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Anybody ever added a bay on the end?

S

soonermajic

Well-known member
What all is it gonna entail, by adding a SS bay on the end? I mean totally building on an extra bay, to a 17 yr old site.
What all should I expect, & anybody got an estimate cost? I will just move my SS bay 1 equipment, to the new bay "4".
 
soonermajic said:
Has anyone ever done this? What to expect???
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A photo of the current building would help. There are a number of ways to add on without breaking the bank but some costs will remain static.
IMO, biggest hurdle will probably be tying new bay pit into the existing gas/oil separator.
Post a picture and let us know what you
 
I could be wrong, but it reads like adding an external 'wash bay area' to the end of the length of the carwash building itself. You know a lot of sites offer it for taller / outsized vehicles and includes a higher mounted spray boom, and permits for slab work, drain pit tie in and lighting.

an original three bay
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versus adding external bay
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or a complete fourth bay, with more permits for roofing and wall construction
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To me it sounds like he is considering converting a SS bay to an auto bay but wants to keep the same amount of SS bays.
 
OurTown said:
To me it sounds like he is considering converting a SS bay to an auto bay but wants to keep the same amount of SS bays.
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This exactly. Take in the 1st SS bay, to convert to an IBA (Friction), then add another SS bay to the end of the wash, so we can still have 4 SS bays (but now it'sa 4/2 , insteadof 4/1). So, i want to build an xtra SS bay, to be tied onto the last SS bay, & make it all look the same.
 
Before you get to excited find out if you have enough power and water to add another inbay automatic and S/S bay. Most car washes we’ve run into that the owner wanted to add another bay didn’t have enough power and water available to do the addition. Ballpark guess to build another bay at the end of your car wash, install a fiction automatic, you’re looking around $185,000 give or take. We are in the planning stages of removing all the S/S bays at one wash and installing inbay automatics. Why not just add another inbay automatic, there's more money to be made in the inbay automatic market, the money is not in the S/S bays anymore
 
We have considered it but can't justify the expense. Would rather add another IBA

Randy has a good point on the power, increasing power can get costly. We had to go to 400 amp service at our last site and it was almost $20k all in just to increase the service
 
Randy said:
Before you get to excited find out if you have enough power and water to add another inbay automatic and S/S bay. Most car washes we’ve run into that the owner wanted to add another bay didn’t have enough power and water available to do the addition. Ballpark guess to build another bay at the end of your car wash, install a fiction automatic, you’re looking around $185,000 give or take. We are in the planning stages of removing all the S/S bays at one wash and installing inbay automatics. Why not just add another inbay automatic, there's more money to be made in the inbay automatic market, the money is not in the S/S bays anymore
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Correct, the IBA will make alot more money. But those SS bays are crazy busy. I'd have alot of customers mad cause of longer lines. Only 3 SS bays for a rural town of 5500 is simply not enough. LAST thing i want is some deep pockets guy pissed, & just building his own wash. Land is CHEAP here, & these guys tore down the other 5 SS wash, to consolidate.
 
I added one bay on the end of a existing wash about 12 years ago. I was basically able to just build the 2 front and back walls and one side wall. I had a engineering firm draw up the plans so I could tie the walls into the existing structure. All my bays have a oil trap and a mud trap built into them so I just die the same thing in the new bay. I added another automatic and already had enough water, power and had run a 6 inch sewer line in previously. so I just had a simple extension onto it to catch the new pits outflow. I followed the same roof pitch. Back then my whole addition was around 30K plus equipment. I used solid poured split face concrete block with metal roof using C purlins.
 
Soapy, that's some great info. I have the depth & room, but it will tighten things up, that's for sure. They can still pull through bays & circle out, around that new SS bay. It will just be tight & busy.
 
Soapy,
I'm guessing it's gonna be more than $30k in 2021..? This will make this place tight for sure, & pretty dang busy. I just need to gauge if the juice is worth the squeeze...
I keep kicking around taking in SS bay 1, making it a friction, & not adding a SS on the end. But dadgum these 4 SS bays are busy!
 
soonermajic said:
Soapy,
I'm guessing it's gonna be more than $30k in 2021..? This will make this place tight for sure, & pretty dang busy. I just need to gauge if the juice is worth the squeeze...
I keep kicking around taking in SS bay 1, making it a friction, & not adding a SS on the end. But dadgum these 4 SS bays are busy!
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You could raise the price of the SS bays to slow them down a bit.
 
FWIW my busiest bay does about six times the revenue as my least used bay on the far end. If it had been added on, it would take close to ten years to pay off at $30k to build.
 
My bay for 30K was for a automatic and it took very little time to pay off the expense of adding the bay for my application.
 
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