Dog grooming sheds
Part of the aim of this website was for it to be useful for my customers. Many of my customers are groomers and are looking at starting a business in their garden but haven’t a clue where to start.
This isn't a comprehensive guide but it will get you thinking about it with luck you’ll reach the end of this page and you will have more questions than answers. However i’d far rather you have these questions than to never think about it.
Things to consider are the following and i’ll break down each bit in more detail
Planning permission
The shed
Services
Drains
Water
Power
Things you don't need to be thinking about are colours and decoration as they come later.
Planning permission
If you have ever read the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy and you have dealt with local planners then you will understand where the inspiration for the vogons came from. But sadly you have to deal with Vogons.
I will dispense a warning here. You will talk to people who build and sell sheds/log cabins/grooming pods that will tell you that you don’t need planning permissions. The key word here is “SELL”. As they are selling something then they want to make it as easy as possible hence they will lie to you about not needing planning permission. If you think they aren’t lying then ask for the advice in writing and ask if it is legal advice. Their answer will tell you everything
Your first port of call is to find your local councils planning portal online as this can be a gold mine of useful information. My local one is aberdeenshire council which has a few useful things to look at including contacting them and advice. If you are super lucky their will be details of planning surgeries where you can talk to a local planner
Also what might be more useful is they will have an application search function and if you find the advance search then you can enter the magic word of "grooming".
This will then pull up all the planning applications related to dog grooming in your local area and from this you can look at what others have done and find architects and the like who have dealt with previous dog grooming businesses. I'd advise not doing this on your phone as it will be full of drawings and letters which will be a nightmare to read on a teeny weeny screen.
The Shed
This is the exciting bit for everyone. I have customers who have a variety of different solutions ranging from a B&Q garden shed up to log cabins.
The traditional garden shed
The sole advantage of this is they are cheap. Beyond that I would not recommend one.
The downsides are they are very draughty and have no insulation. This makes them freezing in winter. Add in the dark colour and the black roof and they become an oven in summer.
The grooming Pod
None of my clients have one of these but I can see the attraction as you have one unit that appears on the back of a lorry that is dropped into the garden, connected up and off you go
The question is how do you get the pod from the lorry to the place the pod is going as they are not flatpack
The Log cabin
Log cabins are a better solution. These are normally made from pieces of wood which are profiled to slot together to form the walls of the building. The thickness of the wood varies depending on price to give thicker walls which gives you more insulation from the wood. You can also get ones that are insulated with internal or external insulation which is beneficial in summer and winter. Most of them come from a few factories in eastern europe and they are then sold onwards by agents.
There is standard off the shelf designs but customisation of the cabin is normally pretty simple at the point of order
I'd strongly advise you to contact a local company to you as then you can go and look at the products as well as have a chat with them about your plans. An online remote company maybe cheaper but you probably won't get the same level of service.
Our local company is https://www.forestlogcabins.com/FAQs.html which is run by Steve and they supplied us with a 2 bedroom logcabin which was used by my parents for staying in when they visit.
Other options that are open to you are in brief
The tin shed/metal building :- GOD NO as unless you get a really good one with lots of insulation you’ll end up in a cold leaky damp metal box that sounds like a biscuit tin
Portacabin :- Not a bad option as they are normally made to a good standard and will be made for working in
Shipping container :- Same problems as a metal building but with the added fun of hugely heavy doors
What ever option you go for you need to think about foundations and paths to the shed as trudging over your lawn constantly is an invite to a muddy mess. Also if you are getting foundations and paths done correctly then this is the perfect time to get any trenches you need for services done at the same time.
Services
You need to think of three basic things
Electricity
Water to the shed
Water OUT of the shed
Drains
Water out of the shed is going to be your biggest headache though for reasons that I don't fully understand it is always the last on anyones list, but if you solve this well then the other two will just drop into place. Literally in some cases
The best case is to find an existing drain and to tie into this with a 4 inch drain pipe from the shed. Because it is a 4 inch drain then you will need to dig a trench for this and to then back fill it to bury it under your garden. But while you have this trench in place then you can at the same time run a power cable and a water pipe. I'd advise talking to a plumber here as your house may have two drains. One for grey and black water (sewage) and one for rainwater. You want to avoid mixing these two up. The plumber can also advise on where to get a fresh water feed from.
If you can't get easy access to your drains then there is other options
If you have to get your drains uphill then you can get various pumping solutions which are all basically a pump and a tank which when the tank is full they pump the water uphill to a main drain. These can range from small units which will fit in a kitchen cabinet up to a sewage pumping station. Again talk to your plumber, if he hasn't heard of a sewage pumping station, get a better plumber.
Another option is to dig a big hole and to install a soakaway which lets the waste water soakaway into the ground which is what is done with rainwater in many places. As you are going to be dealing with hairy water I'd encourage you to have some form of basket filter to try and catch the hair before the soakaway so it doesn't block stuff up. Again talk to a plumber
The last option is to have a waste water tank which you empty out at the end of the day. Not a brilliant option but I do have one client who worked that system. At the end of the day he would carry many buckets of water into his house and empty them down the bath.
Finally we shall mention the option advocated by one of the pod companies of emptying the water into the flower bed. Don't do that as you'll end up with a mud bath and dead flowers
Fresh water supply
Best option here is to tie into your house supply and run it under the ground in a nice deep channel so it doesn't freeze in winter. Somewhat like you would be digging for the drains. Did I mention a plumber?
The next option is a garden hose across the garden which you roll up each time you are finished with it. This is a bit of a cack option as you'll get bored rolling it up and you'll leave it there and it will freeze in winter. That will cause you issues, it will look terrible and you'll come to the conclusion you should of buried it.
Another option is buckets of hot water from the house which you carry down to the shed. I think we can both see this really isn't a great option. I have a client who does this.
A last option you might consider is rainwater harvesting. Todo this properly you are going to spend some money as it will involve buried tanks, pressure pumps, UV water treatment which will probably be more then a permeant feed. You can do this cheap and cheerful with a water butt and a pond pump but it isn't the best. If you are tempted down this route then DO NOT BUY A CLEAR IBC as it will turn into pond water in summer for a few pounds more you can buy black ones
Electricity
The best case is you are installing proper drains with a trench dug across the garden. While the trench is there then you run an armoured cable for power and the fresh water supply at the same time. If you do this then I'd encourage you to put a empty duct in at the same time so you can run ethernet or something else at a later date should you need it. The armoured cable will need tying into your consumer unit and ideally a small consumer unit being made in the shed as well.
Talk to an electrician
Next option is to run a cable along a fence and you plug that into a external socket. While this will work it really is a bit cheap and nasty with the potential to go wrong.
And it WILL go wrong on a cold and horrible Thursday evening when you can’t get it fixed
A tempting option will be solar as you can buy a full kit for £450
I'd advise against this as while it is really simple and cheap to put a solar panel on the roof, fit a charge controller, battery banks and an inverter to give you 240V volts the problem will be capacity.
If you are running a dryer of any sort you will be using many many kilowatt hours of power. Typical blaster is 2kw, run this for an hour and you need 2kilowatt hour of battery. A 2 kilowatt hour battery is £1500 and that is one blaster for an hour.
If you have multiple dogs over a day and have some typical British winter sunshine then you are going to need a BIG battery bank. To get a usable set-up you are looking at a 5 figure cost on batteries alone.
Another option is a generator
A petrol one will be deeply annoying, nosy smelly, and a massive pain in the hoop. You will hate it
A fixed outdoor diesel one is a viable option if you put some thought into it
Hot water
While hot water isn’t strictly in the services it is something that you will have to consider
More options here then you would think. These options can be split into two basic camps
Electric heating
The first option is the electric shower which on the face of it is cheap and small so is the best option. But to get a good one then you need alot of power so you MUST think about this at the start so you can get a big enough power supply out to the shed.
The next option is to have a conventional large hot water tank which you heat all day. this needs the same amount of energy as a electric shower but as you are heating all the time you can get less power. You also have to get a tank somewhere in the shed. this might not be the best option.
The final option is the good old hydrobath. These have a tank of water under the bath which is heated slowly and then the same water is circulated around the bath. Because you are heating slowly and at the same time recycling the water then you are using less energy and power. I’d put this as my firm favourite solution
Burning stuff
I’m not advocating building a camping fire and throwing a kettle on it to supply the hot water, that said you can get wood fired boilers I am pointing you at other options
Most hot water in the UK comes from burning gas in a gas fired boiler and unless you have lucked out then it is deeply unlikely you will have a gas main to your shed. This won’t stop you from using gas. Mains gas is natural gas you can also get LPG (liquid petroleum gas) which is a heavier gas. This can be supplied in the red gas bottles you see as well as larger bulk LPG tanks.
You’ll of mostly seen the red gas bottles attached to caravans and they are not there for show as alot of larger caravans have a hot water heater. And these can easily be installed into a grooming shed. You either want to look for a LPG boiler or a caravan hot water heater.
I will of course say get this installed by a professional, you just need to find a plumber who has his LPG certifcate
Another thing you can burn is heating oil. You can buy small oil fired water heaters for caravans but these are frankly a bit small.
For houses you can buy a unit which functions identically to a gas boiler and it can give you hot water as well as heating.
This might be overkill for a small shed but it is an option
Conclusion
Hopefully this section has been of assistance to you and you will hopefully come away with a head full of questions, even better if you have solutions to these questions as well.
If i have missed anything then please do drop me a line
If you are a company who can supply anything to help groomers then i am happy to call you out
If you are a groomer who is working out of a shed in your garden then please get in touch and i can give you a guest slot in the blogroll for you to post pictures and experiences