Laundry room

A laundry room was until the advent of the washing machine room, which served the laundry. A laundry room was in the basement or in a small house behind a residential area and was then called " wash house ". As late as the 1970s it was common to plan for new buildings laundry in the basement. Before the advent of private laundry rooms there were public wash houses, as outbuildings ( laundry hut, bair. - österr. Waschkuchl ). Today, separate wash rooms in houses are rare to find.

Facility

An essential component of a laundry room was a brick stove with built-in brick trough in which the wash water was heated. Among them was the need to firing, which was fueled by coal and / or wood. Near the laundry room or in the laundry room itself possibilities of laundry drying ( stretched canvas ) were provided. A laundry room was on the ground a water drain to allow excess water could flow.

The procedure of washing in the laundry room needed more utensils such Bleuel ( wooden hand paddle ), or about half a meter long wooden clothes tongs with which the often boiling hot lingerie could be pulled out of the tub, soft soap, brushes, with which the laundry was scrubbed clean, a washboard to clean very dirty textiles mechanically and various zinc tubs for rinsing of textiles. Since the heating of the wash water required length of time, the duration of a total wash was a day. If several families had to share a laundry room, the days of the week were set at which a particular family was laundry day.

Noteworthy was the strong development of steam that arose during cooking of textiles. A laundry room therefore had to have an opening window. Colloquially laundry therefore particularly in northern Germany is used as a synonym for mist. Laundry rooms were especially used in the country as a summer kitchen.

The wash house

Women in a wash house in Sanremo

Wash house from the early 20th century in Oberwürzbach

, Renovated interior of the wash house in Oberwürzbach with modern materials

Wash house at the Lauter in the Old City at Wissembourg (Alsace )

Spin dryer in the laundry from the 60s in Klausen / Remscheid

The wash house, even washing hut stands in the village, as well as the pre-industrial urban residential structure on or in a main square, and is a public building. Here, too, were rules on laundry day to save fuel or to share - if not washed as summer winter cold.

In addition, can be found on agricultural outbuildings of traditional Hofformen that - stand aside for fire protection reasons - like all other heated equipment up on the hotplate. Most laundry, oven, bath house and the historic Brechlbad the flat recovery in a shared building are summarized.