Costs for Building That New Laundry Are Climbing

As the service and coin-op laundry businesses first were beginning, laundry design was easy and often done by people who had never laid out a laundry before. They may have taken a set of plans made for one location then adapted it to subsequent locations. And why not? Usually they had one style of washer and dryer, and the local codes, covenants and restrictions seemed to know little about these new business types. Restrictions were far less than they are in most areas today.

In fact, during those early days, there were few restrictions in the code on service or coin operated laundries, because no one probably ever built one before in that particular area.

The changes in requirements, codes and need for energy and water efficiency now dictate a more professional involvement and more care in the lay out of the space. When today’s high rents per square foot are considered, the need for the most equipment to bring the highest possible income per square foot is required.

Design must now take into account far more sizes and styles of washers and dryers, or vendor and changers and even electronic control systems used in a laundry.

Gone forever are the days when any investor could make a decision to go into the business, then make all of his or her own choices of equipment and layout. Now, even in the smallest communities, there are federal, state and local codes and laws that impact coin laundry construction.

Beginning at the federal level, there is the Americans with Disabilities Act that is a big impact on new construction of any kind, but seems to impact the cost of building a laundry to a great degree.

That begins with providing ramps to make the business wheelchair accessible. Doors to the premises have to be wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs. Those doors can not have sills that make it difficult to roll the chair across. All tables, counters, change machines and some washers and dryers must be at a height suitable for handicapped access. Even if a laundry has no lavatory open to the public, the law requires that the lavatory be handicap accessible. This all raises the cost for building any kind of business structure.

Those who already own laundries may have previously taken deductions for those pieces of equipment they retrofitted their business with to make it more accessible for the handicapped. Operations that are built new after the effective date of the ADA law are not eligible for those tax breaks because the law anticipates anything new will be built to fill all of the requirements of the law. The special tax breaks were given to induce those owners of existing businesses to take extra steps to help handicapped access.

Other federal impact on laundries includes rules that are mandated by federal agencies but are enforced at the state level. Water and energy conservation mandates, for example.

Following federal guidelines, many states now restrict current top loaders from being installed after 2003. This forced changes in top load design to fit new restrictions. That has raised costs and created complications in new laundry layout, design and construction as well. All of this has raised the cost for building a new laundry

Federal regulations heavily affect over all costs for building new coin laundries too. The high sewer connection fees now being paid are pretty much the result of the Clean Water Act passed by Congress. It requires cities and water districts to build new lines and requires cleaning up waste water to return it to a natural state. This all costs money, and has resulted in them charging hook up, or impact fees in the thousands of dollars per washer.

 

In modern coin laundries of the 21st century, there will be both a variety of types and sizes of washers and dryers included in its design. Laundry users are becoming more sophisticated and value conscience. After all, there are third and fourth generation coin laundry clientele going to do the wash every day. These are more sophisticated laundry customers who want speed, value for the money and are willing to travel out of their way to have both.

This is where the new generations of larger and more efficient washers come into play. They are bigger to handle large loads and yet can be priced so that they effectively represent a bargain for the user.

Where laundry clients once had choices of one or two sizes of washer or dryer to choose from, in many of the better coin laundries they now have choices of four or more sizes of washer and at least two sizes of clothes dryers to select from to do their wash.

New laundry construction often will include 75-80 pound washers and clothes dryers of equivalent size to do laundry. One washer and one dryer for a families total wash. Thus it is that a coin laundry could include top loads, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 65, 75 & 80 pound front load washers. For dryers, installed sizes range from single load, 30, 50 and 75 pound capacities. We have been told of occasional laundries featuring a few industrial sized dryers as well.

In other words, modern laundry businesses need to offer a much greater variety of equipment to satisfy the needs of their clientele.

Part of the marketing done by more than one manufacturer includes using large capacity stacked washer and dryer combinations such as a thirty pound washer on the bottom with a large capacity dryer on top. This is for more capacity of income in fewer square feet of floor space.

When launderettes and laundromats were introduced, they featured front load washers only. As the top load washer makers got into the business, it took a few years, but most coin-op laundries were top loads only. Perhaps a “Rug Washer” or two were installed as well. But today it is not unusual to see new operations built with either all front load washers or perhaps just a few token top loads included.

 

Other factors to include planning your new laundry are decisions about the type of money handling processes you want. Will it be Card-op, Coin-op or Token? These are the main choices, and they all have some special costs and special associated benefits.

Card operation is the hottest choice today. Card-op cuts down on the work of money and banking, as there are no coins and cash is concentrated in the Value Transfer Machines. It’s also safer as vandals won’t attack laundry equipment because there is no money in the machines.

While the cards cost laundry owners money, a thing called float actually makes the cards a profit center as the difference between what a customer puts on the card and actually spends doing wash is about fifteen percent.

 

Token use is as old as the laundry business itself, and is coming back into favor again because it offers many of the same benefits as card operation at a far lower initial cost. Most bill change machines can dispense tokens, or can have them converted at a low cost. Also, the cost of token coin slides is far less than the cost of putting card readers on the individual machines. The negatives are that you have to pre-purchase tokens in volume and the cost is a substantial investment. You can’t go to the bank and buy more.

Tokens, like card operation, offer opportunities for float, as many tokens travel away from the laundry. The negative is that tokens from other businesses will also work in your machines. One way around that is to buy specially made tokens that will only work in the machines in that particular laundry. The cost climbs with that.

 

Most laundry operators already know and thoroughly understand how to work their business using coins. Coins are not the wave of the future, and yet they are comfortable as an old shoe for many laundry owners. There are still some negatives. Laundries using coins will always be a target for thieves looking for a score. Handling heavy bags of coin is still a lot more work than other systems.

Over the next twenty years or so, it will all work out as to which will prove most popular with laundry owners. Our industry will still have all systems still working, the only question is which will be the most popular.

 

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