Yes, plywood would work. You could also use the same cabinet material as your kitchen to maintain consistency.

Get a nice 3/4" plywood (birch or some kind of sanded finish-ready plywood).

Paint with chalkboard paint a beautiful black. Allow to dry well. Coat with a water based polyurethane in a satin or semigloss finish.

Voila...let your contractor install it if you don't want to, you paint... diy, under 100 dollars I would say, and many years of happy use.

If you use plywood I suggest using MDO which has a nice smooth surface for painting and it's made with water proof glue. A paint like Benjamin Moore's Advance should be durable and will stand up to wear and tear.

Well you can use MDF (which is not nearly as structurally sound as 3/4" plywood), but if you use 3/4" touch sanded plywood, you won't have splinters (imagine a dining table... perfectly acceptable to fold clothes on).

You can add a pretty molding edge for a special touch and to make it more rigid. And of course, you don't have to use black chalkboard paint... I just love that it goes on so beautifully blue-black and thick. The water based poly is the real thing you need, and can put it over stained or bare wood or different paint color you choose :)

i guess what i'm thinking is... would i want to chase down every detergent drip and damp spot? ok, with work, you can get a smooth finish. but would you leave a detergent jug or a damp towel on your dining room table? you need to assess if your less expensive choice will require more vigilance than its worth to keep moisture from seeping in. hardwood floors have lots of coats of stuff, but you cant leave wet boots or damp towels sitting on them.

Water based polyurethane is excellent stuff. Used it on a dining table, actually, as well as on a laundry room counter top (that had a sink in it!!!). If you do get a stain, you can very lightly sand and recoat seamlessly. "With work"--- I think maybe you don't understand that there is furniture grade 3/4" plywood that was regularly used for kitchen cabinets 30-40 years ago, and is still used for fine cabinet making, bookshelves, etc. It needs virtually no sanding to finish it.

I am not hypervigilant and did not have staining problems. There is no chance of moisture seeping in if it's completely coated. Yes this is a bad idea on hardwoods, but hardwoods have lots of seams (whether engineered or site finished) whereas a sheet of plywood does not.

If your goal is a counter to fold clothes on, I am quite certain my suggestion will work. If the goal is to put lots of chemicals on it and leave puddles of water, etc, is there a possibility of staining, sure!

This concern reminds me of the concern about butcher block counters... but won't they get scratched when you cut on them? No, because like with any countertop you use a cutting board. Nobody cuts directly on their formica/quartz/marble/corian, etc, because it destroys it.

I don't leave messes on my countertop-- I doubt the poster would leave a mess on her quartz either. Only the poster can make the cost-benefit analysis-- I'm just throwing out an idea that worked very well for me :)

This is just my economical thought for the day, your mileage may vary :)

I have front loaders and NO counter top. You just use the tops of them to fold on. Really cheap way to do it!

I guess the problem with building them in, is how do you get them out for problems, leaks, clean the dryer vent, etc.???

I used a plain laminate countertop in our laundry room. Very smooth, no worries about drips and because of the small size, I could go whimsical.

We had floating shelves, what a disaster!! Always dirty, dusty and everything is in sight. So when we remodeled our kitchen, we put some of our old kitchen cabinets in the laundry room. So much nicer having everything behind closed doors!!

The pictures that you have shown are beautiful, but not very realistic, IMHO. Where do you put all of your cleaning supplies? Mine are in the laundry room.

When I put them in my basement; I just got a couple inexpensive RTA cabinets and a formica slab from Home Depot and was done in a day.

Formica.

Just fold on the machine tops. Why do you feel you need a counter-top to fold clothes? Totally unnecessary expense.

Of course budget has to win out but I did put cheap cabinets in the laundry that won't match the kitchen. Expensive cabinets in the laundry wasn't in the budget for me. I think open shelving will look pretty, you might have to dust more frequently.

You know, I have cabinets in my laundry room (they were there when I bought the house). I can barely reach stuff on the bottom shelf as I am vertically challenged.

I added a single pine board shelf (1x10) above the washer / dryer (mine are top load so no big folding shelf there!)

I have my soap, my softener, my dryer sheets, my spray and wash, a book on getting out stains :) color catchers.

Everything I need at hand. I don't have a lot of dust in my laundry??? I clean the lint filter after every dry cycle.

Anyways, not a lot of dust buildup on this shelf, and it made my laundry room about 50% more useful for about 10 bucks :)

just find an old remnant of granite or quartz. i'm sure your fabricator has something at his shop? a smaller piece they have no use for? should cost that much to cut it to fit for a top. granite, marble piece? look on craigslist for remnants. he should be able to cut for a 100 or so.

another option for the countertop is a piece of melamine from home depot or lowes. cut it to fit, veneer the edges.

you could also use pre-made melamine shelving for the pantry piece. I used that in mine. a tall tower, open melamine shelves, baskets. works great.

A removable top resting on top of.

That will be easier to access if need maintenence

I would like the nice smooth top on top of them, and would find a nice formica or wilsonart countertop that will look good with your kitchen, since you say they adjoin. Plywood can look really nice, but, seems there is always a snag somewhere. Formica is very durable and works very well for a folding area. I have a separate folding table that my husband built for just that (of course, occasionally, it becomes a landing place for everything I need to put away too). It is covered with formica that was a piece we had here on hand.

Be careful of cupboards over front loaders....make them low enough to reach everything....mine are too tall...need step stool to reach cleaning products. I do fold clothes on machine top....mine are on pedestals.

I would say I have to agree with your contractor. If you are already putting countertops in your home, it's not considerably more to do another room. There may be left over material from the kitchen, or the fabricator may have a remnant that would work. If you're going to go through the production of building a top for your washer and dryer - plywood will look pretty cheap, and will not have a nice smooth surface. In general wood is not a good option as it will scratch and is also susceptible to water damage. More and more my clients are asking me to do this - enclose their washers and dryers and put a quartz countertop above. I'm thinking that this will soon be the new norm. So my advice is that if your budget can stretch it - go for the quartz top - it might help your home value too. Otherwise, just leave "as is" - as many have already mentioned - you CAN fold on top of the existing appliances. - Just my humble opinion.

I think laminate (e.g., Formica) is the way to go. Smooth, long lasting surface, that's resistant to water and chemicals, and budget friendly. If you happen to live in an area that has a Menards they used to have very reasonable prices on custom countertops. Basically bring in your dimensions and they'll help you design the rest.

I believe someone else suggested this but make sure you're thinking about being able to service your machines without ripping things apart.

IKEA desk tops may work well. There is a Linnmon desk top that is 59 X 29.5. This was one of the advice I found on Houzz.

I don't see the problem. I fold clothes right on top of the washer and dryer.

Besides, having something permanent over them makes servicing more work (you'd have to pull them out from under it).

But if I were going to do something, it would be good old Formica.

Now that I think about it, I might hinge the counter so that it lifts easily, for working on the appliances under it without having to move them.