Refurbishing Our First Coin Laundry Build 2/14/2020

In 2005, Brian Herndon approached us about designing and building a laundromat, which was something we’d never done before.  After much research and planning, we designed and built the building and then installed all the equipment in our first-ever coin laundry operation, uniquely named Laundra Brite.  It was the largest coin laundry operation in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the time, with the nicest, most-advanced washers and dryers and included an ESD Smart Card System.  Fifteen years later, their 64W Series Wascomat Washers and their TD Stack Wascomat Dryers were worn out and ready for retirement.

After several meetings with Brian, we realized that given that it was both his first and our first self-service laundry, a few mistakes were made during the design and building phases.  Below are four major upgrades we made at this location.

• We didn’t put floor drains inside the utility bulkheads, so when a washer overflowed or leaked, water just sat on the floor causing rust and an unpleasant odor. To remedy this issue, we removed all the old washers and base frames, cut the floor, put in drains, and created a slope from each end to drain to the middle of the operation.Since we were already cutting the floor, we added grated trench drains in the back of the building near the sand and lint filters. This way, if things got clogged, the water would have a way to drain out.Sometimes the best lessons are learned the hard way, but now the location won’t be susceptible to flooding.

• We also custom fabricated the base frames for their new Wascomat Washers – WLD 720’s , 745’s, and 762’s – then we bored holes through the wall to direct vent their dryers to eliminate issues they were having with the vent trunk line.

• We had all new electrical run for the dryers and washers because the new washers are now inverter-driven, single-phase, low-amperage washers verses the old three-phase, multi-contactor, motor-controlled washers.

• Finally, we went back with the newest ESD Smart Card System and added a second VTM card dispensing unit and value added.

While this project wasn’t nearly as involved as the initial build, it was still a big project, and one well-worth doing.  After all, we’ve learned a lot in 15 years, and we were able to take that knowledge and share it with Brian – a businessman that was willing to invest in a company that had never built a laundromat before.

If you’re interested in learning more about coin laundry operations , call Tri-State at 866-885-5218.