That's a pretty big family home and personally from a standpoint of a mom with 4 kids (now grown and gone) a large laundry room has up until this point been mandatory for me. Now with the kids gone, I could do with a smaller laundry room, but if you're selling that home to a family the space in the laundry room is invaluable. Not only that, but I certainly wouldn't want a laundry room visible from either the entryway or the living room. But that's just me. I'm also not fond of stackables, not sure how they'd be received by buyers.

I love my stackable washer and dryer. My 4/4 house was built in 2000 with a laundry room spaced for a stack. I like the layout. My house is over 3000sq ft so I guess it could be a house for a family with kids. I don't have a folding area, but I never considered that I wanted one. Space is limited in my house because it is three story, the staircase takes up a lot of space.
I will say it is a high priced custom home,, I know in my area it would not be a hindrance.

I have nothing against stackables. The closer the units are to the master bedroom the happier I am. I have often expressed that I want my units in the Master Bath, or master walk in closet, but my fiance is really turned off by the idea. He has no imagination.

Your setup sounds okay. I very much dislike units "IN" the bathroom. Too noisy when I want a relaxing bath and I find they really heat up the space too much. I don't need to be there doing my makeup to go out and have to deal with the humidity from the dryer. Also..I want the laundry in a location where it is easy for OTHER members of the household to do their laundry when they're old enough. Don't need a teenager strolling through my master bathroom to do their laundry.

Looking at any laundry room the first thing I'd check is for good ventilation, not something jury rigged or with too long a vent to the outside. Long vent tubes or ones with a lot of bends are not good.
The stacking - if I felt comfortable that the owners had reinforced the floor and set up the stacking in a really secure well done fashion - then I would be ok with it.
If the view can be closed off for company, then being able to see the laundry with the door open wouldn't bother me too much. The entry into the area not being tight would be sort of a big deal to me. I.e. if you toss clothes in there, is that going to impede opening the door later? (does that question mark me as a slob? :)

I wouldn't like the stacking part. I like frontloaders for the reason that you can put them up higher and have a nice working height and not have to bend down to do it. Stacking them removes that.

However in a smaller home I would be fine with stacked because it would remove from valuable sq ft. However 3000 sq ft I'd expect side by side. I don't need a folding space in the laundry though as I don't do my folding there. I like doing it in front of the TV so usually I do it in our bedroom and the bed is great for spreading things out.

I sure like the way stacking them and switching to a built-in fridge would open up a rather samll laundry room.

Are you saying that you have a built in fridge in the laundry room? I think that I would rather have a standard washer and dryer and no fridge in the laundry room.

Honestly, if I were in that sort of situation, I would skip the Whirlpool Duets and go with the fully integrated Asko washer and dryer, which can be stacked if you want. That way, the pair can match whatever other cabinetry you have and the room doesn't yell out "laundry room" to someone passing by :-)

Admittedly, I am somewhat biased because I love my current Asko's, and think the integrated models would be perfect for our re-modeled laundry room ;-)

http://www.asko.se/_images/products/images/supersize/LC06131_13.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful:

I thought the OP was saying she wants to recess her kitchen fridge and steal part of the laundry room to do so, thus only leaving space for stackables in the laundry room. From the response above, doesn't seem as if many would mind that set up even though I'd pass on it.

Would you happen to have any pictures? I think seeing the areas in question might help to get better opinions. If you look at my old laundry area, the way I had it set up was detergents on the left of the washer, then a hanging area to the right of the dryer. It was very efficient as I would throw shirts on the dryer door, then put them right on hangers. I usually kept a basket on top of the dryer, so clothes got folded as soon as they came out.

I just bought a new washer/dryer. I ended up at Sears buying the Whirlpool Cabrio (top loader / glass door) - which I love with a Duet dryer that has the matching silver color. I'm very happy I did not go with a front loader for the washer. When I went to Sears the lady told me they aren't all they are cracked up to be. If something happens, the door is locked and your laundry is stuck inside until you can get someone out. I did put the dryer on the pedestal.

I do like the look of the stacked Duet. I thought they looked really good on the wall at Sears. As was mentioned, in a large house like that, you should have a nice sized laundry room. Is there any way to do something similar to what I had in my old one?

Roselvr, I have had front loaders for over thirty years now (in the UK, and now here), and have never had the door lock on a load of laundry, thank goodness ;-) Other members of my family and I have always found them to be extremely reliable.

roselvr - I'm with akrogirl there. Never had that issue growing up in Sweden and so far so good on mine here that is a couple of years old.

I really like them as they can be put on pedestals and the bending is reduced and it is really easy and quick to just move from washer to the dryer and no up and down kind of motions.

Whoa - akrogirl!! Are those stainless beauties in that photo the stackable w/d? I would take those in a heartbeat.

Having a full-size stacked w/d would not be a dealbreaker for me - I would appreciate the extra room and having the counter-depth fridge. What might turn me off though is being able to see them from the front hall.

I love front loading, no going back to top loading here.
Some people equate stacking to those old mini washers and dryers. Not so anymore, they can be full size.
I thought top loading washers were being fazed out for energy conservation, must not be true?

Jenswren - yep, the stainless beauties are indeed the stackable w/d, with the ironing board module in the middle :-) The other link shows the same units unstacked, with wood doors to match the cabinetry. I like the fact that no-one need know they were even looking at a w/d.

I fell in love with these when I first saw them on Asko's website. Unfortunately, my existing w/d are proving to be too reliable and not giving me any excuse to replace them yet, lol.

I'm a little confused as to your setup but I do have a front loading washer and dryer that are stackable-I just haven't stacked them because I have enough room.

I don't have a problem with stackable washers and dryers-I'm sitting on the floor anyway with the front loading washer because it's so low to the ground.

What I would have a BIG, BIG problem with is a front loading washer in the kitchen or behind a louvered door. Why? Because if you don't leave the door open on a front loading washer between loads it will SMELL.

Our front loader, and all my friends who have front loaders, all have learned to leave them open.

If you have one in the kitchen or in a space where there isn't enough room to leave it open without having to look at it all the time, that would definitely be an issue for me.

The upside is, if you have a buyer that doesn't know this, you can do the remodel and sell the house and they'll never be the wiser. For me it would be a deal breaker, though, it's that important to me...

Well, gee. I didn't get any emails and didn't know I was getting replies.

I'm surprised by the replies that seem to have gotten something out of my post that wasn't there. For example -- I'm not trying to find room to recess a fridge and am not sure where that came from. I'd tried to be concise but clear, and it's really hard to do. Online text has it's limitations. Sorry.

So, to try to clarify -- my kitchen has already been done and couldn't change any walls. The utility room is also fixed as far as the size of the room goes. Two walls are brink on the front and driveway side of our home and there is a front porch in front of it. The other two walls back to the already redone kitchen and the dining room. The dining room wall is load bearing and cannot move. Although it is the interior wall, it holds up the second level on our story and a half.

As I said above, you cannot see the laundry room from teh entry or the living areas. The foyer comes back from the front door to the living room. In front of the living room, it runs into the one hall across the middle of the first floor, running from the master bedroom and powder room on one end to the kitchen and utility on the other -- like a T. The ends of the top of the T are closed behind walls of the various rooms, so you can only see the laundry as wou walk from the master to the kitchen or if you are crossing into the living room and look over to the side. There is currently a full interior door, but that will have to change to a pocket door or split doors like the ones between our kitchen and dining room to allow room for front loaders to open fully -- the room is about 10 feet long, but narrow.

I realize a lot of folks may not want or need a second fridge, but it is expected in this neighborhood, and with 2 teen boys and all 4 of us cooking, we really use it. We spend more time cooking and entertaining than doing laundry, so I think keeping the fridge is important. Making it a built-in would give us six inches of usable, moveable space in the narrow part of the room. It is just changin something that is there already -- it doesn't replace a washer or dryer.

The Askos definitely get the best looking laundry award. Bosch and Meile also make smaller units that could be clased behind counter tops and doors. However, DH says no to going any smaller on the machines, and I have to say the thought of having to haul king and queen bedding, sleeping bags or other large or bulky things to the cleaners (no laundromats here) or doing twice as many loads of beach towels and laundry in general doesn't appeal to me either. And I know who'd be doing the hauling.

I took a basket of towels to the store to see how I felt loading them into the stacked pair. I'm tall enough that pedestals don't really make the washer and dryer high enough for me, and then the tops become too high to really use as a work surface. Stash a laundry basket, maybe -- but no real work space. Stacking makes one better and makes one a bit worse.

The floor beneath them regardless of what we do is a concrete slab -- definitely strong enough for a stacked W&D.

We currently fold from the sofa or the bed, and that may not change. More important that folding though is having a place other than the laundry and or front hall floors to sort laundry. It drives me nuts to be stepping on or over laundry all the time.

The onnly thing I know for sure is that the builder would have madethe kitchen, family room and the utility room a whole lot easier to work with and in if he'd made this side of the house 6 inches to a foot wider.

We got the fridge issue from what you posted:

I sure like the way stacking them and switching to a built-in fridge would open up a rather samll laundry room.

As for your description, I think the problem is that many are having difficulty envisioning your setup. Can you post photos?

Glad you got it, but one person above said they thought I was trying to make room to recess the kitchen fridge and another said they'd not give up the side by side W&D to have a fridge. It's really more a question of having some workspace and sorting space other than the floor.

I can't post photos right now. I know that makes it a lot harder to understand what I'm talking about and picture the impact of the change. I'm not working on my main computer which has the photo software. That computer is temporarily out of commission. I have some drawings of the layout, but they haven't been scanned and have the same computer issue -- for now. I need to work on getting that computer back online.

lascatz, seeing a photo would be the easiest way to give you an opinion. Reading what you've written, it's hard to imagine. My computer is also down. What I ended up doing was buying a hard drive enclosure and throwing my main drive in it so that I could recover it. All you do is plug the drive into it, then put it in a USB plug on the computer

How about doing what my hubby did to the floor in my laundry area? If you look at my photo, you'll see he raised below the washer & dryer about 6 inches. I'm about 5'8" it made working on top of the washer perfect, raised the old dryer up enough so that the dryer wasn't too high to use, like the way it is on the pedestal.

Having front load on both of mine wouldn't have worked in the new house anyway. My laundry room is on the 2nd floor, I have to have a pan under the washer. My option was front load without the pedestal which wouldn't work for me. I'd rather reach in the washer.

Anyway, the one thing I dislike on the Duet is the link screen. I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not due to the materials they used and after using it a few times know I don't like it.

I have a second fridge in my laundry room too- and we use it alot! I also have a good size laundry room too ;)

I'm building my own pedestals for a height that suits me. Then I'm either putting baskets or drawers underneath to use for sorting dirty laundry. Then the dirty stuff is out of the way and hidden. Ie not in piles on the floor and I have cabinets above the W/D to store laundry detergents, spot spray etc. in and the w/d will both be at a good height for me.

I've got the Duet Sport stacked and am happy with them. But I'm short, and would struggle to load and unload the full sized Duets from a stack, since they're several inches taller.