Did you relocate your washer/dryer or sink?

16 years ago

I'm working on my layout and trying to understand my options. My washer and dryer are in a long room that runs the length of the kitchen. If I relocate them to the other end of that room, I can build a smaller room for them, bust down the wall, and extend my kitchen 4ft and get an extra window to boot.

There is unfinished basement under this part of the kitchen, so I'm thinking the access to the plumbing would make this a very real possibility. I don't want to fully invest myself in working out this potential layout if moving the w/d is not feasable. I realize you can do anything, depending on how much you want to pay to do it.

Here's a drawing. You can see the w/d are in a long room on the left. They would move down to the area where the fridge is, in a square room with a diagonal door opening into the kitchen area. The stove wall would move 4ft to the left and be on an exterior wall with a window.

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Comments (6)

lascatx
16 years ago
I moved some gas and water lines in our kitchen remodel. The=ose were just inside the kitchen, all on the same level and no more than 10=12 feet. Seems like it was about $500 each time moving something came up. I would expect yours (one 2 levels and further) to be more -- but not outrageous. Just make sure the laundry will work for you enough to trade off the space for your kitchen (which sounds great). I have a too small laundry room I will probably have to remodel very soon in order to fit the deeper front loaders in and try to make beter use of the space. I really want to get the laundry off the floor and have a place to put something down.

As far as costs, it's not only moving the plumbing, but also electricity, gas for the dryer(?), venting the dryer, knocking out a wall, more drywall work, more paint,more flooring or repairing the flooring, repairing the ceiling, cutting a hole in the wall and installing the window and then adding more cabinets, more countertop, etc to the kitchen budget. Make sure you can handle it all.
macybaby
16 years ago
With plumbing, The incoming water lines are usually no big deal, but the drain and the vent can cause major nightmares. The drain has to have the proper slope or it won't work well, and must be vented. The vent normally will go up the wall and exit somewhere through the roof. Most of the vents "gather together" in the attic and all go out the same pipe. Our house has two drain vents through the roof.

I'd also consider how far away the appliances are from the hot water source. We moved our water heater to make the runs shorter after we moved the location of the kitchen and the main bath.

My husband and I are major DIY'ers, and have replaced all the plumbing and venting during our house remodel. We did hire someone to put in the new septic though.

Cathy
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Yes, I'm already thinking of getting rid of the bifolds. We got rid of them in our current house, too. I'm not sure about the ceiling height; that would definitely be a limiting factor. I'm not sure what you mean by "needing" the laundry closet. The laundry needs to stay in that space, and my only potential reconfiguration option is to stack. Or do you mean knocking down the enclosure part that makes it closet-shaped? We did that in our current home to make a built-in mudroom space, and I love it. We'd consider doing that again (though no room for built-in mudroom... it's just the washer/dryer recessed next to the hallway, with some hooks on the wall). There is a door to that hallway (which only has the w/d and a door to outside), so we don't need the closet doors for noise mitigation. This space is not a priority, so we won't be making big changes. We need to update our bathroom and kitchen. My husband can DIY anything we do to the laundry area.
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pcjs
16 years ago
We just moved our washer/dryer a few feet last weekend. It cost us about $100 for the copper, 3 different set of shut off valves (yes, we are paranoid), and other misc. supplies (we had some plumbing stuff aready or it would have been more), $25 for a new sink (I hated the old concrete one) and $40 for a new laundry faucet.

Like Cathy said... not a big deal if you are DIY or willing to learn - doing copper is scarry at first (well, still is but we make it through it) in less you want to try PEX (we'll do in the future) or the plastic (seems cheap to me) otherwise, simple, good solutions can turn out very costly.

We also moved our oven location and switched from gas to electric - we capped off our own gas and put in the new stove line (got some advice there) - the new electric cord is $$$ but DIY it still is reasonable, but with a plumber and electrician both needed, I'm not sure if I would have done it but it depends on your budget.

My only comment with the unfinished basement - my mom had hers there and she ended up relocating hers to the second story - in the winter it is really cold - her steps were horrible and well, it was nasty to go down there. Our basement is semi-finished but we will completely redo it and we have heat (plus we have 900 square feet, so we can't put it upstairs). Given the choice, I'd keep it upstairs.
divamum
16 years ago
We moved both sink and stove in our remodel. They were in the basement of the original footprint of the house, and we moved them under the crawlspace of a previous owner's extension to the back of the house. It was fairly easy to access, plus the plumbing had been redone in 2004 before we bought, so we had all new plastic piping throughout.

We were given one quote of about $1500 to move both items. The contractor we used didn't break down individual line items, but we did the entire kitchen on $15k (including all materials), so it obviously wasn't too costly to do!

One thing they did which I really appreciate is that they wrapped the new pipes which run under the crawlspace with heat tape to ensure that they won't freeze up in a cold snap - even with just wrapping them with insulation they were fine in the below-freezing temperatures of last month, but we agreed it was probably worth taking extra precautions, especially since heat tape is cheap, easy to install, and waaaayyyy less trouble than dealing with a flood....

If huge structural issues aren't involved I think it's well worth the fairly reasonable expense of moving these items if it will significantly improve your layout.

Just my 2c.
jsicuran
16 years ago
I am doing something similar and was considering if it was worth doing. I have a finished(tiled/nicely painted) room that is next to a bathroom. All of the plumbing comes from the bathroom. I am re-stacking my house for a marriage and new little ones coming. Years ago I moved the washer and dryer into this nice room and made it a big empty laundry room. I would now like to turn it into a bedroom and move the washer and dryer across the house to the garage. My issue is I have the hot and cold plumbing extending out of the wall above the washer in the current room. I also have the drain pipe(plastic pvc) extending up the wall from the floor. I have no basement this is a Levitt ranch house. I was wondering if I can run the hot/cold plumbing up through the ceiling, then over the bathroom, over the kitchen then into the garage. The drain line is still in the nice room(in a corner) and maybe I can run a line from the garage too. Would I need special pumps to ensure that the drain water gets from the garage washing machine, over the ceilings and back down into the nice room? Would I need a pump for the hot and cold as well or will there be enough pressure for these extended paths? We are looking at almost 100-200 feet from water and drain sources.

Is this doable vs. ripping up floors through the house to get plumbing into the garage or would it be better to just scrap the whole idea.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.
makenicer
6 years ago
Hi , I am interested in placing a new washer and dryer in the same spot that yours was in when you posted this. Mom has a Levitt ranch and has no existing plumbing for the washer and dryer. I want to place a washer and dryer in the small front bedroom, along the adjoining bathroom wall. We are not redoing the bathroom. So I was wondering the best way to this. Where exactly would the water pipes run if I am trying to avoid disturbing the existing bathroom tub, flooring, etc.? Would love to hear how you did this if you recall?

Did you relocate your washer/dryer or sink?

Comments (6)

lascatx

macybaby

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