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 Salon
Design Menu
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Considerations
Before You Lease - Part Two
Besides the ability of
prospective commercial spaces to meet the electrical demand of
your growing grooming business, there are additional demands these
spaces must satisfy.
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Air
Conditioning. The bathing department creates a lot of
heat that must be balanced by air conditioning. Comfort for
your staff and the pets is crucial for a successful business.
As you likely now, the normal body temperature of pets is
higher than humans, and with some of those significant coats,
they easily suffer from even warm, not hot, environments. You
want to return a cool and happy pet to the client, and your
staff is likely to work far more reasonably in a moderate
temperature. Most buildings were never designed to handle the
heat of a bathing department running 2 or more dryers. In
fact, you must ensure that there are vents to bring cool air
into the designated bathing area. Air conditioning upgrades
are common for the growing business. However, you will find
some important hints below to reduce air conditioning demand.
These hints are especially helpful when you are first building
out a salon and have more flexibility in laying out the floor
plan. A word of caution. Consult an air conditioning company
and ask them for an opinion just as you did the electrician.
Filters are very important where there is air intake. We have
seen air conditioning systems harmed by the daily intake of
small pet hairs accumulating inside the machinery. Make sure
you use filters, and you clean or replace them very regularly.
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Water and
Plumbing. Pet grooming uses a lot of water, including
hot water. Today the Hydrosurge®-like devices are cutting
back on water demand. Standard water heaters are rarely
adequate for a growing pet grooming salon. We recommend
upgrading the water heater in almost all new pet grooming
businesses. Today there are new systems that heat water very
quickly, almost on demand. Recently we installed one at a very
large pet grooming salon, and the price came in around $2,800,
but it's a first class commercial system that should last many
years, and the salon should never be short of hot water at all
times. If you are not going to upgrade a standard size water
heater, look to water saving systems such as the Hydrosurge.
No doubt about it, you are going to need plumbing work to
install at least one tub. Many small salons have 2 tubs. We
have seen some salons with a separate small tub away from the
others dedicated to cat bathing, a good idea. Before you
commit to the location of your bathing department, you must
determine the present location of all plumbing and consider
water pipe extensions you will need leading to your tubs. It
can get expensive very quickly, especially if digging into
concrete floors is involved. We again suggest the assistance
of a contractor or plumber to examine the commercial space
before you lease it. Some of our clients have an interest in
the self-service dog wash format. Your plumbing improvements
will cost significantly more than a pet grooming salon alone.
Typically, the self-service area for pet owners is separate of
your grooming department's bathing area. Therefore, you not
only need to outfit a bathing department, but lead pipes from
what is likely the same main water source to the self-service
area. We have seen this successfully done within building
codes leading the water pipes along the inner wall to the
self-service area. The pipes add a sort of "industrial
design" look which can highlight a "high-tech"
look and work fine, but consult your contractor to ensure you
meet all building codes. In the material below you will find
some additional hints for ideas to keep your pipes from
clogging with pet hair, a constant problem if you do not take
preventative measures seriously. In fact, we know of one
"horror story" where a home-based pet groomer was
held liable by the local city for pet hair clogging the
neighborhood sewer system, to the tune of tens of thousands of
dollars required to excavate the neighborhood street pipes.
Ouch!.
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Natural Gas
and Other Fuels. Heating water or heating air is best
done with an efficient system using natural gas and similar
fuels. You can lower your electric bill considerably in this
way.
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Sound.
If you share any walls with neighboring businesses, you can
count on sound problems with barking dogs. You will appreciate
a building with more solid walls. You can reduce sound levels
with sound absorption ceiling tiles. If your commercial space
is within a "strip center" try to lease an end unit.
You may then only share as little as one wall with a neighbor
business, and of course, make sure you are on the ground
floor.
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Carpeting.
Carpeting has no place in a pet grooming salon. You will be
forever vacuuming pet hair relentless hugging onto it, and it
will absorb odors and quickly be stained by pet wastes. It's
too bad though because carpeting absorbs sound whereas hard
surface floors won't. However, smooth linoleum floors are
easily kept hygienically clean. Wet areas are common in pet
grooming salons, especially in the bathing area and where a
pet relieves itself perhaps before you have a chance to notice
or provide it with a potty-walk. Safety requires your constant
attention to immediately wiping up all spills.
Perhaps now you can
better understand how some people lease a building with inadequate
supplies of electricity, water, air conditioning and other
utilities. Though your business is small in the beginning, it may
be appropriate for you to secure a space with a long lease when it
is affordable, within your budget and the building's condition and
facilities support the extended growth of your business. Moving a
business is expensive. Notifying a thousand or more clients is
expensive, and the down time can be costly.
Finally, don't overlook
parking for your clients. At least 2-3 spaces should be available
to your clients on a dedicated basis. Access in and out from the
roadway should be easy.
Remember too that many
pets will immediately attempt to relieve themselves on your
property to and from their owner's car. Pet urine stains concrete
and most wall treatments, and if you have neighbor businesses this
can really irk them as much as dog noise problems. Ideally, you
should install an outdoor potty-walk area and maintain it
regularly, even several times a day when busy. You will be very
glad you did and your customers will view it as a sign of a
"professional."
Time to move on to even
more design considerations for your commercial grooming business.
Go to the next page.
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