How Much Does It Cost to Start a Laundromat?

How much does it cost to start a laundromat?

What a laundromat costs depends first on how you get one. Buying an existing store is usually the cheapest way in: the median laundromat sold on BizBuySell from 2021 to 2025 went for $250,000 (BizBuySell), and the Coin Laundry Association says small stores sell for as little as $50,000 (CLA, Oct. 2024). Building your own new store runs about $304,000 to $2.2 million, and opening a franchise runs $359,105 to $2,721,500, based on six laundromat franchisors' 2026 disclosure filings (Wisconsin DFI franchise registry). The build-your-own range is our math: each filing's total minus its franchise and development fees. None of these figures includes buying the building.

Two lines drive most of that spread: washers and dryers ($157,000–$1.27 million across the six filings) and build-out ($50,000–$1 million). Both scale with store size and the condition of the space. The line no franchise table shows is your city's water and sewer rate, and in the cities we checked it varies more than eightfold.

• Franchise filings are an upper bound for an independent owner. They include a franchise fee ($49,500 for a traditional Speed Queen store, $54,950 for WaveMAX) and brand-required finishes. They're still the most defensible numbers available, because franchisors must file them with state regulators and update them every year.
• Buying an existing store is a different price point. The median laundromat sold on BizBuySell from 2021 to 2025 went for $250,000, rising to $287,000 in 2025, on median revenue of $219,878 (BizBuySell). The Coin Laundry Association puts existing laundries at $50,000 to more than $1 million, selling at three to five times net cash flow (CLA, updated Oct. 2024; the association notes it doesn't guarantee these figures).
• Budget for the months after opening, not just opening day. The six filings set aside $20,000 to $145,000 of working capital for the first three to six months, and Speed Queen's own lowest-earning stores ranged from a loss to a modest profit in 2025 (details below).

How we sourced this page: every number links to the document it came from, with its date and whether it's national, state or city data. Where we couldn't find a current, citable figure, we say so instead of estimating. In all, we drew on 75 documents, listed at the bottom of the page.

What does each part of a laundromat cost?

Equipment and build-out make up 58% to 87% of every total in the six filings (our math from the filings). Everything in this table is national: franchisors publish one estimate for the whole country, not by city. The store sizes differ too. Speed Queen's small-footprint store is 1,500–2,500 sq ft and its traditional store is 3,000–5,500 sq ft (Speed Queen FDD, April 2026).

Sources: WaveMAX FDD, April 2026 (Item 7); Speed Queen FDD, April 2026 (Item 7). Both are public on the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions franchise registry; search the brand name. Rows don't add to the totals because we left out small brand-specific lines (training travel, uniforms, safes, WaveMAX's required UV sanitation system at $20,000–$29,000 and its $20,000 grand opening budget).

Four more 2026 filings. Four other laundromat franchisors registered 2026 disclosure documents in Wisconsin. Their totals run higher than WaveMAX's, mostly because they assume larger stores and bigger equipment packages (all national):

Sources: Item 7 of the LaundroLab, Tide Laundromat, Tumble Fresh Coin Laundry and The Laundry Spot disclosure documents, public on the Wisconsin DFI registry. Tumble Fresh's high end includes a self-service pet wash and grooming station. Tide's equipment line includes chemical dispensing systems. LaundroLab also prices two ways to buy and convert an existing laundromat, purchase price included: $217,000–$1,728,730 if you keep the existing machines, or $599,500–$1,800,730 with new ones.

Three details in the fine print matter for your own budget:

• WaveMAX's low equipment figure assumes you finance it. The $157,000 low end assumes financing through the distributor Laundrylux; the high end assumes you pay cash. Financing lowers what you pay up front, not what you owe.
• None of the six filings includes buying the property. Speed Queen notes leases typically run 10 years, are triple-net, and come with landlord improvement allowances from $0 to $35 per sq ft (Speed Queen FDD, April 2026). That allowance can move your build-out number by tens of thousands of dollars, so negotiate it before you sign.
• What an independent owner can skip: the franchise fee, brand technology packages and brand-mandated finishes. What you can't skip: equipment, build-out, permits and working capital.

What national data shows

Government data and sales of existing stores give a second view of the business, independent of any franchisor. The typical laundromat that changed hands on BizBuySell from 2021 to 2025 brought in about $220,000 a year and sold for $250,000, far below the cost of building a new franchise store. All figures are national.

Two cautions. BizBuySell's figures describe small, mostly independent stores that sold, while the franchise filings describe new builds, so the two aren't the same kind of store. And the single-load machine prices are a floor: the larger multi-load machines most laundromats run are sold by quote.

How much does a laundromat cost to run in my city?

Location moves your monthly costs more than the national totals suggest. Base rent on a 2,500 sq ft store runs from about $2,860 a month in Akron to $8,800 in New York and San Francisco. Water and sewer for a single 30-lb wash cost $0.10 in Spokane and as much as $0.83 in Seattle.

We've grouped the examples by metro size using the USDA's definitions: major metros of 1 million or more people, medium metros of 250,000 to 1 million, and small metros under 250,000 (USDA Economic Research Service, 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes).

Every figure in these tables is local to the metro or city named, except natural gas, which the federal government publishes by state.

Major metros (1 million or more people)

Medium-size cities (metros of 250,000 to 1 million people)

Small cities (metros under 250,000 people)

What the size comparison shows:

• Smaller isn't automatically cheaper on rent. Bend's average asking rent, $26.40 a sq ft, is higher than the metro averages for Chicago, Houston, Atlanta and Dallas–Fort Worth.
• Water varies more within a region than between city sizes. Spokane's $0.10 per wash is among the lowest we found; only Idaho Falls, at $0.08 if metered, is lower. Bellingham, a smaller metro in the same state, comes in at $0.53, closer to Washington, DC's $0.63.
• Wages overlap across sizes. Laundry worker medians run $16.52–$18.90 in the small metros, $12.68–$18.96 in the medium ones and $14.07–$20.96 in the major ones.
• Small cities have the thinnest data. National brokerages don't publish rent reports for metros under 250,000, so those figures come from local brokerages. Budget time to gather local numbers yourself.

Where these numbers come from:

• Rent: shopping-center asking rent by metro, Q2 2026 preliminary (Cushman & Wakefield U.S. Retail MarketBeat, Q2 2026). Asking rent isn't signed rent, and triple-net charges for taxes, insurance and common areas are usually extra. Monthly figures are our math: rate × 2,500 sq ft ÷ 12.
• Wages: median hourly wage for "laundry and dry-cleaning workers," the federal category that includes laundromat attendants, by metro area (BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025).
• Water and sewer: each city's published commercial volume charges, water plus sewer, before fixed meter charges. Chicago adds its per-gallon water-sewer tax; DC adds its per-unit PILOT and right-of-way fees; Phoenix uses its self-service laundry sewer class. Austin includes its per-1,000-gallon surcharges; San Antonio uses its base usage block plus its water supply fee; Denver's upper tier includes its 2026 drought charge. Seattle and Portland bill per CCF (748 gallons), which we converted to 1,000 gallons. Suburbs in the same metro often buy water from a different utility.
• Per-wash cost: our math, using 22.2 gallons per cycle from the spec sheet for a common 30-lb coin washer (Dexter T-450 spec sheet). Larger machines use more; check the spec sheet for the models you're quoted.
• Natural gas: average price to commercial customers by state, 2025 (EIA). Your local gas utility's tariff will differ.

Medium and small cities: medium-metro rents come from the same Cushman & Wakefield report. It doesn't cover metros under 250,000, so small-city rents come from local brokerages' quarterly reports: Compass Commercial for Bend, ACTIV8 Real Estate (using CoStar data) for Coeur d'Alene, Pacific Continental Realty for Bellingham, as reported by PNW Daily, NAI Excel for St. George, Colliers for Idaho Falls (a Bonneville County figure), and Sterling Commercial Real Estate for Missoula, as reported by KPAX. Spokane isn't in Cushman's report either, so its rent also comes from ACTIV8. Boise, Bend, Coeur d'Alene and Missoula each name laundromats in a specific sewer class, and we used that class. Wages come from the same BLS dataset, which covers every U.S. metro.

We didn't use cost-of-living multipliers anywhere on this page. Those turn a national average into a number that looks local but isn't.

How much cash do you need to get through the first months?

More than the opening total. Every filing adds working capital on top of the build: three months at $20,000–$40,000 for Speed Queen, $35,000–$65,000 for WaveMAX, $30,000–$75,000 for The Laundry Spot and $40,000–$60,000 for Tumble Fresh, $73,000–$95,000 at Tide Laundromat, and six months at $75,000–$145,000 for LaundroLab (Wisconsin DFI franchise registry, Item 7 of each filing). None says how long a new store takes to cover its costs, and we couldn't find a current, citable source that does.

What the filings do show is the size of the monthly bills once you're open. Speed Queen reports 2025 results for 15 of its company-owned stores that were open all year, split into three revenue tiers:

Source: Speed Queen FDD, April 2026, Item 19. Percentages are share of revenue, as reported.

Three things stand out:

• At least one low-tier store lost money over a full year. A laundromat can run for twelve months and still not cover its costs.
• Roughly $26,000 a month in labor, rent and utilities is the floor for these stores, before repairs, insurance, marketing or loan payments. Your working capital has to cover the gap between that and your early revenue.
• These stores stay open 24 hours with staff. Speed Queen's payroll figures assume 205 labor hours a week. Shorter hours or unattended periods change your labor line, so model your own schedule instead of borrowing theirs.

This is the question a cash flow forecast answers. In LivePlan you can build revenue up month by month, put in your real rent, wages and utility rates, and see the lowest point your bank balance reaches before it recovers. That low point plus a cushion is the amount you actually need to raise, not just the build cost.

What laundromat costs catch first-time owners off guard?

Water, hookup fees and equipment age are the three that most often break a first budget.

1. Water can cost more than gas and electricity combined. Speed Queen's top-tier stores spent $73,341 on water in 2025, versus $56,774 on gas and electricity together (Speed Queen FDD, April 2026, Item 19). And as the city table shows, the same wash costs three times as much in water and sewer in San Francisco as in Dallas.
2. Utility hookups aren't in the franchise totals. WaveMAX's filing says its build-out estimate excludes local fees "for water and gas meters, tap fees, impact fees," and that a gas-heated building needs a separate gas meter for the machines (WaveMAX FDD, April 2026). Speed Queen flags the same fees for "electrical, water and gas upgrades." Ask your city and utilities for these before you sign a lease.
3. Some cities bill laundromats in their own sewer class. Phoenix has a separate sewer rate for self-service laundries (City of Phoenix), and San Francisco adds wastewater-strength charges for coin-operated laundries (SFPUC, July 2026). Ask which class you'll be in.
4. Old machines are cheap to buy and expensive to keep. The Coin Laundry Association puts top-load washers at 5–8 years of life and front-loaders and dryers at 10–15 (CLA, Oct. 2024). If you're buying an existing store, the age of the equipment is part of the price.
5. Forming your company can cost more than the filing fee. New York charges $200 to form an LLC (NY Department of State), then requires you to publish notice in two newspapers within 120 days or lose the right to do business until you do (NY Department of State). Newspapers set their own rates for this. California charges every LLC an $800 annual tax, starting in year one (California Franchise Tax Board).

What licenses and permits does a laundromat need?

The license fees are small; the design and permitting process around the build-out is not. WaveMAX budgets $750–$1,500 for business licenses and permits paid to government agencies. Speed Queen budgets $31,500–$38,500 for "design and permit," paid to architects, engineers, permit expediters and municipalities (WaveMAX and Speed Queen FDDs, April 2026).

The gap between those two numbers is mostly drawings and plan review: a laundromat build-out usually means new plumbing, drains, gas lines, venting and electrical service, and each needs approved plans.

What to line up, in roughly this order:

• Your business entity and state tax registrations. Fees vary by state; see the New York and California examples above.
• Zoning confirmation that a laundromat is allowed at the address, before you sign.
• Building, plumbing, mechanical and electrical permits for the build-out, usually pulled by your contractor from drawings your architect or engineer prepares.
• Utility service applications, including any meter, tap or impact fees, and your sewer rate class.
• Sign permits and a local business license from your city or county.

Some cities also license the laundry itself. San Francisco, for example, charges $1,004 for a health department plan review of a new laundromat and a $58 annual automatic laundry license (San Francisco Environmental Health fee schedule, FY 2025–26). Requirements vary by city, and we haven't yet compiled a city-by-city permit table for laundromats. Your city's permit office or small business center can give you the list for your address.

What couldn't we pin down?

Four numbers readers ask about don't have a current, public, citable source. Here's what we found instead.

• Price per multi-load washer or dryer. Single-load coin machines have published prices (see the national data table above), but the larger multi-load machines most laundromats run are sold by quote. The distributor pages we checked list specs and a "request a quote" button, not prices. The equipment lines in the franchise filings are the best public bracket. Get at least two written quotes that include installation, bases and freight.
• Build-out cost per square foot. It depends on what's already in the space, above all drains, gas and electrical capacity. The filings give a range for a whole store ($50,000–$1 million), not a per-foot rate. A contractor walk-through of the actual space is the only reliable number.
• How long until a new store breaks even. None of the six filings says, and we didn't find a current source that does. Speed Queen's company-store results show where established stores land, not how fast a new one gets there.
• Water and sewer in two of our 31 metros, Atlanta and Los Angeles. Several utilities price commercial water in tiers, seasons or strength classes we couldn't reduce to a single per-gallon figure from their published schedules. We've linked the utility instead of guessing.

How do I find these numbers for my own city?

The same free sources we used work for any U.S. metro. It takes an afternoon.

1. Competition and demand: Census Business Builder shows how many coin-operated laundries (industry code 812310) operate in your county, alongside Census demographic data for the same area. Look especially at how many households rent; renters without in-unit laundry are a laundromat's core customers.
2. Rent: find your metro's retail report on Cushman & Wakefield's MarketBeat page, then compare it with listings for the exact corridors you're considering. In a metro under 250,000, look for a local brokerage's quarterly market report instead.
3. Wages: look up "laundry and dry-cleaning workers" for your metro in BLS wage data.
4. Water and sewer: pull your water utility's commercial rate schedule, add the water and sewer volume charges, and multiply by the gallons per cycle on the spec sheet of each machine you're quoted.
5. Gas: start with your state's commercial average from EIA, then get your local gas utility's commercial tariff.

One shortcut to avoid: scaling a national average by a cost-of-living index. It produces a figure that looks local but isn't based on anything local. It's why we left cells blank above instead.

How do you start a laundromat, step by step?

1. Decide whether to buy, build or franchise. Compare the three paths in the table above; an existing store usually costs far less than a new build. The median laundromat sold on BizBuySell from 2021 to 2025 went for $250,000 (BizBuySell), and the CLA puts market values at $50,000 to over $1 million, usually three to five times net cash flow (CLA, Oct. 2024). Ask for utility bills and machine ages, not just revenue.
2. Screen the market before the site. Check competitor counts and renter households in Census Business Builder, and pull the local water and sewer rates. A cheap lease in a high-water-cost city can still be a bad deal.
3. Find a space that can take the plumbing. Plan on 1,500–2,500 sq ft for a small store and 3,000–5,500 for a full-size one, per Speed Queen's filing (Speed Queen FDD, April 2026). Confirm zoning, drain and gas capacity, and tap or meter fees, and negotiate the landlord's improvement allowance before you sign.
4. Get equipment quotes and financing terms. Equipment is the single biggest line. Get at least two quotes, and compare the total cost of financing, not just the monthly payment.
5. Build your revenue forecast from turns and price. Speed Queen's 2025 company stores averaged 2.8 to 4.6 washer turns a day at $6.33 to $8.07 per turn, from lowest to highest tier (Speed Queen FDD, April 2026, Item 19). Start with the free laundromat sample business plan, then put your own turns, prices, rent and utility rates into a LivePlan forecast to see monthly cash flow and your low point.
6. Form your company and file for permits. Set up your entity and tax registrations, then let your architect and contractor pull build-out permits. Get insurance quotes before opening.
7. Set your hours and staffing. Decide whether you'll staff every open hour, offer wash-dry-fold, or run unattended periods. This decides your biggest ongoing cost after rent.
8. Open, then compare actuals to your plan every month. The first months show whether your turn and price assumptions hold. Catching a gap in month two is far cheaper than in month eight.

Ready to put real numbers behind step 5? Start your laundromat plan in LivePlan.