Basement laundry room help for first home buyer

3 years ago

Hey everyone,

Long time listener, first time caller here. My fiance and I purchased our 1st home back in February before we all had to hunker down for the pandemic, which allowed for a lot of DIY time. Since then I've focused most of my time and effort to giving the backyard a complete redo. Now that winter is here, I have turned to updating our mostly-finished basement. The laundry washer/dryer is located in one of the not-so-finished section (see picture attached). Although I am grateful that we have both, every time I do the laundry I frown at the washer/dryer set up. I am hoping to take on the DYI project of finishing the unfinished section of the basement, and would like to find a new home for the washer/dryer, preferably in the closet located next to the room where they are currently located (2nd picture). I have 2 questions for you guys: 1) Can the washer be placed lower than it currently is (I've read that the max height distance between the bottom of the washer to where the drain hose empties is 8 feet), and 2) any suggestions as to how to improve this overall eye sore. The current drain hose is draining into the PVC pipe in the center of the 1st picture. I'm planning on putting a workshop somewhere in the area, so I would like to keep one side of the peg wall if possible. Thanks in advance for any advice!

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Comments (8)

wdccruise
3 years ago
last modified: 3 years ago
Q1: See page 13 of the installation instructions. Also, there may be LG pedestals available for your washer (and dryer) if you need to raise them.

Q2: It's not possible to understand the arrangement of the room from these photos.
latifolia
3 years ago
You may need a plumber to inspect your drainage system. I know nothing, except that preventing backflow is important and that most appliances don't pump up very well, at least without help.

Do you currently have to vault your dryer to get to your water heater? That doesn't seem ideal.

I'm not a fan of basement living space, but it's great for a workshop and good for a laundry if you don't have space upstairs. If you only have the closet, okay. Might there be a more pleasant spot, given how much time laundry involves every week.
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I personally like the separated dining area, which could be anything you want, and don’t Mind the basement laundry as I’ve never had anything else, plus it’s nice to have the rough work space, as someone said, cleaning boots, cleaning pets, soaking a wash, scouring our plant pots etc. Plus if the washing machine leaks it doesn’t Leak into an overhead area. I’m not a fan of having the dining crammed into a sitting area, but on the other hand, a longer living area may be more flexible if let’s say, you have oversized things. I really don’t like kitchens with no natural light as I use a kitchen all throughout the day and people end up in one a lot I find, but the galley style may be cramped, hard to tell.
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decoenthusiaste Thank you for all your good advice and your time! Of course the baby is starting to crawl, so we’d like to have good space for him to move on 😊 but we also see the value in waiting and dreaming in the meantime. We also started ideabooks and figured that we’ll be able to do some things while we plan for others. That’s why we really appreciate the advice of the experienced Houzz-ers. Now about plans some of which we are ready to implement right away and some for the future: 1. Structural change #1 we need will be actually returning the hallway from Master Bedroom back to where it used to be. This will resolve the issue of obnoxious draft in the Laundry Room from the heater above. That in its turn will leave us with a tiny LR or we might even move LR elsewhere (garage is an option.) 2. Now about the access to as well as the size of master WIC. You noticed it right away! That's exactly a HUGE minus in the layout and the reason we are thinking about actually moving it into another space and dedicating this current space to the Bathroom #3 adjacent to the Baby's Room (bedroom #2) and the LR. That will resolve another issue of not enough Bathrooms. They can be connected. Yes, we know, there are pros and cons to having bedroom/ laundry room together, but in our case it might work. The sewer and water are already there! Or we can make it possibly separate- with a door from that Bedroom #2 right into the newly formed bathroom, but not sure about this because of different reasons. That's structural change #2. 3. Structural change #3 We also see an option of moving WIC into the part of the current Dining Area (the door from the Master Bedroom is already there) while dedicating another part of current Dining Area for the Pantry Room that is VERY needed. Below you can see hand made changes to the plan :). This will resolve four issues: we get a Pantry (1), which will resolve the small sized Kitchen issue (2) and a bigger WIC (3) which will also mean that we don't have to go through the Master Bathroom (Hooray!) every time you need to change. What do you think? That leaves us with two options of having either front room for entertainment/ dining or having the family/ dining room multi-purpose space. Both are good options with garden views and a lot of available daylight, but there'd be a better natural flow from the Kitchen into the Family/ Dining multi-functional area adjacent to it which is also close to the patio/ garden entertainment/ BBQ area. With big windows these areas are very much interconnected and kind form a General Dining Indoor/ Outdoor Zone, including the Kitchen, Family/ Dining Room, BBQ area, and Patio with Garden. Any ideas? There is still an issue with the entrance/ foyer area which right now is not organized at all. Should it be screened or zoned otherwise?
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mrb6228
3 years ago
Possibly the ideal solution would be to extend the cement platform the washer sits on and install the dryer to the right of the washing machine.
Seabornman
3 years ago
Yes, you can move and lower washer. Hard to tell from pics, but are you thinking of extending the 3" pipe to be location?
Bruce in Northern Virginia
3 years ago
It looks like that long horizontal pipe that goes back toward the water heater is the main drain line for the house? Or is there also a drain in the floor somewhere?

Assuming that is your only sewer drain, the water from the washer has to be pumped up higher than that line so that you get it to drain through the P-trap. You have a really short vertical drain standpipe right now on the P-trap, but it works because its a 3" pipe and it is able to clear the water quickly. If you had a standard 2" drain standpipe and it was that short it might fill up and overflow before it drains.

If you want to move things around and also put the washer at floor level you may need a special setup to get enough lift for the water. However, remember that many folks spend big money to buy special stands that elevate front loading systems - you have a cheap one already made for you.

The lift systems I am talking about are used for basements where the main drain pipe exits part way up the basement wall. They use a large basin to drain the water into, and then a sewage ejector pump to move the water up and into the horizontal drain pipe. Some of these systems can even handle the effluent from a toilet.

Bruce
wdccruise
3 years ago
@Bruce in Northern Virginia: "If you want to move things around and also put the washer at floor level you may need a special setup to get enough lift for the water."

As explained in the installation instructions, she can place the bottom of the washer up to 8' below the drainpipe and 5 feet away from it.
Bruce in Northern Virginia
3 years ago
My point is that Samsung and others sell a washer pedestal that increases the height of the washer by about 12", and its a common purchase. With that increase, and the 8 foot allowance, there may not be an issue with relocating the washer. However, and increase in the height of the horizontal drain pipe then reduces the length of the standpipe, and that means the OP may have to continue using a larger diameter standpipe to take the sudden rush of water.

In older homes, before the code upgrade to a 2" washer drain, it was common to drain the washer into a utility sink that only had a 1.5" drain. The sink acted as a buffer for the water so that it would not overflow when the washer drained.

Bruce
Nancy R Chicagoland 5
3 years ago
It would be better to live in the house for a while before making any changes. After a few years, you discover why certain things were the way they were. There was usually a reason. I think talking to a plumber would be a good idea.

Basement laundry room help for first home buyer

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wdccruise

latifolia

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