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Just Finished My 2 Bay Dogwash

E

easywash

Member
I just finished my 2 bay Dogwash.

Went with National Pride Equipment and Petlift Tubs... The system is working great and the customers love it. I ended up going with an epoxy floor and used FRP on the Back and Seperating wall between the tubs.

Plus I managed to work 2 Tubs into a 10x10 Building :)

I have a couple of pictures if you want to see:

http://www.easywash.ca/section.asp?catid=1932&subid=1934
 
Easywash,

My 2 cents. Looks good but a little tight (I take it that it was the pace you had to work with). Like the pricing!

Info could be better with bigger pictures and more details.

Might want to consider longer hours. We wash a fair amount of dogs in the morning or after 8PM (we are open from 7-10pm and the door is controller with a electric strike and timer that opens 6:30 and closes at 10:30PM).

No Pet Vac? At $1/min, a pet vac is 99% profit and people love it. Cost me about $150 per tub to install.

How do you sell the Aprons, gloves, towels & brushes?

"Clean your dirty dog and leave the mess for us to clean up" I would expect this, but not advertise it.

Finally, hope your customers don't back into the coin box...that would hurt. Perhaps some type of safety foam might alleviate potential problems.

Let us know how it does!

Big
 
Thanks for the feedback

Yes, 10x10 is what I had to work with.... so I figured sacrifice on space a little and double the revenue potential. It looks small but it does work.

I will certainly look into the hours. I like the idea of the electric strike.

National Pride wanted something $1000 for the petvac per bay plus the room to mount it which we just don't have. I opted to go with the Dryer only. Works GREAT :)

I don't charge for the Apron, Brushes or Towels, that's all part of the service we offer.

Yes, the coin box is a little tight with the ramp down but once it's up there are no issues.

When I was installing I actually hit my head pretty hard on the bottom of the box so I do have foam on the corners :)

We will likely be changing the $10 start to a $5 start. We have had a number of customers say that all they want to do is rinse the dog down after a swim in the ocean but can't justify $10.

First month in service we should be somewhere around $750 Gross with little advertising.
 
Easywash,

I wouldn't hand out brushes as it keeps people in the tub when they are not washing.

I like the 10 dollars to start and would wait a bit before I would change that and see if it really is a problem or if its just a few cheap people (IMHO, that's not the people you want). $5 for 5 minutes may just tick people off as they will feel that the timer runs out too quickly. I think you'll find that for what you offer, $10 is fair (don't under estimate the cost of the chems) and the average dog wash will be about 10 minutes.

If you can stuff a pet vac somewhere, do it. I use a 3.5 shopvac ($75), some 1.5" vac hose and a Nutone CT109B brush head, along with a mercury relay. $150 tops per tub and the ROI will be a couple of months. Plus, it greatly helps at cleaning the tub hair in drain or on floor...just suck it up! If you can, also add a clean up hose (cold city water) hidden under a tub with a ball valve in the equipment room. Makes for quicker cleanups when you have big mess of hair everywhere.

I also added a mechanical 15 minute timer for each bay for cleanup. Just turn for the amount of time you figure it will take for cleanup, and use the system to wash tub down and suck up hair.

Big
 
Big,

Is a partition between two tubs an absolute necessity? I also had a small room to work with and decided to forego the divider wall. My tubs are separated by 4 feet of space, and the two coin boxes are mounted on the wall in that space. I chose the conventional style tubs so you need to work from the side and thought that if I put a wall in between, it would make it a real tight squeeze.

Haven't opened yet, but I'm wondering if I maid a mistake?

ScottV
 
ScottV,

So I guess they are side by side? 4' is a little tight and I'd be afraid that your gonna get some splashing from tub to tub. Can you mount them with one side against the walls to get more space?

Mine are mounted end to end (like easywash) and that has not been a problem, however people washing their dogs are typically standing 10' apart.

Big
 
Tub Separation

when considering the spacing between tubs I would think that 4 ft would be a bit tight. If you have customer working back to back they would definitely be bumping into each other.

Maybe you could look at installing a partition wall to separate the areas. We had considered installing a "Bathroom Cubicle" style wall, they are sturdy and only about 1.5 inches wide.
 
What about a "shower curtain" between them, would stop the splashing and being clear wouldn't cut the light. If no one was in the "other" one they could push it out of the way.
 
I actually like the shower curtain idea!! We are opening this weekend and I will see how much of a splash zone it really is. We can certainly put a curtain in place rather quickly. I am amazed at how much interest this Dog Wash room has created in our town. I bet we had 10 different people walk up and peer into the windows lastnight while working there. They come in, ask questions and seem very positive about using it in the future.

I guess we will see soon enough if it is actually a profit center or a very expensive novelty!!

Thanks guys!
ScottV
 
Last edited:
ScottV,

I would think about something a little more sturdy than a shower curtain, perhaps a rubber tarp or the like.

Big
 
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