I’ve recently been offered a tuxedo rental account, which would require me to wash and starch about 400 shirts each week. How do I starch these shirts in my washers? During which cycle would I need to insert the starch?
To starch the shirts in your laundromat’s washers – whether using a powdered or liquid starch – incorporate the starch during the final rinse of the wash cycle. This needs to be a warm water cycle set at 15 minutes. Please note that most vended laundry machines are set for cold water rinses, so this would need to be adjusted for this commercial account.
With that said, if you don’t have a hot head press, I would strongly suggest that you pass on accepting this account. However, if you do own a press, you could easily do the starching with a spray starch after you wash the shirts. Spray starch is available over the counter or through your local laundry chemical supplier.
Always remember that, when you’re starching garments, the items must be pressed or ironed while still damp, not after they have already completely dried.
I offer a pickup-and-delivery service at my laundromat, and I just received a request from a local motel operator, who wants me to dye all of the motel’s bed linens from white to navy blue. Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about dying linens. Can you please help me out?
There are different types of dyes – metallic-, vegetable- and earth-based – and each one of these dyes requires a slightly different process.
Additionally, most laundromats are not ideal for dying linens, since the majority of them don’t have water temperatures hot enough to set most dyes – nor do they have programmable washers, which I believe is a clear prerequisite for tackling this type of a job.
Therefore, my suggestion would be to avoid getting involved in this project. Unless you’ve had some past experience with the dying process – and have the correct equipment and water temperature – it can get quite tricky and break bad on you quickly. Dying is a special process, and if you make a mistake, it will cost you money.
I’ve been offered a commercial account for an auto repair shop. Before I take on this extra business, is there a safe way to clean garments that are soiled with motor oil or other flammable liquids?
The safest method of cleaning garments soaked in any type of flammable liquid is to let them air dry first. Once they’re dry (and take your time, because some flammables don’t evaporate very easily), you can wash them. However, I would recommend washing them in an open machine. A toploader would be best, or a frontloader with an open pocket (which most laundromats don’t have). If you wash the garments in a tightly sealed machine – such as a typical frontloader – the gases can build up, spontaneously combust and cause an explosion. In an open machine, the worst-case scenario would be a small fire.
Wash the garments in cold water with nothing containing bleach or ammonia. A product called Laundry TarGo works well on releasing the oils, but that product itself is flammable, so again, use an open machine. When you get through washing, put the empty machine through a minimum of one hot rinse, and ideally an entire hot water cycle to remove the excess oils on the drum and agitator.
