I want to open a Launromat

[launderess]

Do Your Homework!

Many a man has been driven to ruin thinking opening a laundromat was an easy "gold mine". It simply is no such thing.

You need to know what it costs to run this laundromat, verus what locals will pay. In particular what will be your fixed costs: water, sewer, electric, gas, etc.... Does your local require commercial laundries to pay for incoming water and outgoing (sewage), if so how is it caculated.

What and who is your potential customer base? Is there room for growth? Can you price to get where you need to make your monthly nut and a profit?

Who is your competition? It may not always be the obvious, and that can come back to bite you in the rear. What are you going to do differently to both keep the existing customer base happy, plus draw in new clients?

Remember if you attract a large drop off and or collect and deliver service, that may tie up your machines at the same time laundromat customers want the machines. This happens allot at our local, and nothing ticks persons off more than having to wait for endless machines tagged with drop off laundry.

Both the Coin-Op Laundry Association and Experian sell demographic information (at a price, IIRC) you need for marketing/research purposes. You tell them the parameters
and they pull the information.

In NYC, drop off service bets laundromat. The man who runs our local always tells me that the business is about 75% drop off. Then again this is NYC where persons are busy and lead hectic lives, so most would rather have someone else deal with the Wash. Being as this may collect and deliver laundry service is picking up as a service across the United States.

This is all off the top of my head, and you doubtless will receive much better information from others in the business. However one more thing: if at all possible either obtain a very long lease or better still, try to own the building. Countelss horror stories abound about laundromat owners being chucked out of their business when the lease is up, and having to leave all their equipment behind. Only to have the building owner open up a "new" laundromat with said owner's equipment (and customers). The thing has to do with clauses in a lease about anything attached to the building belonging to the landlord. Well dryers and commercial laundromat washers are bolted into the floors, well they are unless one chooses soft mount machines.

 

[irishwashguy]

I apreciate hearing everyones input

I at this moment have a pick up and drop off service, I specifically do most of my work for Chiroprators/masage theropists/spa type of places. I have a lady that used one of her sheets acording to where the stain was. She called me one day and asked me if I gave her back the right sheet, it looked like hers, just missing the stain. Ooops! I am totally looking to expand that. I was thinking about going to diapers, an or white shirts. In this part of the country, they charge an average to .95 lbs to 3.00 a pound. The location people are calling back tomorrow with more information for me.I am calling the Clark Public Utilities and find out what the average electric bill is, as well as the other utilities so I can get a baseline as to what it will cost to run this place.

 

[luxflairguy]

Today's New York Times has an ad from Electrolux about seminars around the country about opening a laundry. The link is [email protected]. Greg

 

[favorit]

Launderess's suggestions are very interesting cause they apply also here.

In my town ten years ago there were 2 laundomats. They had as a target those immigrants that weren't expected to afford a washer. But immigrants prefer save 200 euro (or use revolving cards) to buy a budget washer rather than pay 8 - 10 euro to wash and dry a single load. So one has closed. the other has gone to 100% drop off service

The one close to my sister village is in a touristic place close to the border, so there are several foreign tourists and has also a lot of drop off traffic based on ski suits

Check also gas vs electric, which one is less expensive. Don't know how it works there. Here electric fixed charges increase as much as you increase your required KW of power, while gas is cheaper, no matter if from public pipeline or from your private LPG tank.

That's why commercial gas dryers are common while electric dryers are rare. Washers have hot / cold fill and sometimes very hot fill too in addition of a less powerful possible internal heater.

Someone offers wetclean services, someone duvet care, many offer shirts care. No matter all of them have also a dry cleaning machine that' s the very core of their trade, however that may not be be same in Michigan ...

Good luck

 

[launderess]

Diaper Service

Yes, there are a few of them still out there, and you will be running withthe big dogs.

Diaper service is not as easy as one thinks, especially as unlike simple collect and deliver laundry, one has to supply the diapers as well. That means stocking all manner and sizes from newborn to adult.

Next, you will probably have to have your local health department involvement or at least consulted as you will be dealing with "bio hazard" contaminated laundry on a daily basis (read feces and urine soaked diapers). Such articles are going to require vastly different laundry proceedures than say washing sheets.

 

[irishwashguy]

That is a very good point

With the business that I am doing now once took me into a laundomat when my washer and dryer were unhooked for a couple of months. I spoke with the woman who owned the laundomat and we had a costomer in common. She tried to steal him away from me, because he told me. She is very serious about her business as am I. I want to do a perfect job for everyone and still make some money. Quality is very important to me. The diaper thing, I would have to do more investigating. I am so thankful for everyones great thoughts.

 

[sudsman]

When you get into Diaper Services you will be in osha and c

you will have to abide my strict hospital laundring guidelings and must use the EXACT amount of the proper chemicals. Alkali Detergent bleach softener and sour will all have to be added. and in EXACT amounts. You will also have to use antichlor in the 1st rinse after the bleach or your diapers will not last long at all. You will have to have a GOOD chemical rep and company .. Ecolab is one of the best for such. Have used them for years and the knowlege is always quite helpful. Dr offices and such can come under the same guidelines as you are dealing with contaminated linens.

 

[launderess]

Even Hospitals Today For The Most Part

Have moved to throw away "wash cloths", as opposed to my day when they were pure cotton terry. Why? All those wash cloths and such heavy with feces and such now require separate laundry bag labeling,and different proceedures than other laundry. One nurse told me that the laundry her hospital uses actually sends anything heavy with feces back, though find that hard to credit.

A person we know out here started a diaper service, but along European lines, using detergents and activated (TAED)oxygen bleach EU certified to sanitise if wash temps are at least 140F for twenty minutes, or 160F for ten, IIRC.

They were using stean heated washing machines, so don't know about their costs.

Mothers, hospitals and doctor's offices are very particular about their laundry. One mother's infat comes down with a bad reaction to the diapers, and you are on "Yelp.com" or the "Mommy Message Boards", and there goes your reputation.

Also consider with a diaper service, there is little to no room for missed deliveries/collections. Infants go through vast amounts of diapers per day, and a mother that has to either wash her own or do without because of a missed day (weather or employee related), is not likely to be happy.

Mother's in particular can tell how "clean" a diaper is by how it smells wet. Again, if they sense something isn't right, be prepared for some telephone calls.

Consider also one has to order vast amounts of diapers surplus to requirements for two other reasons:

Customers use diapers for all manner and sort of things besides baby, ranging from rags to cleaning up cloths.

Next the harsh laundering requirments (high wash temperatures and or routine use of chlorine bleach) will shorten textile life. Once a diaper starts to show wear such as holes or other damage, quality services will retire it from service. Some diaper services sell such diapers as "rags" to recoup part of their investment.

Also today a diaper service rarely has only diapers, but offers several types of covers, wraps, and so forth. Again all of which requires an outlay of investment.

 

[favorit]

Diaper and incontinent laundry

Don't know your local codes ... here barrier washer-extractors with separated load side and unload side are required to process this kind of laundry.

Usually they are side loaders with two separate outertub side lids
This one is not so common cause is side loaded (same design as residential euro toploaders) and front unloaded

Loading…

www.laundrysystems.electrolux.com

 

[favorit]

ref desinfection temps and times - euro cycles

in reference of what Launderess wrote, more details are at page 17 of the manual you can download clicking on "PW 6065 VARIO AV".

You'll find also some interesting info about your W3033 (cycles, options, programmable options : how they work)

Loading…

www1.miele.de

 

[launderess]

Barrier Washers

At one time were mandated in the UK for "hospital" laundry, but that has been withdrawn, IIRC.

Main reason commercial laundry opeators don't like the things is that aside from the normal costs of putting in a "commercial" type washing machine, hard or soft mount, barrier washers have to be installed into a wall. There is a "dirty" side and a "clean" side of the plant, with a wall between the two, and airflow designed to usually move from later to former to prevent any sort of draft from blowing "germs" into the clean room.

Think the washer shown above may be a way to get around the above, or simple a different variation from the long cylinder type H-axis washers that are usually used for barrier systems.

Barrier washers also limit laundry design as one can imagine once the system is installed it requires knocking down a wall and such to remove the machine. Well, guess one could remove the machine and seal up the opening.

By the way, in Germany, the health code standard is nearly boiling water (around 195F) for about twenty or so minutes. This explains the brilliant whites one finds in German healthcare centers. Uniforms, sheets, scrubs, etc all look like an advert for Persil.

 

[launderess]

Sluice Do Be The Word

At home women would "rinse" soiled diapers by dipping them up and down in the toilet, then allow them to sit in a diaper pail filled with water and usually borax.

In commercial laundries to remove heavy and or gross filth with the least exposure to workers (gotta keep those health departments happy), the stuff is bunged into a machine that uses high or low water levels to flush the gunk out of fabrics and down the drains.

Now personally wouldn't use this method in any washing machine that could not subsequently do a proper near or boil wash, or one being able to use LCB afterwards in the wash or rinse. Otherwise routine use of flushing soiled nappies can lead to a washer infested with all sort of, well you can imagine. Especially if the diapers/linens hold what we called in nursing an "explosive BM"

 

[favorit]

Sluice cycles

yes, the washer also has to be a version with dump valve (gravity drain instead of drain pump).

Here a description of such cycles. Note "Incontinent laundry" : this cycle has up to 11 baths (water fills)

 

[favorit]

more recent one - note how the interim spins are mandatory to assure proper water changes/dilution

 

[irishwashguy]

This is something to think about

I am going to do more homework on this and let you know what I find out.

 

[irishwashguy]