A salon is a wet services project
The mistake we are most often called in to correct in this suburb is a salon designed as a decorative scheme with plumbing added afterwards. What actually determines whether a salon works is unglamorous: how many wash stations can be served by the available drainage falls, whether the water heater can deliver simultaneous demand at the evening peak, whether the colour-mixing area has its own extraction and a sink that does not discharge into the customer washroom line, and how the therapy rooms are ventilated without carrying sound between them. Get those right and a plain room works. Get them wrong and no amount of joinery rescues it.
| Category | Typical size | ₹ per sq ft | Where the budget concentrates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salon and grooming | 800 – 3,000 sq ft | ₹1,900 – 2,500 | Wash stations, water heating, extraction, mirrors and lighting |
| Spa and wellness | 1,500 – 5,000 sq ft | ₹2,000 – 2,650 | Wet rooms, acoustic separation, ventilation, waterproofing |
| Gym and fitness studio | 2,000 – 8,000 sq ft | ₹1,550 – 2,150 | Floor loading and build-up, ventilation, changing rooms |
| Mall unit retail | 500 – 3,000 sq ft | ₹1,850 – 2,500 | Shopfront, landlord approvals, night-working supervision |
| Link Road showroom | 1,500 – 6,000 sq ft | ₹1,700 – 2,300 | Frontage, display lighting, parking apron |
| Café and casual dining | 900 – 2,500 sq ft | ₹1,850 – 2,450 | Kitchen services and the acoustic boundary |
Ex-GST. Excludes salon, gym and kitchen equipment, and landlord deposits.
Water, drainage, extraction — then the finishes
Worked example: 2,600 sq ft salon and wellness centre, Link Road
A first-floor unit in a standalone commercial building with parking. Twelve styling positions, four wash stations, three therapy rooms, a colour bar, a reception and retail display, staff room and two washrooms.
| Scope | ₹ lakh | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Strip-out and protection | 1.30 | Previous tenant's works removed; stair and lift protected |
| Civil, drainage and waterproofing | 5.80 | New drainage falls to four wash stations and three therapy rooms; full tanking |
| Plumbing — wash stations and therapy rooms | 6.40 | Hot and cold runs, mixers, wet-room drainage, colour-bar sink |
| Joinery — stations, reception, retail display | 14.20 | Twelve styling units, colour bar, reception, product display |
| Flooring | 3.40 | Porcelain with coved skirting to wet zones, vinyl plank to the floor |
| Ceiling and lighting | 7.80 | Mirror lighting at high colour rendering; softer scheme in therapy rooms |
| Electrical, DB and small power | 5.60 | Sub-DB, station power, heater circuits, dimmable therapy circuits |
| HVAC and extraction | 6.20 | Cooling to the floor; dedicated extraction from the colour bar |
| Water heating and treatment | 2.10 | Sized for simultaneous evening demand; softener for the wash line |
| Fire detection and suppression | 2.10 | Detection, sprinkler alterations, extinguishers |
| Shopfront, signage and stair branding | 2.90 | First-floor visibility is the whole marketing problem |
| Project management and contingency | 0.70 | Against the drainage falls |
| Total, ex-GST | 58.50 | ₹2,250 per sq ft carpet |
Add 18% GST. Drainage, plumbing, water heating and extraction together are 36% of this contract. A quotation where they are under 20% has not understood the building.
Two constraints and a trading pattern
- Drainage falls decide your station count. In a first-floor unit you cannot cut the structural slab, so every wash station and wet room has to reach an existing stack within the available floor build-up. That build-up — usually 100 to 150 mm — sets the maximum run length and therefore how many stations are possible and where. We survey the stacks and model the falls before drawing a layout, and occasionally that conversation ends with a recommendation to take a different unit.
- Evening peak, not weekend peak. Malad wellness businesses fill up between 6pm and 9.30pm on weekdays, largely from the Link Road offices. Design for that: enough simultaneous hot water, a waiting area that can hold eight people without anyone standing over a client, reception staffed for checkout and booking at once, and lighting that works after dark rather than relying on the daylight the unit gets at 11am.
Standalone or mall
Inorbit and Infiniti give footfall, an enforced standard and a fixed fit-out window, and cost 15 to 20% more per square foot to build because of landlord charges, night working and approval-driven specification. A standalone Link Road unit gives parking, a frontage you control, longer trading hours and no barricade charges, at the cost of generating your own footfall. For wellness, which runs on appointments and repeat custom rather than impulse, the standalone unit usually wins. For apparel and accessories it usually does not. The exception is a first-floor standalone unit, where your entire visibility problem is the stair and the signage, and both deserve real budget rather than the leftovers.
For the suburb as a whole, including housing and offices, see interior designers in Malad. For our commercial method across Mumbai, see commercial interior designers in Mumbai.
Wellness and retail work by Greenbox Design Studio.
Frequently asked questions
How many wash stations can we fit in a first-floor salon?+
It depends on the drainage stacks and the floor build-up, not on the floor plan. With 100–150 mm of build-up you can run a limited distance at the required fall, which sets how far a station can be from a stack. We survey the stacks first; occasionally the honest answer is that the unit will not support the station count you need.
What size water heater does a salon need?+
Size it on simultaneous evening demand, not on total station count. Four wash stations running together at the 7pm peak need considerably more than a domestic-logic calculation suggests, and running out of hot water at the busiest hour is the failure clients remember. We model it against the appointment pattern and usually add a buffer tank.
Is a mall unit worth 15–20% more to build?+
For apparel, accessories and impulse categories, usually yes — the footfall is the product you are buying. For wellness, which runs on appointments and repeat custom, usually no: a standalone Link Road unit with parking and longer hours performs better and costs less to build and occupy.
What does a gym fit-out need that an ordinary retail unit does not?+
Floor loading confirmed for the equipment and free weights, an impact-absorbing build-up in the lifting area, ventilation sized on occupancy rather than floor area, changing rooms and showers with proper drainage, and acoustic isolation from anything below. The finishes are the cheap part; the structure and services are not.
Our unit is on the first floor. How do we get people to find it?+
Budget properly for the stair and the signage — they are your shopfront. A lit, clean, branded stair with clear signage at street level does more for a first-floor business than any amount of interior spend, and it is the item most often left to the end and then cut.