Looking Fit 08/2003: PORTABLE EQUAL$ AFFORDABLE

PORTABLE EQUAL$ AFFORDABLE
Todays Modular Walls Offer Many Advantages To Standard Walls

by Scott Eric Barrett

Quality portable walls are made of medium-density fiberboard (MDF) with a low-pressure laminate (LPL) finish. This construction method is durable and minimizes wall thickness for a maximum number of rooms per available square footage. The LPL finish is similar to that of office furniture and countertops. It never needs painting and can be washed repeatedly without damaging the surface, eliminating the need to ever re-finish the wall surface.

A single tanning room can generate between $12,000 and $36,000 per year, says Rob Quinn, president of Huron, Ohio-based Sunwalls. Using modular walls instead of conventional walls can easily add tens of thousands of dollars to your gross sales simply by giving your salon more capacity.

Marketing is the name of the game in the tanning industry. When a customer walks into a nice-looking salon with great decor and a clean environment, the chances of a quality first impression increase dramatically. Besides a beautiful lobby that displays a salons finest attributes, operators need to put a little creativity into their tanning suites.

Modular walls allow operators to customize room sizes based on current equipment needs and future equipment changes. Oftentimes, with conventional construction, rooms are built either too large or too small for the ever-changing equipment mixes a store might go through.

If a salon operator wants to upgrade to a better tanning bed, he or she has to tear down a wall just to take out the outdated bed, move in the new bed and then build a new wall, says Kevin Peithman, owner of Anaheim, Calif.-based TanWall. Building a wall requires several crews including a framer, a drywall guru, a person to do the taping, another to do the sanding and one more to do the painting, and thats not including the electrician, who would have to run the wiring though the wall.

Another principle advantage is that portable walls can be reconfigured to allow for changes in equipment sizes without disrupting current business, Quinn says. Additionally, these rooms always can be smaller than conventional construction because the equipment can be installed prior to the erection of the walls. With conventional construction, the rooms have to be large enough to assemble the beds inside the rooms. In many cases, with larger beds, double doors have to be installed just to physically get the bed components into the room. This is a non-issue with modular walls.

Cleanliness and damage control are non-issues too. Most systems feature panels that provide a tough coating, which allows tanning products easily to be removed with standard household cleaners, says David DiCristina, vice president of client services for Dallas, Ga.-based T&R Fixtures. Salon owners have no need to paint or patch walls to cover up stains or holes because they simply can replace the panels.

In a tanning suite, there is nothing more detrimental to a clean environment than lotion spills and splatters, says Craig M. Colling, president of Seneca, N.Y.-based Eurowalls LLC.

Lotion sales drive the industry but they have messy repercussions, he says. An appropriate wall surface is very important for day-to-day cleaning and maintenance of a salon.

Downtime is a bad word for any business in any industry. Another benefit to modular walls is that most systems can be built or repaired in less than a day, says Richard Leff, president of Los Angeles-based BuiltRite. We have an account owned by two ladies who installed 12 tanning rooms in two days, he says. Most portable walls are non-progressive, so any combination of panels can be removed to allow for equipment too wide to fit through a standard doorway. Many accounts treat them as furniture so they can be written off faster. The best part is that if you relocate you can take them with you.

Another benefit is that any standard pre-hung door easily can be installed, giving the salon owner the freedom to choose the style hardware and doors he or she wants, DiCristina says.

Since modular walls are considered furniture and fixtures, they qualify for easier, more available funds through equipment lease companies. There are also tax benefits. Conventional construction is referred to as a leasehold improvement that requires the salon owner to depreciate the cost over a certain number of years. Since lease payments are deductible, they qualify to be expensed for the term of the lease, which is seldom more than five years, says Quinn.

It would be misleading to say that modular walls need no permits. It is, however, safe to say that less permitting and inspecting is needed than with conventional construction.

Fewer permits and inspections means things should get done faster and salon operators should be able to open their doors sooner, Quinn says. We recommend our walls be pre-approved by a salons local building department prior to installing. We never have been disapproved for our walls once weve had the opportunity to fully disclose their composition and attributes. Once the system is approved on paper, the only inspection needed is the final walk-through just prior to being issued an occupancy permit.

BuiltRite has yet to experience any problems as well, Leff says.

Having shipped our walls all over the country, weve never had any problems, he says. I guess having to meet the earthquake codes of California gives us added credibility. We can supply the needed documents that will make attaining permits relatively easy.

Every city is different in terms of building permits. On the West Coast, anything taller than 5 feet requires a building permit whether its a wall or a bookcase, Peithman says. Earthquakes are a big deal on the West Coast so anything taller than 5 feet also has to be anchored properly, etc. On the East Coast, there are hurricane issues.

Modular walls look great, save money and time, solve cleaning and equipment-upgrade issues and basically improve the overall salon buildout process, Leff says. This dynamic industry will continue to introduce new, innovative products.

In competitive businesses, storeowners are constantly looking for ways to create visual differences to set their stores apart from their competitors, Quinn says. Since better than 95 percent of tanning stores today are built of studs and drywall, the modular look is sassy and attractive and looks altogether different than drywall.

Its important to remember that all elements of a buildout have a factor of time, headaches and money, Colling says. The goal is to constantly strive to lesson these factors. Nothing helps achieve this goal better than utilizing modular walls.