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Questions on doors

S

Scott.Downey

Active member
Just recently bought an old self serve was in a small iowa town that hasn't had a lot of up grades in the past 30 years. The previous owners had replaced the in floor heat but the bays lack any kind of door. We were looking to add doors to hopefully cut down on the utilities. Who sells the kind of doors normally seen on a car wash in Iowa or eastern Nebraska? How much does a 14 wide by 10 tall door going to run? Thanks for any input!
 

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Scott.Downey said:
Just recently bought an old self serve was in a small iowa town that hasn't had a lot of up grades in the past 30 years. The previous owners had replaced the in floor heat but the bays lack any kind of door. We were looking to add doors to hopefully cut down on the utilities. Who sells the kind of doors normally seen on a car wash in Iowa or eastern Nebraska? How much does a 14 wide by 10 tall door going to run? Thanks for any input!
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We have not used floor heat in over 10 years. We have a blow down system that when the temp reaches a certain temp it blows air thru the wands and brushes and then as it approaches freezing in blows air and then antifreeze solution tether the lines so they won’t freeze. If you leave the bays open it will blow down each time. We close our bays off when it drops below freezing and just salt as needed. The system works great and you don’t waste all the weep water
 
DAWGWASH said:
We have not used floor heat in over 10 years. We have a blow down system that when the temp reaches a certain temp it blows air thru the wands and brushes and then as it approaches freezing in blows air and then antifreeze solution tether the lines so they won’t freeze. If you leave the bays open it will blow down each time. We close our bays off when it drops below freezing and just salt as needed. The system works great and you don’t waste all the weep water
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Not sure where your wash is located, but I do at least 75% of my business in the winter when temps are below freezing. On a clear weekend after a snow, I will often have lines 6-10 cars deep in front of all 5 bays and the auto wash during the day. Floor heat and weep is a must have here.
I do have a timer on my floor heat boiler, so it shuts off around 6pm and starts back up about 8 am.
 
Toms PTcarwash said:
Not sure where your wash is located, but I do at least 75% of my business in the winter when temps are below freezing. On a clear weekend after a snow, I will often have lines 6-10 cars deep in front of all 5 bays and the auto wash during the day. Floor heat and weep is a must have here.
I do have a timer on my floor heat boiler, so it shuts off around 6pm and starts back up about 8 am.
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Are you ever worried about the floor pipes bursting ? The old owners told us not to turn it off
 
I am in Pennsylvania.
It was 65 degrees here on Christmas eve, and 25 on new years day. So no, very seldom does it stay below freezing all day and night for more than a couple days in a row. But temps can vary wildly late November until late March.
Whenever snow or freezing rain is forecast DOT loads the roads with salt.
When we get the snow and salt, and then a clear weekend, I get crazy busy. I wish it happened weekly!
 
Scott.Downey said:
Are you ever worried about the floor pipes bursting ? The old owners told us not to turn it off
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My floor heat has no burst antifreeze. It's good to 50 below.
If you don't have anti-freeze, I suggest you add it. Not just for energy savings, but to prevent a major $ repair incase of equipment or power failure.
 
Toms PTcarwash said:
My floor heat has no burst antifreeze. It's good to 50 below.
If you don't have anti-freeze, I suggest you add it. Not just for energy savings, but to prevent a major $ repair incase of equipment or power failure.
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They have anti freeze in the system, so i don't know why they are afraid to shut it down. They replaced the floor and heat tubes recently. Running on a timer and turning it off for 8 hrs would definitely save some money on gas.
 
From your pic, I believe I have a lot more floor area than you. My heated SS bay area is 90' x 30'. I am both blessed and cursed by really large self-serve bays.
So I doubt you will see the same savings as me, but it cut my gas cost from 1400 to about 400 on average a month with the timer on the boiler.
 
It looks like you have doors on one side, or a wall, can’t really tell with the provided picture. Are you planning on enclosing the whole bay?, don’t think that would be a good idea, most only do doors on one side.

You can get a price from anyone who install’s overhead doors.

There should be ethylene-glycol (green colored) Anti-freeze in the floor heat and boiler, take a sample and check to see if it is at least 50/50.

The boilers I use call for ethylene-glycol, if it is a new boiler you can check to see what type of AF is recommended. No-burst likes to eat the seals in some boilers

I would leave the circulator on throughout the winter season, you wouldn’t want to take a chance of it freezing and have to replace the floor heat and pads.

When the temps during the day start getting below freezing, I leave my boiler on all the time, turning it off and on doesn’t save as much as you would think, because it will take more time for the water to get the pads back up to a temperature where the water is not freezing on the floor, and there is also liability risk having frozen pads.

If I did turn it off, I wouldn’t allow anyone in the bays during that time.
 
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