Beautiful Float pools

Technical information for preparing your building for a Floataway Cabin

Thank you for your interest in our Float Cabin. We have two separate products, a Float Cabin for One
or a slightly larger Float Cabin for Two people. Before you go any further with your building and your
plans to modify it, we would like to discuss the technical specifications of the float cabins.

Firstly, we would like to be sure that the float room is big enough to accommodate the cabin.

Floataway Cabin for One

The Cabin for One measures exterior 237cm (93.5) long x 143cm wide (64.3) x 225cm (88.5) high so
the room must be at least 2m45 (97) x 3m (120) with the door into the room and the shower placed
along the same wall. However, 3m (120) x 4m (158) would give a much more spacious feel to it and
would be more comfortable for the floater.

Floataway Cabin for Two

The Cabin For Two measures exterior 237cm (93.5) long x 183cm wide x 225cm (88.5) high requiring
an extra 40cm (153/4) of room depth.

These room sizes are minimal, in general bigger is better. Clear access is needed to carry in the
various float pod components before installing. We would ask you to consult us if you have any fears
that the pods will not fit into your rooms. Please fax or email us floor plan drawings of your rooms, our
advice is free. Larger rooms do give a better feeling of space.

The technical pack which is finished in highly polished white GRP (unless otherwise specified)
measures 116cm (46) long by 45cm (18) high and 51cm (201/4) wide. It is usually at the front of the
cabin but can be located on the side or behind the cabin, if required. The operator must have clear
access to the technical pod as this is where the filter is changed on a regular basis. If the automatic
chemical dosing unit is ordered, this is also where the supply of chlorine or hydrogen peroxide will be
added to the reservoir. The technical pod has two large stainless steel handles on the top to allow
easy removal. The technical pod is strong enough to be used as a bench for the floater. Please let us
know where you would like it to be positioned in your room.

Shower
We advise installing an open shower approximately 1 metre (39) from the entrance into the Cabin.
This means that there are no glass walls or shower cubical surrounding the shower head. A floor drain
is required and the entire floor must be properly sealed (see the section on flooring). The great
advantage of installing an open shower is the shortened time needed in cleaning between each float
session. A 3 to 5cm (1.5 to 2) slope toward the shower drain from approximately one meter from the
drain is needed. Two shower heads can be installed for couple floating.

We can alternatively fit a shower onto the front of the cabin so that the floater enters and leaves
through the shower if you want this option. We advise this for home use as there is virtually no salt to
clean off the floor. Please contact us if this option would be of interest to you. It will be necessary
for your builders to provide a drain and hot and cold water supply to the point we will specify. The
drain should be 40mm (1 or 1 inch) and the water in 15mm ( inch pipes) with remote shut off

Page 1 of 4
Floataway is a Registered Trade mark of Cosine Ltd. Registered in England No. 1683115
Address for all correspondence : Floataway, 8 Ironside Way, Hingham, Norfolk, NR9 4LF, UK
Registered office: 6th floor, 94-96 Wigmore Street, London W1U 3RF, UK VAT : UK 226 211 895
Office Tel : +44 1953 851515 Factory Tel: +44 1953 851861 info@floataway.com www.floataway.com
 Beautiful Float pools
valves. These services must be brought to the final shower position. Please provide us with your room
drawing so that we can indicated the exact position required.

There are basically 3 ways that pipes can be brought to the shower: 1) a raised false floor to the
entire room, 2) a room underneath, such as a basement, can be used to run the pipes, 3) surface
pipework with or without boxing.

Furthermore although we can of course supply shower mixers we strongly recommend these are locally
sourced to facilitate future servicing.

Electrical requirements :
Under current regulations the electrical supply must be installed by a qualified electrician. We can not
do the electrical installation ourselves.

Depending on where you want your technical pod to be located, you will need to ask your electrician to
install a waterproof electrical mains connection point on the side wall, about 120cm from the back wall
and 20cm high, for example a waterproof terminal box with a 20mm cable gland. The connection point
should be connected to your distribution board via an isolating switch, normally a double pole pull cord
switch in the ceiling, at least 2 metres from the pod waterline or shower base, with a 10 Amp fuse
(20Amp in USA) or circuit breaker and Residual Current Device (RCD), (GFCI in USA) rated at 30mA
at the distribution board. The overall building RCD, (GFCI) if fitted, will not suffice, it is important to
have an RCD (GFCI) dedicated to each float pod. DO NOT INSTALL THE CABLES IN THE FLOOR!
If your building has electrical outlets in the floor, they must be replaced with a waterproof outlet in
the wall as described above.

In addition to the electricity supply mentioned above which you must supply, you must also install
(depending on the options you choose) one or two LAN ' Cat 5e UTP solid 24 AWG 100MHz PVC 'cables
which must be installed by your electrician before the pod is installed. The second of these cables is
necessary if you have chosen intercom, or upgrade to intercom in the future.

These low voltage LAN cables must not be in the same conduit as the
electricity supply cable. They need to go from your reception area where
your CD player and our remote control box will be located, to the same area
where the main electricity supply is located next to the pod. The LAN
cables should terminate in female RJ45 sockets at each end, wired pin for
pin, and tested for continuity before we arrive. Our controller comes with
male RJ45 plugs (see picture RJ45).

The remote control allows you to start the pumping cycle, to see if the pod is occupied, if the lights
are on or off, to control these remotely and to cancel the call attendant alarm. The remote control
box can either be attached to a wall, sit on a shelf or even hidden in a cupboard, but should be in your
reception area, accessible only to your personnel.

To emphasise, we cannot undertake electrical installations and the supply must be prepared and
finished by a suitable electrician. The pod installer simply connects the pod to the outlet in the room.
There should be no other sockets or light switches except for pull cord type, because of the water in

Page 2 of 4
Floataway is a Registered Trade mark of Cosine Ltd. Registered in England No. 1683115
Address for all correspondence : Floataway, 8 Ironside Way, Hingham, Norfolk, NR9 4LF, UK
Registered office: 6th floor, 94-96 Wigmore Street, London W1U 3RF, UK VAT : UK 226 211 895
Office Tel : +44 1953 851515 Factory Tel: +44 1953 851861 info@floataway.com www.floataway.com
 Beautiful Float pools
the room. In addition we highly recommend a separate bright light for cleaning and an emergency
light which comes on in a power cut.

As an optional extra, we can provide our volt free 8 amp relay which enables the floater to switch the
room lights on and off at the same time as switching the float cabin lights on or off. This feature is
to ensure dark conditions during the float session. Please inform us if you wish to do this.

We do not recommend electric showers. Our experience has been that they are unreliable for
commercial use. Please see the notes about showers earlier in this document.

The flooring is the single most important building transformation you will need to do. There are
several reasons for this : 1) Epsom salt is extremely slippery and if you do not install a proper flooring
you risk causing your clients to slip and fall as they get in or out of the pod. 2) As in any building
project where water-based equipment is used, the water must be contained within the float room so
that in case of a leak from burst pipes, from the shower or from the pod itself, the water does not
leak to other parts of the building or to the floor(s) below.

The only type of floor we recommend is Altro MarineTM 20 (www.altro.com) which is a non-slip,
waterproof, hot welded, safety vinyl with a pimply surface, such as is used around swimming pools.

This vinyl flooring must run up the walls by at least 10cms / 4 and must also be bunded which forms a
shallow lake within the float room. See photo below.

Wherever possible, a floor drain should be installed. Where this is impossible, an automatic pump
system to a drain or a bunded volume equal to the total volume of the float pod should be installed.

These precautions are necessary because a leak of any kind can cause damage outside the room. The
bunding details may take the form of raised humps in the floor at doorways and vertical portions at
least 10 cm (4 inches) high at walls. Automatic pump systems can work with 1 cm (3/8 inch) of water
but we recommend a minimum bunding of 25mm (one inch). If the floor is not level, the bunding must
take account of the lowest point.

Please DO NOT install under floor heating in the float room. The heat will melt the acoustic mat
on which our pod sits.

Partition walls must similarly be waterproof and if the adjacent rooms are noisy, these should be
sound absorbing, for example aerated concrete blocks. When designing partitions please remember

Page 3 of 4
Floataway is a Registered Trade mark of Cosine Ltd. Registered in England No. 1683115
Address for all correspondence : Floataway, 8 Ironside Way, Hingham, Norfolk, NR9 4LF, UK
Registered office: 6th floor, 94-96 Wigmore Street, London W1U 3RF, UK VAT : UK 226 211 895
Office Tel : +44 1953 851515 Factory Tel: +44 1953 851861 info@floataway.com www.floataway.com
 Beautiful Float pools
that we need to carry in the components. Gyproc panel walls with washable finishes can be used but
make sure that they stop with a gap from the floor to prevent water seeping up the panels.

It is desirable that you have about 1000 litres of hot water available during installation, ideally from
the shower. If the water is cold, the pod will heat at about one degree per hour and may not be ready
for final inspection for 24 hours or so.

It is essential to have light and electricity working in the float room to install and the room needs to
be completely finished because it is difficult or impossible to fit ceilings or to paint walls once the pod
is installed. One of the great advantages of our Float Rooms or Cabins is that they can be re-
positioned at a later stage if for example you extend your premises and want to place the pod
elsewhere, however you will obviously want to avoid this if possible and it should only be done by a
Floataway employee or a person nominated by Floataway.

You will need to check whether your fire inspector will want a fire alarm sounder in the float room,
some are content with one in the corridor outside.

Ventilation is very important. The room needs either a vent to outside or a fan assisted system.
Without ventilation you will get condensation on the walls. Ventilation is often overlooked, fans do
make some noise; large remote fans with controllers are quieter than small ones in the room. We also
recommend the use of a dehumidifier to control condensation in each float room. These are not
included in the price but we can advise on suitable units if you have any difficulty choosing them.

Nowadays, for any new project, you may need to consider your disabled use strategy and you may
need to fit disabled access (wider) doors and corridors. Normally all the pod parts can be carried
though any normal corridor and doorway. If you feel there is any restriction which might make
installation difficult, please let us know. In addition, there should be no problem with normal stairs
and corridors, if they meet current building standards. (Please see the diagram on our website.) If you
have any doubts about access during installation, please inform us as quickly as possible.

The low voltage cable(s) mentioned earlier go to your reception area where we provide a remote
control for each pod. Your CD player or other sound system will need a separate electricity socket
nearby. The remote control allows you to control a full session program including the lights and pump
as well as the call-attendant circuit required by the regulations.

If you have a history of mice in your building, you may want to consider placing armoured cables at
your own expense. Our warranty does not cover damage to the cables. We have only had this problem
on two occasions, but a broken cable will prevent the pod from functioning properly and it can be
complicated to re-run cables through the walls and ceilings of your centre.

The door to the float room should have a lock which can be opened from the outside in an emergency.

End of document. Updated 8 June 2012

Page 4 of 4
Floataway is a Registered Trade mark of Cosine Ltd. Registered in England No. 1683115
Address for all correspondence : Floataway, 8 Ironside Way, Hingham, Norfolk, NR9 4LF, UK
Registered office: 6th floor, 94-96 Wigmore Street, London W1U 3RF, UK VAT : UK 226 211 895
Office Tel : +44 1953 851515 Factory Tel: +44 1953 851861 info@floataway.com www.floataway.com