The best practice would be to go straight up and out the roof. The less bends there are in the run the less resistance and possibility of lint build up there is. If you live in a cold climate, be sure to insulate the ducting. Plan ahead and make it easy to detach/reattach the ducting so you can easily clean/inspect for lint. Get the best roof vent now to prevent problems later. (check out link) Here is a link that might be useful: DryerJack - New Low-Profile Roof Vents for the Dryer

Well it would've worked in the situation I had just last night. I started the washer (12 year old Kenmore/whirlpool direct drive toploader) & about half an hour later needed something from the garage. When I stepped in a huge amount of water my first thought was the hose had burst. But no, the washer was overflowing like Niagara Falls. Water flowed from my laundry room into the garage, and in the opposite direction into small hallway & half bath across from the laundry room. Unfortunately there is wood flooring in that hallway & half bath. I wish the builder of my house had installed pan with a drain in my laundry room. I also wish I had a drain in my laundry room floor. I agree with Asolo on the single lever shut off valve & turn it off after using your washer EVERY TIME. Also I highly recommend never running washers, dryers, dishwashers, etc. while sleeping or away from home. Thank goodness I hadn't started my washer & then gone to bed last night. The washer would've over flowed all night and I would've had a huge amount of damage instead of the very small amount we ended up with. Also my parents had an incident 2 weeks ago where their dishwasher almost caught on fire, the control board was smoking. When it was opened for repair the board was charred black! Turns out there was a recall on their model for the control boards catching fire. If they had not been home their house could've burned down.

I am in planning stages for redoing my 2nd floor laundry area, so I've been looking into some of the same issues. Regarding floor drains, I don't think it matters whether you have access to an outside wall, as the floor drain can tie into the same drain line as the washer drain. If you want the floor drain to protect the entire room, the floor should be sloped to the drain, which means you need a mortar bed (aka "mud job") over the plywood subfloor, and then a waterproof membrane over the mortar. This adds cost and also would raise the floor by at least an inch. A less expensive alternative is to put the washer in a pan and attach a floor drain to the pan. This would handle most leaks -- for example overflows -- but not anything where water was spraying out from the washer and would thus miss the pan. The Mustee "Durapan" model looks like a good choice for a pan, as it has a removable threshold in front so you can slide the washer forward without having to lift it out of the pan. The Durapan is attached to the subfloor and then tiled around, so the tile and the pan bottom (with the threshold removed) end up at the same level. Regarding the floor strength: whether the existing joists are sufficient needs to be calculated based on joist size, spacing, and length. If additional strength is needed, the joists can be doubled up ("sistered"). However, the strongest and stiffest floor can still transmit some amount of vibration from the washer to the rest of the house. Anti-vibration pads (I am using "shake-away" pads) help, but some amount of vibration may be unavoidable. Note that a "mud job" under the tile -- for the floor drain -- should also dampen vibrations somewhat, as the inertia of the floor (resistance to movement) increases as the mass of the floor increases.

Our budget right now is $30k. I am not quite sure how much that’ll get me. I have never undertaken anything like this. This will absolutely be something we take on in stages. This space is what we’d like to tackle first and is the largest. In our kitchen at some point we will replace countertops and in our other bathroom we will swap out the toilet, tub and vanity. Luckily the rest of the house is functional for us. I lack the vision and knowledge that a lot of people on here have of being able to see a functional layout in disaster zones lol. My intuition tells me all these spaces can somehow be rearranged to give us what we need. I’m completely wrong, please help. Im also completely fine and understand if it’s impossible, financially or practically to have it all. I do have a consultation with a designer scheduled for this week (so excited), and I’m praying that she’ll have time to take us on as clients but I got excited and wanted to ask the Houzz community first. Thank you !!