Bringing the laundry room upstairs

Posted

Q. I was wondering about putting a laundry room on my second floor by changing a bathroom. Will it be a problem with permits? And we’re concerned about leaks through the floor if the washing machine acts up. Do people do this, and is there anything special we need to know that can prevent leaks? Will it be expensive?

A. No. Yes. Yes. No. Any more questions? It has been a trend for many years to put a laundry room nearer to bedrooms instead of in the deepest bowels of the home, the basement. Logically, clothes shouldn’t have to travel all over the house when they’re removed in the bedroom or dressing area. As for leaking, I always recommend a waterproofed floor system under the entire laundry room, similar to the way a shower stall is constructed, including a floor drain with a trap, to code, so that any overflow or dripping water drains away harmlessly. I can’t remember ever having a laundry room flood, but I know it happens. Pipes burst from the washing machine pump, water drips from clothing removed before the cycle is finished, and I still remember watching “I Love Lucy,” when Lucy put way too much detergent in the machine and couldn’t see in front of her face when the room filled with suds. Waaaaah! I guess she had a lot of ’splainin’ to do.

So life is made a little simpler by having the washing machine near the bedrooms, but changes to the configuration of rooms can affect the structure, because walls have weight and must be supported where they’re built. They aren’t like furniture, to be moved around without worry. This takes measuring each floor level around the area, making accurate plans and calculating the loads, including the potential weight of a full floor of water that could be a foot deep before someone comes home and notices the pipe burst and the floor drain clogged with a sock. My neighbors had several inches of water throughout their basement from just such a disaster. A wood floor structure would have potentially collapsed. Since then, the piping has been replaced with a flexible-connection, metal mesh-covered hose so a vibrating machine during the spin cycle doesn’t loosen or crack a rigid pipe and turn your laundry room into an indoor pool.

Page 1 / 2