Laundry Owners Explain What They Love (and Hate) About Their Stores’ Flooring
“We like to say that the floor covering is the canvas on which the rest of the store is painted.” – Edward Korczak, former executive director, National Wood Flooring Association
To be sure, running a successful business has a lot to do with creating an image, and nothing sets the tone of a store – including a self-service laundry – like the choice of flooring.
For one thing, there’s just so darn much of it. And customers definitely tend to look down a lot more than they look up. So, if you want to put in some upscale touches, your floor may be the place to do it.
Clearly, the laundry business is not a “cookie-cutter industry.” As a result, there is no one perfect flooring material for every situation. The area of the country, the type of store and the local weather are just a few factors that will impact an owner’s final selection.
All laundries’ floors are exposed to a great deal of foot and cart traffic, spilled laundry chemicals that may not be immediately cleaned up, and water and steam, not to mention the constant vibration and weight of heavy machinery.
What’s more, due to utility costs and equipment overhead, many owners naturally seek the most durable, trouble-free flooring for their operations. Some factors to consider are:
• Skid- and slip-resistance to help ensure customer safety
• Chemical-resistance to prevent damage from detergents, bleach and cleaning solvents
• Abrasion- and wear-resistance to withstand high levels of both foot and laundry cart traffic
• Easy to clean and maintain
The choice of laundry flooring is, in essence, a battle of aesthetic ideals, practicality and cost concerns. Of course, the true cost of flooring involves much more than merely the price of the materials. Some flooring materials are fairly inexpensive, but installation costs are high. Other floorings have a high upfront cost but last forever. Others are fairly inexpensive but must be replaced frequently. And, of course, there is always the maintenance factor.
This month, we asked a number of laundry owners to weigh in on what they like and – maybe more importantly – don’t like about their laundries’ current flooring.
Mark Murray
Adrian Fabricare Center
Adrian, Mich.
We use commercial-grade, ceramic kitchen tile in eight- by eight-inch squares, with a semi-rough finish. We use a tan/almond color tile with brown grout. Over the years, we’ve tried carpeting, vinyl tile and some other types of ceramic tile – none of which does the job as well. We like the slip resistance of the semi-rough finish, and the color hides a number of common laundry mess issues.
A small section of the store – our folding table area – features dark commercial carpet tiles with a variegated pattern. Carpet tiles that are darker in color with some dark pattern work well and last a long time. We used to have to replace our floor covering on a somewhat regular basis, but we haven’t replaced anything in more than 10 years.
Rich Peot
Meadowthorpe Coin Laundry
Lexington, Ky.
I just had the floor redone at my 24-hour, mostly unattended laundromat. They removed the 40-year-old VCT tile and glue, and ground down to bare concrete. The plan was to clear coat the floor; however, the clear coat reacted with glue still in the pits of the concrete and made a mess when applied. Therefore, I ended up with a solid concrete stain with a wax sealer – all to the tune of about $3 per square foot.
I chose a light whitewash color, which really brightens the store. It sweeps and mops well with plain water, but I need a neutral floor rinse that won’t dissolve the wax to get it really clean. But, if I had it to do over again, I probably would go with a polished concrete floor for about twice the price.
Nick DiLibero
Neptune Laundry
Boston, Mass.
I have used a variety of different floorings at my four laundromats.
In general, what I use will depend on the subfloor – whether it’s concrete or wood. Being in the construction industry, I prefer to use ceramic/porcelain tile whenever possible. It’s the easiest to clean, it lasts a long time, and water and customers cannot damage it. That’s my preference, if the flooring is a concrete deck below.
I’ve used VAT (vinyl adhesive tile, commercial grade), as well as epoxy flooring, over wood subfloors in two of my laundries with mixed results. The epoxy flooring stood up well to wear and tear better than the VAT – but the epoxy flooring discolored in the high-traffic areas, and it’s hard to restore it to that “new look,” which makes an impression on customers. By contrast, the VAT is easy to replace if cracked, while the epoxy is much more expensive when it comes to repairing a small section of flooring, as opposed to doing a larger section or the entire laundry.
The VAT requires periodic buffing, as well as stripping and waxing, to give it that “clean as a hospital” look. So, that will require more time and money on the laundry owner’s part.
In the long run, it’s more costly than the ceramic/porcelain tile flooring. VAT costs approximately $1.50 to $2.00 per square foot to purchase and $3.00 to $4.00 to install.
Tile flooring costs about $4.00 to $6.00 per square foot to install, depending on the conditions of the subfloor, and the tile itself can cost anywhere from $2.00 to $5.00 per square foot. Of course, you can spend much more, but I’ve found good deals for porcelain tile at Lowe’s and The Home Depot.
My top choice would be tile. It costs more in the beginning, but in the long run, it’s much cheaper, more durable, looks nicer and is easily maintained.
Bob Meuschke
Family Laundry II
Kansas City, Mo.
I’ve had several types of flooring – composite tile, ceramic tile and concrete. Composite tile is fine, except for the fact that you must strip and re-wax it every so often to keep it looking good. Ceramic is expensive to install, but it always looks great, unless some of the tiles crack; be sure to buy extra ceramic tiles for replacement purposes.
The flooring I prefer most is concrete. I have painted it with a heavy-duty paint – and this lasts well and cleans up well. The bleach and detergent that tend to get on the floor don’t seem to affect the commercial grade paint on my concrete flooring.
Kevin Beggs
Superwash
Brockton, Mass.
I have unglazed ceramic or porcelain tile for store areas, and epoxy paint or bare concrete for backroom areas. We try to find a tile finish that’s not going to be slippery when wet and that has a pattern that will hide dirt and traffic spots between washings.
This type of flooring wears well, is easy to clean, will not be damaged by water spills and lasts forever. Ceramic tile costs a little more, but once it’s in, it lasts and looks better than anything else.
In my area, the average cost of ceramic tile is $4.95 per square foot, plus $4.50 per square foot for installation. I use two different tile sizes – 13 x 13 and 6 ½ x 6 ½ — laid out in a “pinwheel” pattern.
Ken Barrett
Washin’ Anniston Coin Laundry
Pell City, Ala.
Each of the laundries I own – or have owned – have different floorings.
In my first store, I was new to the industry and talked more to flooring companies than to other laundry owners. They recommended CVT (commercial vinyl tile) as a reasonably priced option with good durability. However, I’ve since realized that it’s probably sufficient for other commercial applications, but not for laundromats, where we’ve got customers dragging 40-pound plastic totes across the parking lot and through the store. CVT requires regular stripping, waxing and polishing, in addition to daily mopping.
Other issues involve the water soluble glue that is used. Regular mopping isn’t a problem, but small leaks will get under the tile and loosen the glue. When the floor is mopped it looks fine, but if someone steps on a tile, water underneath could squeeze out through the cracks.
My second store was an existing location. It had ceramic tile, which would get a bit slippery at times. The store wasn’t busy, so issues with dirt and discoloration of the grout weren’t a big issues. In fact, I’ve since closed that location.
Store No. 3 had carpeting – two layers, actually. This laundry had brown, 1970s-era, glued-down carpet with six- by eight-foot area rugs laid on top. They were red, green, brown… whatever color was available, it appeared. There also was some duct tape in key locations, to prevent customers from tripping on the edges.
Once that mess had been removed and the glue scraped off, I used a simple concrete sealer with some light sand mixed in for traction. It’s durable, is about a “4” on a scale of 1 to 10 appearance-wise, and is acceptable for now. Fortunately, the concrete was smooth and in good condition, since the facility originally had been built as a laundry, so there were no cut lines for the drains.
My fourth and most recent store just opened about a month ago. After a lot of research on the Coin Laundry Association’s online forum and carefully considering my options, I decided on an epoxy/polyurethane combination floor.
The building is a former drycleaning business, and the main area flooring was terrazzo, which is a one- to two-inch layer of a stone/glass/granite/marble combination. After it originally had been laid, the surface is polished smooth and sealed. I had hoped to keep this flooring, but after the sewer line cuts were filled and other non-terrazzo sections were exposed, I searched for other options – and decided on an epoxy/polyurethane flooring solution.
The process for this floor took about three days. The terrazzo and other exposed concrete were ground down to roughen the surface for the epoxy to adhere. After a lot of vacuuming, the edges were taped and the epoxy spread and rolled. Before it could dry, it was completely covered with gray, blue, beige and white flakes – and allowed to cure overnight.
Next, the floor was lightly sanded to remove any sharp edges from the flakes, and the polyurethane was applied – enough to make the floor smooth but with some small depressions around the flakes.
The cost of this flooring was about $5 per square foot.
The result is a hard surface that hides dirt and soap and also is quite slip-resistant. It’s easily swept and mopped and, although time will tell, it looks great. The company that handled the installation recommends refinishing with polyurethane every five years. I’ll keep an eye on it, and even if it needs a touchup every three or four years to keep the floor in good shape, not having any grout lines to deal with is worth it.
I used the same company to coat the sidewalk in front of the laundry. It was painted a beige color, tape was put down to outline a six- by six-foot tile pattern and then a rough finish was sprayed on top. It makes a great entrance to the store and is rough enough to be non-slip. Any sand or light dirt that catches in the depressions and can be easily swept off.
Bob Frandsen
Maytag Laundries
Rush City, Minn.
We use ceramic tile flooring. The entryway has a six- by four-foot sunken rug to catch any dirt, rain and snow. We also have in-floor heating, which keeps the floor dry from customer spills, as well as snow. This is the only way to go in Minnesota.
CJ Swoboda
The Clothesline
Bozeman, Mont.
I installed 13-inch, porcelain-coated ceramic tile in my store. The positives are that it cleans up easily and still looks good after seven years.
However, what I don’t like about it are the few places where it has chipped – and it’s noticeable. In addition, it’s rather slippery when wet.
To be honest, I probably wouldn’t install this type of flooring again. Instead, I’d look more closely at putting in porcelain tile. When the porcelain chips, it’s much less noticeable because the tile is the same color all the way through.
Another mistake I regret is not ensuring that the concrete floor below was properly leveled prior to the installation.
David Smith
Highway 58 Coin Laundry
Strawberry Plains, Tenn.
My business partner and I own six laundries in Tennessee. We have owned them for 25 years.
During the first 20 years, we used vinyl tile on our floors. The price was low, and it looked nice. To keep the vinyl tile looking good, we paid about $80 per month for cleaning and buffing; plus, twice per year we paid $450 for a complete stripping and waxing. This added up to approximately $1,800 per year per laundry for flooring maintenance.
In doing so, our floors would look great for the first two weeks of every month. However, after that, they looked dull and dingy during the last two weeks of the month. In addition, it always was a hassle for the floor maintenance people to get in late at night, when no customers were in the laundries, to do their work. And, sometimes the floor crew would do a great job on the stripping and waxing – and sometimes they wouldn’t.
So, about five years ago, we became intrigued with the idea of installing ceramic tile flooring. We had always assumed that ceramic tile was too expensive. However, after receiving a few quotes and factoring in the $1,800 per year we’d save by not having any maintenance, we realized that within three years we’d recoup the extra cost of going with ceramic tile over vinyl.
So, we experimented with a ceramic tile floor in one of our laundries. Within a few months, it was apparent that ceramic tile was the way to go. We discovered that our floors look brand new every day, year-round. No more buffing. No more stripping and waxing. No more $1,800 per year for floor maintenance. All we have to do is mop them (which we also had to do with the vinyl floors). We quickly realized that switching all of our floors to ceramic was a no-brainer.
It’s important to note that we always select a rather smooth surface tile, and a medium tan color – so as not to trap and show any dirt. Another important tip: We always use a medium- to dark-colored grout, because light grout will get dirty quickly, and it will drive you crazy trying to restore it to its original lighter color. It’s easier to use a darker grout – this way the ground-in dirt will be more or less unnoticeable.
Here’s our cost breakdown:
For ceramic tile, we paid between $4 and $4.50 per square foot, including the cost of the tile and labor for our last three flooring installations over the last four years. For vinyl tile, it currently costs about $2.50 to $3 per square foot, including materials and labor.
The bottom line is that we wouldn’t want a new vinyl tile floor today – even if it were free, because with ceramic tile we’re going to save $1,800 per year per store in maintenance, and the ceramic tile will look brand new every day, even five years from now.
John Henderson
Liberty Laundries
Tulsa, Okla.
We have porcelain tile installed at all three of our locations. We have tried to achieve a similar appearance across our brand, so the tile is similar in all three.
I appreciate the durability of tile, the ease of cleaning and its classy appearance. I actually have no regrets whatsoever in going with the porcelain tile.
I will absolutely stick with porcelain tile flooring for any future laundromat projects. Although I’ve seen some great-looking concrete treatments out there, the appearance of tile fits most closely with the brand image we are trying to project at Liberty Laundry.
Doug Klingler
Your Laundry
Milwaukee, Wis.
We have a plank vinyl floor material that has been great for our application. It features a woodgrain design that helps to hide both dirt and scratches, while adding a warm color and texture to the space.
It’s easy to clean and is resilient to detergents and chemicals that customers tend to spill. Also, the space we leased had a floor that wasn’t in the best shape, and this flooring material helps hide some of those issues.
In my case, the only regret I have has to do with how it was installed, rather than with the material itself. The glue used to bond the vinyl planks to the floor had let go in a few spots where water from a washer spilled on it. Again, that’s more of an installation issue – and we’ve corrected that problem with a water-resistant epoxy.
Our installation cost was just over $4 per square foot in a 3,000-square-foot space. I certainly would consider the use of this flooring material again. It has worked well for our needs and is holding up nicely.
One advantage is the ability to pull up a single damaged plank and replace it with a new plank if needed. Thus far, I haven’t had to do this, but it’s a nice option to have available.
Joelle and Christian Dragheim
Boulevard Laundry
Sacramento, Calif.
We are new laundry owners, and we’ve learned many expensive lessons along the way, especially with regard to our flooring.
We completely renovated our store. The floor is cement and had vinyl tiles, which we removed. We sanded and applied an epoxy coating. In general, we’re happy with our choice of an epoxy floor, but we made two major mistakes.
First, we chose a base color that was too light for the amount of dirty foot traffic we get through the laundromat.
Secondly, we chose to apply the sand/grit additives for slip resistance. This was a huge miscalculation. It’s virtually impossible to clean. Mops snag all over it and just smear the dirt around, unless the mop is squeezed clean every few feet. In addition, the sand/grit “catches” all of the dirt from our customers’ shoes.
Eventually, we will have to go through the entire four-day process – re-sand, re-coat and re-seal the entire floor again. Of course, we can’t be closed for business for four days, so we’ll have to re-finish the floor section by section, closing off certain areas at a time. What’s more, the coating material is expensive.
All in all, we love the epoxy coat. Just be sure to pay close attention to the color you choose – and don’t use the sand/grit anti-slip material.
Michael Finkelstein
Associated Services Corp.
Baltimore, Md.
We mainly use VCT in our stores. However, we also use ceramic tile and terrazzo for some of our heavier traffic locations, as well as in the laundries we own.
The key is to choose a color scheme on which dirt won’t show. Also, we’re constantly evaluating the wear and tear on our stores’ flooring to determine if we need to upgrade the floor with new tile. Sometimes the VCT will dull in high-traffic locations, and stripping and buffing these stores can have a diminishing return. In addition, stay away from light-colored grout, as it shows dirt easier then gray grout.
As far as the cost, VCT cost us about 50 cents per square foot, while ceramic tile is twice as expensive. Of course, you also need to include the price of installation.
The type of flooring we use depends on the size of the store, whether the laundry is owned or leased, and the potential volume of the location.
Harry Pruyn
Solano Cleaning Center
Albany, Calif.
I have a polished concrete floor in my laundry. It has an acetone stain soaked into concrete, and we then polished the floor to a 600-grit shine – think “Walmart floor.”
I like how smooth it is, which makes for easy sweeping with a 32-inch dust mop. Our color variations hide dirt stains, and chlorine bleach spills don’t pull or fade the color. And, of course, there are no tiles to replace.
The cost is about $5 per square foot, but it never needs replacement – ever. I would definitely do it again, if I add a second store.
Arron McCombs
McCombs Laundry Co.
Greenwood, S.C.
I currently have vinyl composite tile in my two self-service laundries. I installed it myself at just under $1 per square foot, and I like the color and the look. However, it’s too much work to maintain. It has to be waxed to remain in good condition, but the wax then makes water spills harder to see. Also, one of my stores is open 24 hours, and I don’t like to shut down just to wax the floors.
In the future, I’m looking to replace the flooring in both stores with something cost-effective and easy to maintain. I’ve noticed that a lot of the major retailers are going with polished concrete, and it looks good. I didn’t have a lot of money available for flooring when I bought my first store, and the VCT was the best option I could afford. My second store already had VCT when I purchased it – and it definitely will need to be replaced soon.
G. Douglas Johnson
Peerless Cleaners
Corpus Christi, Texas
We just installed ceramic tile in a 4,600 square-foot laundromat/drycleaner. We are very happy with ceramic in our stores and think that the extra cost is worth the maintenance, due to the high-end look that it gives our laundries.
In fact, we have used ceramic tile in every laundromat in which we own the property and have built ourselves. In our case, the cost of our most recent installation was around $2.15 per square foot for the tile and another $1.50 per square foot for the labor.
Dan Campbell
Wash Around the Clock
Tallahassee, Fla.
We have tried several types of flooring over the years – from concrete to epoxy to tile. And we’ve determined that an eight- by eight-inch quarry tile with an anti-slip aggregate has proven to be our best choice. Considered a “kitchen tile,” it’s strong and looks great. Also, it’s not very difficult to keep clean. Plus, we install it with black grout, which won’t get as dirty-looking as lighter colored grout.
With adequate volume, we can purchase the tile for approximately $2.50 per square foot. Of course, that price doesn’t include installation or grout.
I have quarry tile at two of my laundry locations and have begun making plans to install it at two more stores.
Charlie Pasquale
The Village Mart Laundromat
King of Prussia, Pa.
I have epoxy flooring in my laundry, which is extremely strong, lasts a long time and still looks as good today as the day we put it down 18 months ago.
It cost us $4 per square foot. The only issue with epoxy is that you have to use a floor-scrubbing machine to clean the floor – although you can mop up a spill.
We’ve also used this product in our commercial buildings, and it’s indestructible.
When choosing commercial flooring for your laundry, you’re helping to create an attractive, safe and inspirational space for both your customers and your attendants, while blending in practicality for easy maintenance and long wear. Choosing the right flooring depends on an array of factors – including your budget, foot traffic, personal taste and maintenance requirements – but hopefully the hard-earned advice above will help shorten your learning curve for the next time your store needs a new floor.
