle of wanting to add more rooms bring out someone to cut trenches in your concrete and lay more plumbing lines. It just gets crazy from that point.
Graham: Absolutely, rough in the plumbing.
Ashkahn: And electrical, too.
Graham: So if you are planning to have five tanks, you’re building out two of your rooms totally, immediately, still plumb out the other three rooms. Rough it in. You know, you won’t have to cut in the concrete when you do install your next float tanks. All you have to do is get the plumbers back in there. They can install the fixtures and you are pretty much good to go on the plumbing side.
Ashkahn: Yeah, the stuff that’s really going into the infrastructure of your building: plumbing, electrical, that sort of stuff.
Graham: Even planning for HVAC because the entire system will be load balanced in an HVAC system as well. So knowing where your rooms are going and what you are planning is actually going to be a really important part of getting that accurate.
Ashkahn: That’d be the stuff that’d be really expensive and a huge headache to have to add that in after the fact.
Graham: And with electrical, we’ve done that before, too. Had to go back in and cut into our ceilings and run electrical lines all the way across the course of our entire center in order to tie back in to the electrical box to go into new rooms and add new circuits. That’s so much more expensive than doing the electrical work at the beginning when your space is gutted and you can just get inside the walls and inside the ceiling. Anytime you have to cut back into your construction to add something in is just so painful and more expensive.
Ashkahn: Yeah and not having a big enough breaker box or something. You didn’t really plan for anything sort of scenario. That stuff can really just start to add up.
Graham: Yep. That’s kinda the essentials. And you’re right, as a result of how crazy all this construction is and how expensive it is, this is still the preferred way to do it. The idea of getting a center, building out for two tanks and then later, moving to a place where you could fit all five tanks into means you are kinda losing all of the construction cost going into the rooms for those first two tanks. You can’t really bring the waterproofing or the soundproofing or the plumbing work with you at all into the next location. So that’s why you see so many centers building out – If they don’t have enough money to start with as many rooms as they want initially – you do see them adding those tanks on to the same existing center they’ve already built the first rooms in.
Ashkahn: Then, you just have extra rooms to play with. Turn them into a ball pit or …
Graham: An extra-large ball pit
Ashkahn: Tiny ball pit. There’s all sort of different variations on ball pit that you could use for those different rooms you have.
Graham: And Google is a great place to do more research on that.
Ashkahn: Maybe we should just have … There needs to be an episode about that, I think. Have to dive into it.
Graham: Yeah, I’ll make …
Ashkahn: You got that?
Graham: You got that written down? Yeah, our sound guy has that written down. We’re on top of that. Alright.
Ashkahn: I think that sounds like we have answered this question.
Graham: If you have anymore questions for us, go to FloatTankSolutions.com/podcast.
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Latest Blog Posts
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Opening up a float center is a lot like climbing a mountain. Even if you can see the peak, it’s a lot further away than you think, and when you finally get there, the journey and the destination usually end up being different than previously assumed.
In this post we’ll lay out a general process and timeline of what you may encounter on your path, from initial idea to actually operating a center.
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So you’re thinking about using volunteers in your float center?
Before we clarify what a “volunteer” actually means, we’ll first explore why a float center might be considering them in the first place. While it can be a way to provide floats to people who are otherwise unable to pay, the impulse to bring in volunteers can also stem from a desire to get some sort of free labor (later in this post we’ll dive into why you can’t actually do this, but it’s important to recognize that the instinct is understandable, especially when you have someone lined up and willing to work for free).
In addition to a desired boost in overall productivity, it’s also a way to invite more people into your center to experience what you do. Some customers actually want to help out and see what happens behind the scenes at a center.
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One of the beautiful things about the float tank is that it serves to rejuvenate the whole person. — the body, mind, heart.
Broadly speaking, it’s a tool for homeostasis, an ideal environment that supports balance, health, and growth. This piece will look specifically at floating and athletics. For anyone who defines themselves as an athlete, or as a general pursuant of athletic endeavors, the float tank can be a powerful asset.
In this post, I’ll discuss individual athletes who float and how to look at this from a marketing perspective. I’ll also discuss past and present research, and share some thoughts on how the relationship between the athletic and floating communities might continue to unfold.
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I think it’s time we addressed the giant metaphorical elephant in the salty metaphorical room — there are lots of exaggerated and untrue claims about the benefits of floating being spread around the industry.
Some are anecdotal, some are only half true, and some are just patently false. Floating has historically had a strong oral tradition tied to it — the practice has survived through word-of-mouth, one passionate floater teaching another everything they know. The unfortunate thing about this is that the information disseminated can’t be reliably tested or shared with others on a broader scale. You can’t use “my buddy Chris” as a source for a health benefit of float tanks in a newspaper article, much less for a research paper.
Now that we’re becoming a bit more mainstream, we thought it would be nice to add some clarity to what we should and shouldn’t be telling people about these difficult-to-understand, saliferous containers.
