Are you sure it's a sewer smell and not grossness in your washer? I got rid of my 6 year old ecosmart washer a couple months ago because it broke, but I was happy that it broke because it stank horribly starting when it was about 6 months old. I always left the lid open and used HE detergent but still the washer stank horribly of mildew/mold/general disgusting funk. I had to run cleaning cycles with bleach about once a month to keep the stench at bay, and even then it was there, it just wasn't unbearable. Another GW poster had a similar issue - her dh took the washer apart and it turns out she had all kinds of mold growing on the outside of the drum. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/laundry/msg1116132918352.html Here is her post with the picture: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/laundry/gal1116003129042.html?1 I'm guessing this might have had something to do with our water (it's well water through a softener) since lots of people here have ecosmarts and don't have problems like this. But then again, in the 7 months I have owned my frigidaire Affinity front loader, there's no hint of smell or mold or anything else I was afraid would happen with a front loader. So who knows? All I know is that you couldn't give me another F&P washing machine - never again!

When I was doing my main floor laundry I paid special attention to the requirements of my W/D set. My instructions stated to place the set next to a load bearing wall. I have joist 16" on center and they are relatively short at 8 or 9' long. So there is no spring to the floor system. I have a 1..5" subfloor. Then a 3/8" underlayment, followed by an uncoupling membrane by Latacrit, then finished with my tile. The membrane and tile I don't consider adding strength. The strength comes from the joist and subfloor setup. This is how I understand it but I am not a professional builder or tiler, just a DIY'er. There have been post where individuals report a lot of bounce to their floors with a W/D in use. I believe these floors are the ones that have long joist and the W/D set is set nearer the center of the floor system where there is no support. It becomes a trampoline. This is especially important with a front loader. I don't know about top loaders. If you use tile, you will want a very stiff floor system anyway, so that flexion of the joist don't crack the tile, with or without the W/D setup. There is a formula to use to calculate joist length, thickness, and spacing, to determine appropriateness for installation of tile. Natural stone takes an even stiffer floor.

SQ Home "soft mount" front loaders should never be confused with SQ hard mount commercial laundry equipment. They are two completely different equipment types with different mounting requirements. The new SQ home soft-mount has twin liquid balance rings with balancing weights moving around in those liquid rings. When the weights move around in the rings, they counteract some of the out of balance load that may be in your clothes load before those forces then pass through the shock absorbers, and ultimately to your floor. The result is the energy that would normally be produced as a load into the floor is internally offset, resulting in lower loads applied to the floor and overall smoother vibration. Remember, a soft-mount washer has shock absorbers, that when properly tuned, absorb about 85-90% of the load that would normally otherwise be transferred into the floor. So, to illustrate what ends up hitting your floor, let's assume that the SQ soft-mount FLW had 20 lbs of clothes in it, had a 20% off-balance, ran at 400G, and that the shocks could counter 90% of the vibration. And with no knowledge of what the SQ liquid rings can counteract, let's guess half of the off balance, or 10% and that machine capacity. Doing the math, 20 lb x 0.10 x 400 G = 800 lb before shocks; 80 lbs after shocks would actually hit your floor. Since the machine probably weighs 250 lbs, the oscillating load into the floor is not enough to lift the feet to move around in your laundry room. A SQ hard mount on the other hand has no internal suspension and therefore any produced out of balance loads are directed through a heavy gauge frame into the concrete floor it is bolted to. How big are these forces? Let's say you had a 20 lb model with that same 20% off balance load in the wash. The SQ hard mount units are rated to spin out to 200G extract force, the math (20 lb x 0.2 x 200 G) would say 800 lbs would be directed into the floor. Big difference between the two loads into the floor, and the SQ home soft mount spins out with twice the G force on top of that. Remember, the above examples are hypothetical to illustrate the differences between a hard mount and soft mount suspensions and the forces into the floor. The new SQ front load, with the combination of twin liquid balance rings and shock absorbers should give a good experience for the homeowner. These show up in laundromats and apartment buildings with high usage, way more cycles per day than a homeowner would ever put on one. Laundryvet

I have laundry in the basement-- have a laundry chute direct to the laundry. I have never wanted a laundry on the second floor but have wished that I had it on the main floor sometimes. Advantage to basement--usually have a lot of room (I don't). We can get really dirty sometimes, with gardening and landscaping projects. Can shuck the dirties in the garage or back entryway and drop down the laundry chute there (or in a bucket in the garage)...vs having to deal with them upstairs (where we have carpet). I wash clothes once a week. Smelly dirty laundry is in the basement; not stinking up the bedrooms. I have a clothesline strung in the unfinished part of the basement for drying rugs, mattress pads, sheets, jeans, etc. during the winter/ rainy days. As well as drip dry items that don't go in the dryer. The clothes line is also handy for hanging wet or damp dirty items to dry (like bath towels & kitchen towels) before they go into the dirty clothes hamper. I fold & sort items as I unload the dryer. Towel stack to the linen closet, DS's clothes in one stack, etc. Usually cart the basket to the main floor and someone else will haul it on upstairs. Have had three laundries that were in enclosed back porches and one just adjacent to the garage when I lived in the south. That arrangement worked really good and would be my preferred location for a laundry. Would not want W/D in a closet if it can be avoided. I use my laundry sink a lot as well as having the washer drain hose empty into the sink. (With a lint sock to keep lint and dog hair out of the sewer line--septic leach field if that's your situation.) You adapt to wherever the laundry is. Pros & cons to wherever it is. Main thing is that a home laundry beats the heck out of having to go to the laundromat! We've probably all had to do that at some time in our lives.