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.

Why would I have to open up the fall if I can fit the appliance through the existing door? IF you can get both appliances into the pantry (and I don't think that it is possible to do with the existing door opening), then you need room in front of the appliances so you can operate them. My laundry 'closet' is 53.5" deep with a 40" door opening and I know how restrictive that is. If I had only 45" of depth, I don't think the dryer door would open. I have conventional old school appliances. 29" wide dryer with fold down door & skinny Speed Queen top loader (<26" wide). ...realized by the time that's done I wouldn't be cutting the vent run down by much... Would venting the dryer through the roof eliminate any elbows? Do you have rigid (smooth) ducting or is it all flex vent? What is the length of the current run vs the thru-the-wall & Up option? Keep in mind that heated air rises so you'll gain some venting help when the vent goes vertical. Thru the wall and up will require just one elbow and possibly another 120 degree fitting (if you need to offset because of a wall extending above the roof of the garage. In calculating vent length equivalents, an elbow is equal to 5' of straight run length. So, if your current set-up has more than one elbow, you may be gaining more efficiency than you realize. If you have a lot of corrugated, flex duct, you'll benefit by replacing with smooth rigid venting. My venting scenario is awful. I had 4 elbows in about 12' of run. We were able to switch out one elbow for a 120 and replaced most of the flex w/ rigid duct. Still far from ideal but those changes made a significant difference in drying time. Even heavy loads like jeans (out of the SQ top loader) dry with one setting of the dryer (about 50 minutes.) Most other loads dry in 40 minutes. Synthetic loads in much less time. Before, I routinely timed out and had to reset the dryer a second time in order to get dry clothes.

I need to see a whole floor plan I actually find walk in pantries a waste of space , I do not like food storage in a laundry area for sure . I also do not like stacking if at all possible for the W/D you need some surface for folding. Is the master on the mainfloor? I love my main floor laundry it is where I spend my time so doing more loads is a lot easier. I have mine in a wide closet that is deeper to handle the W/D side by side and a top for folding of course front load washer I also have shelves along one side for all my table linens and the other side for my vacuum hose , broom and ironing board which I set up in my kitchen when I iron so I can watch TV .