I'm trying to finish putting together my rug wash tank (pit). My space is limited (2 car garage). Right now, I just have it setup at 10' x 10', but it's made with 3" PVC, so I can expand if needed. My question is, how often do larger rugs come in to your shops? I want to set it up at a certain size and only expand if absolutely necessary. Is 10' x 10' too small? I think I could go up to 12' x 14' with the space I have. I'd still like to park our compact car in there in the winter.
How often you have large rugs will depend on your business size and market. We made our wash pit to fit rugs up to 12' most of the time. But I would not guess what size rugs you will get. A wash pit can be changed to a smaller or larger size rather quickly. Or for large rugs that don't have urine contamination, you can simply lay out plastic liner for a wash floor without the "pit" for soaking and rinsing.
Here is another idea - if yo have another rug washing plant in the area you might be able to get them to take your overflow at wholesale and send them the bigger rugs. Gotta make sure they are good though. Some of the most successful rug cleaners I know do nothing but send rugs out - I knew a guy that had a huge rug cleaning business - never cleaned 1 rug! He did know rugs better than just about anyone around though.
Yeah, I think you're right. Since my pit is easily disassembled, I'm going to make it expandable so I can go larger when/if needed.
