What to charge if you do someone's laundry?

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frontloaderfan

frontloaderfan

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I work in a medium size commercial kitchen that employs about 15-20 people. We are having some reliability problems with our linen service and were thinking of doing some of our washing ourselves. I said I might be able to do it but really have no idea what to tell the boss to give me for it.

It would most likely consist of aprons, smocks and possibly some kitchen towels. My mother did this sort of thing for some extra money when I was a kid and I believe she used to get something like $.05 per towel, but that was back in the early 80's.

Does anyone have any ideas on what to charge for this service?
Thanks
 
your best bet, for your area...check local laundromats who have drop off service and see what their rates are......

normally this is wash, dry and fold only......

dress shirts and pants that require iron and starch would be more...1.00 for pants, .75 cents for shirts.....for each piece....

around here is runs about 5 to 7 dollars for standard load(10 to 12lbs---1 bushel basket)

you can make some decent money off this.....I did for a while with police uniforms and shirts....

at the same time Ryan, what were they paying the outside service to do these items?...
 
Ah! Most honorable Yogi! :-)

My boss told me he pays them over $600.00 a month, but that's also with mop head and doormat service. We fill about three "industrial sized" laundry bags a week with various items ( not sure what those cloth bags on the rickety stands are called). I'm thinking my Frigidaire FL can handle about one of those bags per load...
 
Think Hard And Long About What You Are Getting Yourself Into

Doing hospitality laundry is vastly different than domestic. Commercial laundries have access to chemicals that are able to deal with laundry containing vast and different amounts of stains ranging from beverages to grease/oil/fats. Staff in food service are known to use napkins, tablecloths etc... as "mops" or "rags" to wipe up all sorts of spills then send them to the wash.

Aprons and other clothing used during the preparation and service of food will have stains which must be shifted before drying or.....

Finally there is the duty cycle of your washing machine. Is it designed and or can cope with doing two, three or more full loads of wash per day? What are your utility costs? Water, electric and or gas? What is the cost of extra wear and tear on your domestic laundry equipment that may need repair and or replacement sooner due to increased heavy work?

While it seems your employer's current laundry may be lacking there is a science behind doing commercial laundry. This will vary by what sort of things one is dealing with (hospitality, healthcare, household laundry/linens, etc...) but never the less it should and or does involve more than just chucking things into machines and hoping for the proper outcome.

It is quite common today for hospitality linens/apparel to contain various amounts of polyester. Because of this the wash and stain removal formulas must be tailored to that fiber. Otherwise you end up with a host of problems from poor to nil stain removal to dingy and grey whites.

What may seem like simple "wash and fold" laundry may actually go through ironers at commercial laundries.

Finally do you *really* want to be

Best of luck...[this post was last edited: 7/22/2014-16:54]
 
I would charge at least a dollar per pound:

to launder and fold the uniforms. More if they need to be pressed.

Billing for the laundry will very dependant on if you are laundering his items or renting them to him. If he is using your linens you must build in a replacement cost for lost or damaged items in the billing cycle.

Typically this is a charge based on how many ruined pieces you get back and have to remove from service. This is typically a static charge based on averages. Of course this would need to be written into your contract with the customer.

Before quoting a price you need to know your cost of processing and delivering each piece. This hold's true if using your linens or his. If they are yours an average weekly replacement charge will apply.

Mechanical capability of the processing equipment and the available chemistry also play in. Do you have access to commercial laundry machines and chemistry needed to correctly do this job?

I say none of this to discourage. Only to open the thought process from someone who has commercial laundry experience.
WK78
 
@ Launderess:

I was asking myself these very questions, but I seem to do well with my own uniforms which are, in fact, from this very company. Everything I throw at them comes out in the wash, as it were. The uniforms and aprons are 100% polyester, the rags are 100% cotton. I am one of the staff who gets the dirtiest at work, as I have to deal with cocoa, fats, vegetable oils, flour, cinnamon and oven dreck. Everything seems to come out just fine and even remains sparkling white to boot. Admittedly, I use Persil with my own clothes. This would not make economic sense with commercial laundry, so I guess the only question is: what chemicals do I use?

My utilities aren't really that high. I have an electric hot water heater. I see myself doing three to four extra loads a week if I decide to take this on. That doesn't SEEM excessive. My own personal laundry makes about two loads a week, less now because I'm wearing shorts at work.

Whirlykenmore:
I'm not sure whose uniforms we'd be using if we cancelled the linen service. Right now, we are using theirs. I don't think I would need to press and fold them. Not really up for that much work, anyway. I've had no problems with stubborn stains in my own uniforms yet, touch wood. Perhaps I was seeing it overly simple.
Any other suggestions/comments are most welcome. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew...
 
You can use Persil for this job, lord knows European laundries could and often would. Just as with Tide on this side of the pond both Ariel and Persil come in various "professional" formulas and or IIRC larger sizes suited to institutional use. That or places just purchase Persil or Ariel off the shelf so to speak. Just remember to include the cost of this better product into your price. [this post was last edited: 7/22/2014-17:29]
 
DON"T DO IT!!!!

I speak from personal experience. I did this for a while when the gourmet food store and cater I was working for was having a hard time financially. I would do 2 loads a week of aprons and kitchen towels /bar wipes. I charged them $30 a week. Its not that I minded doing it, but it was havoc on my Frigidaire front loaders. The kitchen towels had so much grease/food residue on them that my washer started to smell and had a greasy coating on it no matter how much hot water I used. I started to do a presoak at work in the big sink and bring them home in buckets and that helped a little. Towards the end, I was only doing the aprons and select few towels.
It took many long hot washes to get the grease and smell out of the washer.
 
What worries me about doing vast amounts of hospitality linens in domestic washing machines is besides the wear and tear is the sump/pump system.

Commercial machines largely have dump draining systems, thus there isn't a pump to foul with "organic material" and or become full of grease/oil residue.
 
If the money is right  and you have a basement area for a second hand laundry set or a wringer washer, it might be lucrative.  You could always heat a stockpot of water and boost the water temp.  I would not want to use my daily drivers for this task..  Are you sure about the ironing? Ironing would be the deal breaker for me. 

ALR
 
Liability?

What if something gets damaged? A uniform or something?
Or something turns up missing that you become suspect in the taking?

I wouldn't do it.

Malcolm
 
I'd also advise you against it.

As Jmm3 and Launderess mentioned, it will be difficult to deal with the amount of grease/vegetable oil that one sees in towels/chef's aprons coming out of a commercial kitchen when using laundry products meant for household use.

My biggest concern would be a dryer fire, which can easily happen if vegetable oil isn't fully removed in the washing process. Every owner's manual instructs you not to wash or dry items that have been saturated with oils specifically for that reason.

Demand improvement from your commercial laundry service or send your business elsewhere (if more than one laundry service is available in your area).[this post was last edited: 7/23/2014-08:09]
 
I think it would be a lot of work on your part no matter how you look at it. And using a wringer machine would just make the work that much harder, IMHO. I think in just a few weeks you'd be soooo over it!

The people here speak from experience. They have been there, done that.
 
@Pierre:
Yes, my boss did once consider that, but then the question again arose: Who is going to do the laundry? It means staying after one's shift is over and doing laundry.

@wayupnorth: Actually there's a Laundromat here in Sanford that uses piping hot water. Most of the others use no hot water or only very tepid...Gotta watch that profit margin.
 
"Stuff lost, stolen, or damaged..."

Long ago, folks used to do the neighbors' wash...

 

Somehow my mom was able to do rags from the ammonia plant my dad was employed at, and somehow it was no worse, than doing his work clothes that had charcoal in them--or the metal chips & shavings in his work clothes from his days at American Gear & Axle at GM...

 

But, aside from making it a sort of home-based or commercial/industrial business, I think the days of taking in peoples' wash are pretty much over, based on what's been said...

 

 

 

-- Dave
 

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