Does a home based salon need to be a room?

Hi everyone

Most of the home-based salons I have seen people displaying photos of seem to be fully enclosed garages or rooms that can be air-conditioned etc.

I have a latticed area around 2 metres wide down the full length of my house that is opposite a guest driveway (I am lucky enough to have a double driveway on the other side infront of the garage so there is parking for 3 cars off street if necessary).

It is 90% wind protected, protected from rain with the roof and has easy access to water and power but it isn't fully enclosed like a queensland room so it can't be air-conditioned.

I was thinking as far as keeping the space warm in winter that I could use gas heaters (like those ones you see in pubs) if it wouldn't have a negative effect on the skin of the freshly washed/groomed dogs. I would of course be careful with their placement so it isn't too hot.

Do people think this would be acceptable?

The space is very nice and has lots of plants and chairs and tables and even some nice bonzai trees. It has a very "zen garden" relaxing feel to it. Of course I would need to move things to turn it into a salon.

outside is fine as long as you have considered rain/wind/cold/hot ..& more importantly the escaping dog...god forbid but if one jumped outta the bath/off the table/ broke outta a crate ..what would happen...many a dog can leap a fence in one bound or squeeze thru fencing.

then you have the mess..hair everywhere...wind blowing it over your yard & into the neighbours...fleas not being able to be contained to an area & easily treated .

Cheers Nat

No problem on that one.

The lattice area is floor to ceiling and there is a double door at one end and a single door at the other so the area can be completely enclosed.

An insect could get through but not a dog

I guess I just need to think about how to ensure customers enter the area and close the door behind them? I might be up to my elbows in dog shampoo when a customer arrives?

Maybe a sign on the door and a polite request if they don't take any notice..... "hi there. Nice to see you. Can I just get you to close the door behind you?"

the one thing i would be worried about is the hair blowing into your neibours yard because if they complain you could be our of business pretty quick.

One way you could resolve it is maybe putting fly screen material on your lattice. may be cheaper then enclosing the space, depending on how much you need.

I was going to get a vac tote that should suck up the majority of the hair from clipping as I work. As for using the scissors I guess it is inevitable that there will be hair on the floor

I have managed to get a pic uploaded.



There are a few less plants now than when this pic was taken. I will have to move most of the plants round the other side of the house to make room but this gives you some idea.

Since this space is open you will have noise from the driers that the neighbours may complain about. When I turned my garage into a salon that was my biggest issue. But because it is enclosed it seems that hasn't bee a problem. But with your salon being open it may be.

Also have to consider the hair from deshedding Samoyeds or other double coated breeds . But the space you have looks perfect nice and big

Glad someone thinks it looks good.

I am thinking of keeping it 2 small and medium dogs.

I have seen on the savel website they have a vacuum head extension that can quickly suck hair off the floor. As u can see from the pic the lattice area goes from floor 2 roof so from experience I know that only the strongest gust of wind would sweep the hair away before u could vacuum it up.

The only solution I don't have is 4 the noise from the dryer. I guess I would have 2 hope that 7pm at night would not b unreasonable for a finish time and the dryer would only b on for a few minutes at a time every half hour or.so I would imagine?

It can take 20-30 + mins to dry a cocker, oodle, poodle etc fully ...a larger dog in full coat can take an hour & being night you will have to make sure they are 100% dry so they dont chill :-)

Drying a double coated dog you will have hair everywhere...even for a cute little Pom...not to mention a Mally :-S

A clipper vac is not a tool that a beginner should be using IMO you need to know clipping techniques properly before you bring the vac into play Oh & they are noisy too :-)

A week in & your plants will look like they a flowering hair flowers hahaha :-)

Great to see you have lots of questions & doing your research before you begin

Thanks Cessnock. I definately want to do all my research and make it work.

Thanks for the patience of everyone while I ask silly ignorant questions

By the sounds of it I think I need to keep it to small and medium dogs. The dryer wouldn't need to be on as long for these? Is that the right thinking? I figure since you can do 2 little dogs in the same time as a large dog this might be more profitable (as long as most of the demand for dog grooming doesn't come exclusively from clients with large dogs)????

The lady I knew years ago with a home salon had this rule as well and she didn't even have a proper setup space to do it in. She just setup a table in her front yard with no roof or enclosure what so ever!

So 2 more questions:

1) Are most of the customers people with large dogs? Will I still get enough business keeping it to small and medium dogs?

2) What are the most common breeds of medium dogs with double coats of fur? I have tried Googling this and can't get a definate answer.

PS> I have thought about it overnight and I think it would be a good idea to maybe hang thick clear plastic from roof to floor that could clip to the bottom of the lattice panels all the way round. That way it will keep most of the hair in and help to muffle some of the noise (it would be impossible to eliminate it all).

This would be an affordable solution for me and it would help to keep the warmth in when it is winter. Glassing in the entire space to make it a Queensland room would probably cost $20 000 alone and I know my other half wouldn't want to give up the garage. I also thought clients might prefer a space like this that was semi-outdoor and relaxing and friendly?

A lot of groomers I only do small or medium dogs and they seem to make it work. I have been doing that at the moment Until my set up is complete and still have a good number if customers.

The plastic sounds like a good idea hopefully it's cost efficient to. Small/med double coated breeds you have poms Japenese spitz keeshounds....and now I have just had a blank others should think of more. Oh and you got to watch out for jack russels because they molt like crazy specially when they are dropping coat

Oh and if you go on dogzonline they have a list of breeds and profile, photos which may help from their you can even go onto breeders websites and they have a lot of info about their individual breeds

OK.

Noise: Not only will you get noise form the dryer but also the dogs. Just because they are small means nothing i have a shihtzu that SCREAMS when the dryer is on and i have several that bark all the time and complaine not to mention the nose that i get from huskies and sammies!!..
So it is not just the noise from the dryers and clippers you need to think about but also from the dogs in your care.

Hair: hair is a pain and it get everywhere! and i think convering the lattice with either some shade cloth or plastic will help.

Small/med double coats include:
Pom, Jap spits, Cavy, long coated chihuahua, German spitz, havanese, Pekingese, papillion, Cocker spaniel, Corgis both pembroke and cardigan just to name a few.. You will be surprised even alot of the westies and other corse coated terrier dogs need to have undercoat removed before clipping or stripping. and Shihtzus and other drop coated dogs also carry a double coat that comes out during a force dry

I know alot of people who groom out of an open area like yours and it works just fine.
It would be a good idea to maybe send out a letter to the neighbours asking what their views on it would be and let them know you will be doing it and if there are any issues to call you and you can try to fix it.. Unless they have young babies then they should be able to close a door and hear very little! it isn't like you are having a party every night!

I loved the party everynight joke!

The only neighbours it may offend are the ones the other side of the lattice. That house has just been sold and we don't know who the New neighbours will be yet. Hopefully they.might be more compliant since they will b New and we have been there longer? We will just have 2 see and hope they don't have aggressive personalities! If they make noise 2 then nothing 2 worry about?

I have been researching noise reduction solutions.

Apparently quite a few noise reduction specialists sell industrial quality clear PVC plastic sheeting that can be hung. It is particularly effective if a single layer then a 10 cm gap then a 2nd layer is hung. I could hang one layer inside the lattice 2 keep hair out of the lattice work and a 2nd layer outside the lattice 4 extra noise reduction. Each layer reduces sound by up 2 25db according 2 the manufacturer. And it provides thermal protection keeping heat in.

If I explained 2 the new neighbours that these precautions have been taken it should b fine and the amount of noise and times the noise would b made is not outside of council regulations.

If all else fails maybe I could offer them a free groom once a month if they have a small pooch? Lol!