Preferred Laundry Room Location: Main Floor or Basement?

[lordkenmore]

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.

 

[blackstone]

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.

 

[xraytech]

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.

 

[sudsmaster]

Perhaps we all can agree that no matter where the laundry is located in the home, it still beats having to schlep dirty laundry to the laundromat...

 

 

 

[mrb627]

My 2 Cents

I don't really care where the laundry area is in the house as long as it is in the house. i.e. a climate controlled space.
I have friends with laundry in their garage space which can dip near or below freezing in the winter. No thanks.

Malcolm

 

[DADoES]

 
Dryers with thermostatic auto-dry (not true moisture-sensing) can be thrown off-kilter for accuracy when running in a cold (or hot) environment.

 

[polkanut]

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.

 

[passatdoc]

When my sister moved into her present house in 1994 (from a rented house that came with a washer/dryer), the housewarming gift for her and her husband was a Maytag Dependable Care (before it was dumbed down by Maytag) washer and dryer, I paid half and my parents paid half. The set survived two kids for 22 years, with no service calls or other issues, until two weeks ago when gas dryer died. Replacement part (?dryer head?) cost $350, though this quote may include labor, and at that point my sister thought "I'll keep the washer and just get a new dryer", which she did. Her laundry room is in an annex off the hallway to the bedrooms, closed by two folding doors. I've never measured in there, but there might not be enough depth clearance for a FL if one left the door ajar at all times. So she isn't interested in a FL and wants to keep her trusted Maytag TL at this time. r

 

[circlew]

My new laundry room is in the basement, in the same general area as the old was. I had glass block put in the old window opening, and have framed the walls out with steel studs (6") on the wall behind the washer & dryer to accomodate the plumbing and dryer vent. The other new walls are steel studs (3.5"), and the original block walls have steel furring channel (1.5"). This allows all pipes and wiring to be concealed. There is a HVAC register in the ceiling. Lighting will be surface mount LED or fluorescent. When I get the wiring done, and the dryer box and vent installed, it will get drywall, and possibly ceramic tile.

 

[gusherb]

My grandmothers basement was totally like those pictures you guys posted. One half was finished and the other half was sorta semi finished. Everything had those asbestos floor tiles, painted walls, curtains over the windows. The area that the early 80s Belt Drive Suds Saver Whirlpool stood in was next to a concrete double basin sink, and a few feet away from a 1960 Carrier Weathermaker furnace. There was even a vent right in front of the washer just like that first photo.

Across from the washing machine was a table setup for folding, a 1950s refrigerator (sorry it was broken since I was a baby and gone before I paid much attention to those things) and an assortment of other random stuff. Across the span of the utility area was a clothes line that she always put everything on after running her clothes for 10 minutes through the Kenmore gas dryer that stood on the other side of that Carrier furnace.

My grandma was very involved in her laundry. She never let the washer do it's thing, wouldn't even let it fill on it's own. She would fill the sink up and then start the suds saver pulling the water into the tub. and then of course she always saved the rinse water for the next wash.

 

[Marky_Mark]

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: 1/21/2016-06:43]

 

[gansky1]

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.