LAS VEGAS — While there’s a lot of attention paid in our industry to the large, modern automated laundry facility that processes millions of pounds per week, there is an order of magnitude of small laundries that do a significant amount of American and Canadian laundry workload every day.
In North America, there are approximately 113,000 hotels and motels and approximately 15,000 long-term care or nursing facilities, as well as universities, exercise and sports facilities, and more. While urban locations may have a laundry “service,” these businesses and service locations in urban, suburban and rural communities often have on-premises laundry (OPL) equipment to service daily needs.
We estimate that of the nearly 150,000 locations requiring laundry service, about 70% operate on-site laundry services in one form or another.
While we are involved in the building of large laundries and small alike, we are often asked why everyone wouldn’t just send their laundry out to a service. The answer? Because there is often no one to send laundry to in some cases. Either none are available, or your location is too small for outside services to support.
It’s not openly discussed in our industry but many large laundries have a size limit on the types of customers they will serve. Depending on the market, most large laundries do not serve hotels with less than 100 to 150 rooms or long-term care facilities with less than 200 beds. This service profile changes from market to market.
Whatever the reason, many businesses use OPLs that are often located in small spaces. Because of the small footprint and the best practice of functionally separating soiled and clean goods, it is vital to maximize the workflow of a small laundry operation.
WHAT IS A SMALL LAUNDRY?
So, what is the definition of a small laundry? When we begin an investigation to determine the equipment profile for a hotel or long-term care facility, we collect all the workload information and boil it down to an hourly service requirement.
While there will always be variables for every location, type of business, and unique textile requirements, the functional plan should always try to follow some basic guidelines.
Typically, small laundry plants range from 250 to 1,000 pounds processed per hour and occupy 550 to 4,500 square feet. Yes, there are smaller laundry volumes, but those may be just machines in other spaces, not official laundry rooms. For example, a washer and dryer in a storage or janitor closet.
For this article, we are only considering rooms dedicated for laundry processing.
Most spaces are defined by single use or multiple use. Do they require storage, and might they be shared with housekeeping for supply storage and more? Others may have ironing and folding.
Lastly, some laundry spaces will have a dedicated mechanical room for hot water, water softening and air compressors.
FOR CONSIDERATION
Consider where the dedicated laundry space is located. Is it at ground level or in a basement or a high floor? How does the workload arrive at the laundry (from a hallway, an elevator or laundry chute), and how must it be packaged for delivery (bulk in cart, exchange cart, small carry bag, etc.)?
All these considerations affect the space and flow of any small laundry as we seek areas for soil sorting, clean folding (possible ironing) and storage.
Whenever possible, you should always lay out your plant to minimize the number of touches and movements/transport through your space. Double and triple handling adds costs and risk.
While hotels typically do not adhere to managing cross-contamination, any facility providing healthcare-related services is required to ensure functional separation between clean and soil textiles. This separation between clean and soil became highlighted during the COVID era and is a required design element.
Optimized workflow requires careful thought around equipment placement, but it is equally critical to consider where equipment is not located. It’s important to always leave open spaces for work in progress (carts, storage shelves).
If your work shifts are limited, then having sufficient soil storage is essential. A rule we use is about 30-50% of the daily workload for soil hold. Space for clean storage and some shipping space is equally critical and is dependent on clean-hold areas throughout the building.
Check back Thursday for the conclusion with examples from healthcare facility designs.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Matt Poe at [email protected].
