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Thread Number: 63680
/ Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
Preferred Laundry Room Location: Main Floor or Basement? |
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Post# 862536 1/18/2016 at 10:51 (3,012 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy  (Oak Park, MI) |
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Post# 862537 , Reply# 1 1/18/2016 at 10:59 (3,012 days old) by chachp (North Little Rock, AR) |
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Close to the Bedrooms My preference is as close to the bedrooms as you can get given those rooms generate the majority of the laundry. This house has a utility room off of the kitchen so that's where I do the laundry these days. I'm not opposed to the basement if I had one but it just seems more logical to me closer to the bedrooms.
My house is built on a slab so it would be a big deal to move them. I could get close to one of the bathrooms for plumbing but the quote I got was about $5K to dig into the concrete and add the plumbing so I can live with it where they are. | ||
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Post# 862544 , Reply# 2 1/18/2016 at 11:31 (3,012 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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Post# 862563 , Reply# 4 1/18/2016 at 13:02 (3,012 days old) by petek (Ontari ari ari O ) |
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 The houses I grew up in were either one floor with basement laundry (and a chute) or the typical 4 level split with the laundry room on the ground floor next to the garage and family room. Our current house is a 4 level split like that.. I'm getting tired of the stairs.. 20/20 hindsight I should have known better
Our first house in Calgary was a two story with the laundry in the basement. A long trek because the first flight of stairs landed at the front foyer and then you had to circle around down the hall to the basement stairway, then trek across the rek room to the laundry at the back of the house. Would have been much better with the laundry on the top floor, which most new houses have or at least off the kitchen. | ||
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Post# 862566 , Reply# 5 1/18/2016 at 13:09 (3,012 days old) by kb0nes (Burnsville, MN) |
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My preference would be to have the laundry on a concrete floor with a floor drain. The solidity of concrete and the protection from disaster is my reasoning. If that happened to be next to the bedrooms that would be very handy. If not stairs are required.
Perhaps in 15-20 years I may sing a different tune. But for now I personally wouldn't place laundry on a framed floor if I could avoid it. | ||
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Post# 862568 , Reply# 6 1/18/2016 at 13:23 (3,012 days old) by warmsecondrinse (Fort Lee, NJ) |
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I prefer the basement in case of disaster as well. However, as I'll likely be working (at least part-time) well past retirement age I'd prefer to save my energy for work & play, not household chores:-) So given a choice I'd like my laundry room/closet somewhere between the kitchen and bedrooms. Jim | ||
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Post# 862588 , Reply# 9 1/18/2016 at 14:36 (3,012 days old) by countryguy (Astorville, ON, Canada) |
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Post# 862616 , Reply# 10 1/18/2016 at 17:30 (3,012 days old) by logixx (Germany) |
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We have a shared laundry room in the basement. It's ugly, dirty and cold. But... at least the well water is free so I can use as much as I want (although it's cold as f__) and the condenser dryer benefits from the cold ambient air and won't overheat our living space in the summer. There's also no noise.
Still, I'd love to have one of these American laundry rooms that you see in the magazines. Since our houses here are made of concrete and washers have anti-flood devices built-in, it doesn't matter on which floor you put the LR. I like this idea as well: w/d as part of the closet.
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| Post# 862633 , Reply# 11 1/18/2016 at 18:33 (3,012 days old) by washman (o) | ||
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My abode is slab-on-grade thus the utility room is right off the kitchen, on my way to the garage. About as far away from the bedrooms as one can get, but at least I am not climbing stairs as I did at the condo. | ||
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Post# 862638 , Reply# 12 1/18/2016 at 18:51 (3,012 days old) by abcomatic (Bradford, Illinois) |
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Basement here. I don't have room for the washer and dryer in the kitchen. | ||
| Post# 862642 , Reply# 13 1/18/2016 at 19:08 (3,012 days old) by delaneymeegan (Midwest) | ||
sure the most practical thing would be to have one's front loaders in their walk in closet...... but where's the fun in that?
And I've built a house with two laundry areas: one in the upstairs master closet and another laundry room on the main floor. Blahh. The most fun was adding faucets to the basement utility sink and setting up a third laundry area in the unfinished portion of the basement. The most desirable: a traditional Midwestern, 1960s basement laundry room complete with painted cinder block (preferably a 60s pastel.) slightly sloped cement floor that may be painted or tiled, some paneling (either painted over or bare), exposed utility lines, a nice laundry sink for use with a very necessary sud-saver, porcelain socket lighting, surface mounted 1960s electrical, a floor drain for the inevitable leak, cotton print curtain custom fitted to the small windows, possibly a couple lines of rope clothes lines hanging precariously. And the furnishings: an old dishwasher, refrig, and stove, all connected and working, a kitchen table, an air drying rack for my delicate items, a metal kitchen cabinet or two to sit next to the machines and hold detergents and scrub brushes, a couple of wall shelves that are nothing more than a 1 by 12 piece of actual wood with metal brackets, some old wood accent tables in rough shape, old fuzzy bathroom rugs on the floor, a wood framed laundry chute hanging from the ceiling.... Oh, and a pink rotary dial wall phone, in case the radio station calls to let me know I'm a winner of the daily prize. 
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Post# 862655 , Reply# 14 1/18/2016 at 19:41 (3,012 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Depends on what sort of basement we are talking about. 
A fully finished job that is dry and well ventilated in summer/heated in winter is fine for doing laundry. My parents along with countless other family and friends homes all had finished basements complete with second kitchens and "living rooms". Used to stay down there all afternoon with the TV on doing wash and ironing.
Where this isn't possible am happy with laundry appliances on the main floor. Only place one truly objects to is bathrooms. Having spent much time in Europe it still puts one off to see a washer and or dryer in the loo. | ||
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Post# 862661 , Reply# 15 1/18/2016 at 20:02 (3,012 days old) by Yogitunes (New Jersey) |
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Preferred......Master Bedroom Closet or Bath.....
although would love for it to be in the kitchen....this is where I spend the most time, and can monitor all things at once..... right now its located in the hall bath at one end of the house, not much of an issue for living alone, or with a partner......toss in guests or kids, and that bathroom sees so much traffic while trying to get to the laundry.....thankful for full laundry room in the basement as well, at this point, its an escape, especially on holidays.... the only bad thing for a dryer in the living quarters, is its blowing out all that conditioned air.....like leaving a window wide open when it is in use...unless its in a location that can be closed off, and a small window opened to exchange air... | ||
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Post# 862664 , Reply# 16 1/18/2016 at 20:13 (3,012 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie) |
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delaneymeegan-- God, that basement photo is SO Minnesota. Absolutely spot-on. Also: My nephew and his wife have an LG set in the walk-in closet of their master bedroom in Bloomington.
I appreciate a washer and dryer on concrete, as does Phil L. However, my knees would vote main floor, damage and vibrations be damned. | ||
| Post# 862669 , Reply# 17 1/18/2016 at 20:36 (3,012 days old) by murando531 (Augusta, Georgia - US) | ||
Our house is one level with a concrete foundation, and the laundry room is in the hallway leading to the guest bedroom and office. It's away from the living room and kitchen area enough that with the door pulled-to there's no noise disturbance, but it's also smack in the middle of the house for the most part, so I can still enjoy hearing my machines when I want to. I've loved not having any vibration at all from the washer because of the solid tile-on-foundation floor.
Not sure I ever want laundry in the basement or garage. I like having it on the main floor so long as the floor is plenty reinforced. In the house I grew up in, our washer was in the corner of the kitchen, and the dryer was on the "back porch" as we called it, but it was an enclosed sun room of sorts. No insulation at all, so wearing shoes and a sweat shirt or jacket was required when taking the clothes from the washer or folding. That kind of ruined any non-indoor installation for me. The floor under the washer was also not in good shape with the age of the house, so the washer had to be set just so that it would shake when spinning but not enough to walk. | ||
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Post# 862672 , Reply# 18 1/18/2016 at 20:45 (3,012 days old) by sudsmaster (SF Bay Area, California) |
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 Like most California homes, this one has no basement. But having been built in 1941, it does have a crawl space that I've become quite familiar with.
Current laundry closet is in a hall area between the kitchen and family room. Since the home is single story, that's fairly centrally located. The laundry hampers are kept in a large master bath, and it's really not an issue shlepping them the 35 feet or so to the laundry area. The laundry closet hosts the Neptune 7500 pair.
I also have a washer collection on a slab in a detached workshop on the property. Currently only two Miele washers are hooked up out there, and generally I only use one of them, for whites once a week.
Water from the washer in the house hasn't been an issue, other than a slow drip from leaky hoses and/or wall faucets. Plus the flooring underneath the washer is sheet vinyl so it tends to limit the water penetration, if any, into the framing.
I actually would like to have a home with a basement. And I'd probably put some washer/dryers down there. | ||
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Post# 862695 , Reply# 19 1/18/2016 at 21:51 (3,012 days old) by petek (Ontari ari ari O ) |
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Geeze that basement picture could have been my moms house.. her walls were a pastel yellow and the floor was painted a light blue. The cement laundry tubs were under the window though. Her gas stove was in the room next, an original summer kitchen.. the previous owner builder was Polish and around here most Polish people had a basement kitchen. | ||
| Post# 862731 , Reply# 21 1/19/2016 at 00:23 (3,012 days old) by Stan (Napa CA) | ||
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Post# 862757 , Reply# 23 1/19/2016 at 05:22 (3,011 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI) |
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Super Duper Laundry Room vs. Cavern of Drudgery I'm satisfied w/ my basement laundry room although it's under the bedrooms of the house & the staircase to get to the basement & then travel to it is way over on the other side of the house by the kitchen... (Then a long hike to get from there to my washer & dryer and then, way back!)
One thing I rarely see in basements is the Finished Laundry Room--other than that I've got a bunch of Kitchen/Bathroom/Laundry Room/Utility Room--just in short, Home Remodeling Books, that I see a number of them in, and much of them very breathtaking...
Surely main-floor laundries I've seen in real life are at least finished, although compared to in the remodeling books I have, (maybe owing a lot to the eras they were published) lack a bit of creativity...
-- Dave This post was last edited 01/19/2016 at 06:48 | ||
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Post# 862788 , Reply# 25 1/19/2016 at 07:08 (3,011 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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 I guess I've lived with (and still live with!) a mixed bag of locations. The basement laundry room was what I first was used to in the houses where I grew up. This was due to plumbing more than anything. The homes we had in Pointe-Claire were probably intended to accommodate a wringer washer (there was a deep laundry tub in the basement). But, as Pete said, living in a 4 level split mean a lot of mountaineering with those laundry baskets. I had the bright idea of converting our upstairs bathroom to a dedicated laundry (the bathroom would have been relocated to a smaller bedroom). I think my father's comment was something 'Vat? You thinking I am making of money? You having any idea vat this costing?' So that never happened... LOL
I guess the location of the laundry equipment in the hallway of the apartment we had in Montreal was probably the most convenient location for actual use. The machines were in a doored alcove just opposite our dining area; it was short trip from the bedrooms and even shorter from the kitchen or bath.
In Ogden, I'm lucky to have two laundry locations - most of the washers are in the basement but I also do have the GE Combo in the Kitchen Centre. In St-Lib, the washer and dryer are in the bathroom which can be convenient, but I find the space is a little restricted (and no one gets to see my lovely Lady K's unless they are seated on the throne...)
If I had to pick, though, I prefer the basement location. I'm paranoid about leaks, overflows and floods so a basement floor can be a little more forgiving. Not that I flood the basement.... much... LOL | ||
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Post# 862794 , Reply# 26 1/19/2016 at 07:33 (3,011 days old) by mopar65 (Almont MI) |
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Post# 862804 , Reply# 27 1/19/2016 at 08:46 (3,011 days old) by polkanut (Wausau, WI ) |
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 When we remodeled our home in 2002 (built in 1925), we decided to bring the washer and dryer upstairs. We had an enclosed front porch that we never used, and turned it into our laundry room. We wanted to continue using our '98 Maytag Dependable Care w/ suds-saver, so we had to bring the suds-tub up as well. On the east end is a walk-in closet with shelves from top to bottom. On the west end we have a window with cupboards on both sides, and a huge roll-out laundry hamper underneath built out of solid red oak with a med. cherry stain. The only drawback is it's in the front of the house, and just off the living room, oh well. | ||
| Post# 862818 , Reply# 28 1/19/2016 at 10:26 (3,011 days old) by AquaCycle (West Yorkshire, UK) | ||
The norm in the UK for a long time was to have washing machines in the kitchen, which is how I grew up. Many UK homes pre-date washing machines, so were never designed to accomodate such appliances. The kitchen was often the only place to put it, as that's where the plumbing was. And hence under-counter frontloaders are more popular here.
In many mainland European countries, it's widely considered the norm to have the washing machine in the bathroom. Personally, I do prefer to have a seperate laundry room. In our house, the laundry room is on the ground floor with the garage and the living space is on the first floor. Whilst I love having a seperate room, it is a pain having to go up and down the stairs all the time to do the washing. But having said that, it does keep any intruding noise to a minimum. | ||
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Post# 862851 , Reply# 29 1/19/2016 at 12:52 (3,011 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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 No basements here. Many older houses have the machines in the garage, either directly or in a smaller room area to the side or back. Laundry rooms are also common in the house, usually near the kitchen. I know one house built in the 1970s that has a "formal" laundry room near the kitchen and another washer & dryer in an alcove in the master bedroom. A friend with a newer two-story house has a small laundry room near the bedrooms on the 2nd floor. I was there once when the washer (DD Whirly) was running, directly above the 1st floor room in which I was sitting ... large noises and vibration transmitted through the floor. Mine is a separate room adjacent to/behind the kitchen.
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| Post# 862900 , Reply# 30 1/19/2016 at 17:49 (3,011 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room) | ||
As a renter, my main concern has historically been "the equipment actually works properly." There are times we haven't even hit that giddy height...
Few houses here have basements. Usually laundry equipment seems to live in a small laundry room. Although I think there are plusses to a basement. There is argument that floods are less of a problem. Plus there is potentially more space to hold more than one washer. Most laundry rooms I've seen have exactly enough space for 1 washer and 1 dryer. And--I channel my grandmother here--but it could be handy having clothes lines to air dry in winter. Although I'm not sure how well that would work in this damp climate. | ||
| Post# 862918 , Reply# 31 1/19/2016 at 18:30 (3,011 days old) by Blackstone (Springfield, Massachusetts) | ||
From the perspective of someone who has serviced laundry equipment for many years, I will offer these comments on what is BAD about installation areas.
1. Basements in older houses have lousy floors. Not every cellar that I have been in looks as good as the one pictured above. (I must admit that the description is so accurate.) We always took pieces of carpets on service calls, for use when lying down on cold, damp, broken concrete floors, especially when working in the back of a belt-driven WP. Add the spider webs and accumulations of dryer lint, and you get the picture. 2. Basements are either too hot, or too cold, depending on the furnace. Most likely, the furnace is an oil-burning, smelly behemoth, with asbestos-covered piping at head-level. If that furnace is at the other end of the cellar, you don't get the heat from it. Even modern gas furnaces can be too hot to be next to. Electric-heated house can be worse, if there is no heat in the cellar. We once got a call for a dryer not working. The cause? The vent was completely blocked by frozen lint. 3. Basements may not have a hatchway. Sure you can carry a toolbox down the narrow, winding stairs, but delivering a washer is not that easy. One house we went to actually expanded the floor of the kitchen, covering part of the stairway. We had to slither down the space to get into the cellar. 4. Closets leave very little room for working, especially if you had to get behind the appliance. Broken hoses, bent dryer vent hoses, etc., become difficult to fix. I could go on, but you get the idea. | ||
| Post# 862925 , Reply# 32 1/19/2016 at 19:02 (3,011 days old) by Xraytech (Rural southwest Pennsylvania ) | ||
delaneymeegan, I'm pretty sure my basement laundry room pretty much fits all you described that you want in a basement laundry room. Painted terra cotta block, exposed plumbing and wiring, double wash tub, metal cabinets, old rugs on the floor, second stove hooked up, clothes lines, and curtains on the windows, and old kitchen table, oh and we can't forget the big wooden cage at the bottom of the laundry chute.
I also have the fridge and freezer, but they are on other side of basement. Also on other side of my basement I have a 12x12 piece of plush carpet, moms old sofa, and a TV, which is where I spend most of laundry day folding and sitting clothes and moving stuff from washers to dryers. | ||
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Post# 863002 , Reply# 33 1/20/2016 at 03:58 (3,010 days old) by sudsmaster (SF Bay Area, California) |
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| Post# 863006 , Reply# 34 1/20/2016 at 05:49 (3,010 days old) by mrb627 (Buford, GA) | ||
My 2 Cents | ||
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Post# 863014 , Reply# 35 1/20/2016 at 06:23 (3,010 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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Post# 863053 , Reply# 36 1/20/2016 at 10:47 (3,010 days old) by polkanut (Wausau, WI ) |
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Rich, One of the best gifts we received for our wedding was our washer/dryer set from my parents. My wife was doing the laundromat thing before we got married because her mom thought automatics were "water wasters" and only had a Maytag E2LS. Bev said she wasn't having any of that BS with having to use a wringer machine. | ||
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Post# 863211 , Reply# 40 1/21/2016 at 05:50 (3,009 days old) by marky_mark (From Liverpool. Now living in Palm Springs and Dublin) |
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 Two photos: (1) in our apartment in the UK we had a laundry cupboard off the hallway with the machines stacked. (2) here in Spain our small laundry room is off the hall in our apartment. Machines side-by-side.
In other homes in the UK I have had them in the kitchen, utility room, garage and bathroom. In Spanish houses you can find the machines in the garage, basement, kitchen, utility room, bathroom, even outside on an enclosed porch/balcony.
Homes I've seen in the US (mostly AZ and CA) and the UK with a utility-cum-laundry room tend to have it between (linking) the garage and kitchen. I guess it's most convenient to have the laundry room as close as possible to the living area and to the bedrooms/bathrooms where the laundry will be generated and the clean items from the dryer will be stored. I think it would be great to have a laundry room with two doors: one leading to the hallway and the other directly into the master bedroom closet. But noise could be an issue if someone is sleeping. Simple solution to that -- have two laundry rooms! One with Miele and the other with a Speed Queen TL set -- my dream house with the best of both worlds! This post was last edited 01/21/2016 at 06:43 | ||
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Post# 863235 , Reply# 41 1/21/2016 at 08:15 (3,009 days old) by gansky1 (Omaha, The Home of the TV Dinner!) |
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 Sam (xraytech) I love that laundry chute and catch bin the basement, always thought that made so much sense with a basement laundry.
This house was built in 52-54 so the laundry was in the basement. (no chute!) and given the laundry processes at the time for most people who used wringer washers and dried on clotheslines, the basement was the preferred location. Lots of room for machine, tubs and clotheslines for the inevitable rainy day or -8F winter washdays.
I've added hookups in the garage for a washer & dryer and it is nice to have it just steps away from the kitchen.
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