Opening or buying a laundromat in Toronto: prove the laundry need and the site
A Toronto laundromat needs more than apartments nearby. Residents may already have usable shared laundry, and a promising shop may need expensive drainage, electrical or dryer-exhaust work before it can operate.
This guide is SmallBizSim's own summary of public information and does not constitute business, financial, legal or tax advice.
Demand
Shared building laundry is competition too
The useful demand question is not “How many renters live nearby?” It is “Whose current laundry arrangement fails them, and would this store solve that problem?”
Distinguish residents without in-unit machines from residents without adequate laundry facilities. A shared laundry room may already offer a convenient alternative. Equally, having a laundry room does not tell you whether its machines work, whether customers can access it when needed or whether they face long waits.
For each candidate Toronto address, investigate the buildings and competing stores along routes customers could realistically use while carrying laundry.
Building laundry
Investigate in-unit and shared-building laundry, including condition, access hours, prices and waits.
What it changes: whether there is an unmet need rather than rental housing alone.
Nearby laundromats
Investigate nearby laundromats’ machine sizes, prices, payment methods and out-of-order equipment.
What it changes: whether your proposed offer solves a problem competitors already handle.
Routes and access
Investigate walking routes, entrances and the practical difficulty of carrying bags.
What it changes: whether apparent proximity translates into convenient access.
Load sizes
Investigate demand for bulky-load machines versus ordinary household loads.
What it changes: which machine capacities deserve space and investment.
Wash-and-fold
Investigate interest in wash-and-fold, and what customers use now.
What it changes: whether paid handling is a credible service opportunity rather than an assumed add-on.
Ask residents and property managers about the facilities people actually use. Visit competitors at different trading times and record occupied machines, waits and unavailable equipment. Treat those observations as evidence about service gaps and congestion, not a forecast of your sales.
Premises
Settle the address and fit-out before the lease becomes unconditional
Toronto requires a Laundry licence for a business offering laundry, washing, ironing or dry-cleaning services. Its listed application requirements include an Occupancy Declaration signed by the property owner or landlord and the applicant.1
Permitted use
Start with: Toronto’s property-level zoning map and City Planning/Toronto Building.2
Answer before committing: whether the exact address permits the proposed self-service and staffed services, including applicable exceptions.
Building alterations
Start with: Toronto Building and a qualified designer.
Answer before committing: which approvals the proposed layout, system changes and construction need.
Water supply and drainage
Start with: Toronto Water and a qualified plumbing professional.
Answer before committing: whether the proposed equipment can be supplied and drained at peak use, and what work is needed.
Sewer discharge
Start with: Toronto Water.
Answer before committing: how the Sewers By-law applies to the proposed process and whether any additional conditions apply.
Electrical capacity and installation
Start with: the serving utility, a licensed electrical contractor and Ontario’s Electrical Safety Authority.3
Answer before committing: available capacity, required upgrades and the notification or inspection pathway for the actual work.
Gas equipment, if proposed
Start with: the serving gas utility and a currently registered fuels contractor.
Answer before committing: service availability, capacity and the scope and cost of installation.
Dryer exhaust and property rights
Start with: a qualified mechanical designer, Toronto Building and the landlord.
Answer before committing: an acceptable exhaust route, permission for penetrations and access, and who pays for the works.
Toronto reviews building-permit applications against the Ontario Building Code, zoning and applicable law.4 Its guidance identifies structural or material alterations among common permit triggers, but the required approvals depend on the project.5 Do not assume every machine installation follows the same pathway.
Toronto’s Sewers By-law sets discharge limits and the City monitors compliance.6 That does not establish that every laundromat needs a special discharge permit; ask Toronto Water about your site and process. For regulated fuels work, Ontario’s Technical Standards and Safety Authority says registered fuels contractors are the businesses legally authorized to perform it.7
Give the designers and utilities an equipment schedule, proposed services and alteration plans. An existing connection does not establish capacity for your machine mix. The cheapest rent can become the more expensive project if service upgrades or exhaust routing are difficult.
Lease points for your lawyer
Usage
Count paid washing and drying separately
A Toronto customer’s need to wash does not establish what they will spend on drying or added services.
For an existing store, reconcile the records separately:
- Reconcile paid washer activity by machine size and price class with payment reports, coin-collection records and deposits.
- Separate refunds, free starts and corrected cycles.
- Record dryer receipts and paid time separately: a customer may buy several timed increments or none.
Inspect busy periods as well as averages. Spare capacity during quiet hours cannot serve customers who all need the same machine size at a busy time. Downtime can also leave capacity on paper that customers cannot buy. Request machine-level repair records and confirm parts and technician availability for the models involved.
Money
Show what remains—and what it still has to pay
A paid cycle first contributes toward the store’s bills. It does not pay them all by itself. Separate costs that change with activity from commitments that continue when machines are idle.
- Customer receipts: actual washer and dryer receipts, with wash-and-fold receipts kept separately.
- Activity-related costs: water, energy, payment fees and supplies attributable to that activity.
- Remaining operating costs: rent and additional occupancy charges, staffing, cleaning, insurance, software and routine maintenance.
- Owner work: tasks and hours performed by the owner, plus the cost of replacing that work if needed.
- Financing and tax cash payments: actual debt-payment schedules and tax payments, kept distinct from operating costs.
- Equipment spending: repairs, purchases and money deliberately retained for future replacement.
- Cash available to the investor: what remains after those commitments. This is not gross receipts or a loosely defined earnings figure.
Use actual Canadian-dollar lease charges, utility bills or account-specific estimates, supplier quotes and financing terms. Confirm whether utilities are separately metered, included in rent or allocated by the landlord. A published tariff without consumption and billing details cannot establish the store’s monthly cost.
Wash-and-fold needs its own view of labour, supplies and machine use. Loads processed for service customers are not additional self-service receipts. More services can add revenue while also adding handling time and competing for machines at busy periods.
Operations
Unattended still needs someone responsible
Named responsibilities and backup
For an acquisition, ask for the seller’s task schedule, staff coverage and contractor scopes alongside the financial records. Compare claimed earnings with the work you would inherit or need to pay someone else to perform. Compensation for that work and return on your investment are different questions.
Summary
Key takeaways
- Investigate the customer’s alternative before committing to the lease or machines. Nearby renters may already have usable shared laundry.
- Investigate the building’s capabilities before committing to the lease or machines. Drainage, electrical and dryer-exhaust work can be expensive.
- If you are buying an existing store, add a third test. Check whether its recorded receipts support the bills, the owner’s work and the equipment investment, not just the seller’s earnings claim.
Next steps
Match the next commitment to the evidence you have
New build or acquisition
New build
Offers control over layout and equipment, but demand and construction costs remain unproven before opening.
Acquisition
Supplies trading history to verify, but may carry deferred repairs, hidden owner work or insecure tenure.
Decision file
Sources
- Laundromats, Laundry Depots & Dry Cleaning — City of Toronto, accessed 29 October 2026. Laundry licensing and the Occupancy Declaration.
- Zoning By-law 569-2013 — City of Toronto, accessed 29 October 2026. Property-level zoning lookup and by-law information.
- Notifications and Inspections — Electrical Safety Authority of Ontario, accessed 29 October 2026. Starting point for project-specific electrical enquiries.
- Building Permit Regulations — City of Toronto, accessed 29 October 2026. Building-permit review standards.
- When Do I Need a Building Permit? — City of Toronto, accessed 29 October 2026. Common permit triggers.
- Sewers By-law — City of Toronto, accessed 29 October 2026. Discharge restrictions and compliance monitoring.
- Authorized Heating Fuel Contractors — Technical Standards and Safety Authority (Ontario), accessed 29 October 2026. Ontario fuels-contractor authorization.
- Toronto laundromat owner offers free service to those in need amid the pandemic — CBC News, Sneha Agrawal, 13 March 2021. Nancy Seto’s attributed customer account and community response.
- Business expenses — Canada Revenue Agency, accessed 29 October 2026. Loan principal and interest deductions.
- Claiming capital cost allowance — Canada Revenue Agency, accessed 29 October 2026; guidance modified 31 August 2026. Depreciable-property treatment.
- This man says sweaters were stolen from his laundromat. He responded by starting a coat drive — CBC News, Patrick Swadden, 28 November 2023. Alex Winch’s attributed operating experience.