Activzone in Guildford was almost destroyed when water from a burst pipe ruined the equipment, walls, flooring and electrics.
Sonja Botha, who has owned the facility in Stoke Road since 2007, praised the 700 members for retaining their memberships during extensive refurbishment work which meant the gym was closed for a month.
She said: “I really want to say to my members that I am really thankful to them. Not one of them cancelled their membership. They stood by me and were really nice about it.”
She opened a temporary gym in a room in Guildford College but it could only house a few pieces of equipment.
Miss Botha said it was bad luck that the pipe burst on one of only two days a year that the gym is closed. Police called her at 2am on Boxing Day to tell her about the accident.
“Nobody was there so we couldn’t stop the water,” she said. “I was in Germany so I got in the car and drove through the night to get to the gym.
“When I turned up, it was literally like a swimming pool. The whole place was flooded. It really was a mess and telephone cables and parts of the equipment had corroded.”
A caretaker was able to turn off the water but Miss Botha said the flood was by then about 6cm deep.
It covered the entire floor but the fire brigade told the gym that it could not pump water out if it was less than one foot deep.
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