At first glance the floor drain idea sounds like a pretty good idea, but when you think about it, the only thing seperating the inside of your lovely home from a filthy sewer, is the U-bend water trap in the floor drain. No problem if you flush it regularly, but if you let it dry up you're going to be waking up to the lovely smell of sewer gas. However, this would work if it can be connected to another drain, and then have both drains flow into a U-bend trap. That way the other drain would presumably keep the U-bend closed off. I'm not a plumber though, so please treat this as speculation, not a suggestion. As far as putting the washer in a tub is concerned, I tend to agree with your sales person. The risk is that it will lower the friction between the washer and the floor, and your washer will start walking all over the place. It's true that a washer on a pedestal is going to weigh 250 lbs plus, but the problem is resonance between the washer and the floor, not that the washer isn't weighing enough, because these resonances are specifically caused by the washer being so heavy. So, if you have a vibration problem with the washer, it's specifically because the 250 lb weight of the washer is interacting with your flexible floor. Weedmeister's suggestion regarding manual single handle water valves actually has quite a bit of merit, because if you think about it, you realize that you're dealing with probabilities here. Let's say for aurguments sake that the odds of you having a broken water hose is 100,000:1, and the chance that you would forget to turn the hose off is 100:1, you can calculate the chances of you having a flood as 10,000,000:1, and you've effectively turned the remote possibility of a flood from a broken hose into something that's impossible for all practical purposes. The trick lies in being able to train everyone who uses the washer to turn the valve handle to the off position after every wash load.

In order to properly answer your question we need to begin with some basic code definitions. TRAP-by code definition the trap is the U shaped section of the fitting that retains water to affect an air & gas tight seal between the fixture and the sewer line to prevent sewer gas from entering the structure. TRAP WEIR- just as the weir of a dam is the point on the spillway where water can overflow the dam, the trap weir is the physical point on the discharge side of the trap U section where water passing through the trap can spill out of the trap and into the trap tailpiece & drain line. FIXTURE ARM or WASTE ARM- While most people think of a fixture arm as the short section of pipe extending out of the wall where a sink trap is connected, that is not correct. The fixture arm is the total developed length of pipe from the trap weir to the vertical stack or vented horizontal drain line. Understanding that it is only one line, it then stands that the line must serve as both the drain & vent for the trap. Under the International Residential Code (IRC) the bottom of the fixture arm at the trap weir may not be higher than the top of the pipe at the vent opening, thus we can mathematically compute the maximum length of a fixture arm by dividing the diameter of the pipe by the pitch of the run. Example- The code standard for a bathtub drain line is 1-1/2" and all lines 3" or less are required to have a minimum pitch of " per foot thus the maximum length of the tub fixture arm would be 1.5" / .25Â = 6Â but be very careful here. Keep in mind that the top of the pipe at the vented drain cannot be lower than the bottom of the pipe at the trap weir so if you mistakenly run the line with a greater pitch, it will shorten the allowable length of the line and under no circumstances may you have a vertical offset. In addition, the code says, "Maximum developed length of pipe". (I have seen instances where you get a real hardnosed inspector and he/she will make you also compute the fitting losses. By example a 1-1/2" 1/8bend has a fitting insertion loss of 6" which means that while the 1/8th bend is physically only about 3" long, you have to compute it as 6"). The Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC) began with basically the same mathematical maximum as the IRC but then they de-rated the maximum lengths by about 40% thus we must either memorize the lengths or keep the code table at hand. UPC Table T10-1 1/14"ÂÂ2Â6" 1-1/2"Â..3Â6" 2"ÂÂÂ.5Â 3"ÂÂÂ..6Â 4" or larger 10Â The minimum length of a fixture arm when measured from the trap weir to the vertical riser, stack or vented horizontal drain is to be 2x the diameter of the fixture arm pipe. Now to answer your question; the tie in can be made at any convenient point on a stack or horizontal line, except, an un-vented fixture arm MAY NOT be connected to a vertical combined waste & vent stack if there is a watercloset (toilet) discharging into that stack at any point above. The solution would then be to install a separate vent on the line between the trap and the combined waste & vent stack. By doing so the line from the trap to the vent is classified as a fixture arm, but the line downstream from the auxiliary vent to the combined waste & vent stack is now classified as a vented branch and that may be connected to the stack but be careful here as well. The auxiliary vent must rise to an elevation at least 6" higher than the flood level rim of the highest fixture served by the combined waste & vent before you can tie the vent into the stack.

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.

Consumer Reports has washing machine ratings including vibration rankings, and predicted reliability information. It appears that HE top loaders did better overall in vibration. Follow up with specs and owners' reviews on such sites as Home Depot. You might actually have to search a washer's user manual to find out if "sanitizes" clothes. https://www.consumerreports.org/join - $10/month digital