Mine is installed with just a pan under it. The pans have sides that the machine is place into and the drain is directly under the machine. Our laundry pan drains into the shower drain that is adjacent to it in my master bath. I have had a leak only once in the 12 years we have had it. It happened when the shower drain got plugged up and the water ran back out through the drain and backed up into our washing machine pan. Then bc the pan for the washer was shorter it leaked over the edges. Luckily we caught it before it did too much damage bc we could hear the water dripping over the side. Hubby was unplugging the shower drain while I was trying to sop up the water on the other side in the closet where our washer was. After throwing every towel I owned in the closet to absorb the moisture, then I ended up using a blow dryer. The ceiling below was only a bit damp but dried without any damage. I am sure that if we had had just a drain in the floor the damage would have been a lot worse. It would have leaked out all four sides of the closet and left a huge mess. If the washing machine had just leaked it would have been no problem as long as the shower drain wasn't plugged. It would have just drained out the hole down the drain safely. As for the noise, I don't hear anything downstairs when it is running, but we can all hear it when it runs upstairs. And during the spin cycle we can feel some vibrations from the washer in our bedrooms.

I'm with HTH - I've always preferred a basement laundry room, for all the reasons mentioned, plus - if ever there were to be a leak - and this did happen to me just recently due to an improperly installed new washing machine - the chances for any serious damage are diminished to next to nothing, ESPECIALLY if you have properly installed a floor drain. And I want a laundry tub in the laundry room, and I want my washing machine to drain into that and not into one of those tiny boxes in the wall. There are sooo many uses for a laundry tub. So many times I've wanted one and haven't had one. I'd MUCH rather be able to fill a bucket in the laundry tub, and not have to mess with getting it in and out of the bath or shower. As another poster mentioned - if you can't have your house the way YOU want it, you might as well be stuck in a rental. Leave the hookups where they are and use that space however you want, but go ahead and move the laundry to the basement where you obviously want it to be. If it turns out you don't like it, you can always move it back - or a future buyer can easily do the same. As for getting laundry up and down stairs - get a trash can with giant wheels. Run a closet rod through the top (drill a couple holes with a hole saw). Hang your clothes on that and pull it up the stairs. Too heavy? Hang fewer clothes in it. Or fold them and put them in a suitcase with wheels. There are dozens of ways to get the clothes up and down stairs that don't involve hefting a filled laundry basket around. Laundry chutes are against fire codes nearly everywhere these days because improperly built ones can act like chimneys in a fire. Putting them in with appropriate fire walls and whatnot generally runs in to more money than people really want to spend. They are incredibly handy, however. In fact the old fashioned dumb waiters are great - if not exactly fire-safe.

Plan A: Personally I think the best use of space would be to move them to the far end of the room, separate them with a cabinet in the middle between the two and build a countertop over the tops of the appliances. Then you have storage in between for soaps, a surface for folding ontop and space above for adding more cabinetry storage. The window is more accessible and you could also add a fold up table or ironing board to the wall space across from the window. The sunlight may allow you to air dry some delicate items from a pull down rack mounted to the ceiling. Plan B: I read that you can't move the appliances so I suggest you consider maximizing the space you do have that is seen in the second photo. Ask how the shallow cabinet is making the best use of space. It might be better to use the full wall with cabinets facing the door at the same depth of your appliances. Can you use the corner area for a small drop down hanging rack for delicates to air dry? The bottom of the cabinets can house laundry baskets or folded laundry. Making a tall narrow space on the same wall as the cabinets will allow you to have a fold down ironing board. Think about plug access when designing the wall space. Good design and good function is so important in a much used workspace. Good luck!

When do you do your laundry? Are you home during the day or working? A 2nd floor laundry room always SOUNDS like a great idea - the w/d where most of the laundry is generated and returned. But If one works all day and does laundry in the evening, going up and down the stairs to change a load, is a big bother. Instead, a laundry room were one typically spends the evening, is probably far more convenient. A basket for each person's laundry can be folded and filled and left for that person to carry upstairs if they are old enough to do so. I do know a few people who I call "laundry addicts" who will run a small load every single morning, including the sleepwear from the night before and the previous day's clothes. My own mother was like that - she would run a load with one nightgown, one set of undergarments, and perhaps a top...every single day. I'm a once weekly doer of laundry. I even did this when I had a husband and children living at home. We had enough clothes/underwear to last a week. I would spend part of one day in the basement doing the laundry and ironing while it ran. Then it was over and done for the week. I loved that!