Got an opportunity to have some work done on _S towers in a couple of months time to create a utility area where the washer and drier will sit. Rather than trudge downstairs with endless piles of washing (for ’tis my role in the household) I have been mooting fitting a hatch upstairs and a chute down to a laundry bin downstairs.

Brief research on tinterweb seems to indicate 300mm pipe and a cost of something like 700 quid – but it seems to be a simple job of creating a hatch and a run of piping which can be had for £cock all.

Any tips/advice? Will it be full of matchbox cars and blocked with mouldy towels before long? Are bends and non-verticalness a problem? What sort of angles work? Should I just take on a housekeeper?

I reckon speaking tubes like on a ship would Improve my life more, no shouting from kitchen to bedroom asking kids to come for their dinner etc.

Leave it in the floor

Wife collects up, washes, irons and puts in cupboard/drawers

….well that’s what our kids think!

Speaking tubes? Are you sure – health and safety nightmare if you ask me…

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj9wBl2V6xY[/video]

or be more european and put the washing machine upstairs in the bathroom

Stayed with some friends in the USA, they have a small laundry room upstairs. Everything is washed and dried next door to the room you put on and take off clothes – and we put our laundry machines in the kitchen??? When you start thinking about it the way we do it just doesn’t make any sense at all. Mine are worse as my washer and dryer are in the cellar, 2 flights of stairs down from the bedrooms!!!!

You pick washing, up, off the floor!!?? I thought the washing fairies did that.

I dunno. Having a washing machine spinning away upstairs seems like it would get old very quickly.

I thought in the US tumble drying is “how it’s done” – therefore it’s logical to put the washer and dryer near the bedrooms so stuff goes in there and transfers straight back out.

6% of US domestic energy usage is for clothes drying!

The layout I have in mind is not entirely logical, but it’s no less logical than trudging up and down stairs with a basket of whiffy clothes.

The upstairs option is a definite winner.

But for a chute the key thing would be ensuring:
– no one can get stuck in it
– something to make sure that heavy objects didn’t damage something at the bottom
– follow fire regulations

The upstairs option is a definite winner

are you mad?

Forget all this upstairs nonsense ,who wouldn’t want an escape chute to the fast getaway car in the basement. 🙂

My mother used to throw my dad’s stinky socks out of the bedroom window 😯 We often found them in the flowerbed.

Have you considered this option?

The upstairs option is a definite winner

That sounds incredibly annoying when you have to do a wash overnight after a long evening ride.

Forget all this upstairs nonsense ,who wouldn’t want an escape chute to the fast getaway car in the basement.

nah, human sized chute direct into your bike room so you can make for a quick exit. Wallace and gromit style.

That sounds incredibly annoying when you have to do a wash overnight after a long evening ride.

Only if you’ve paper-thin walls, vibrating floors and a noisy washing machine.

Window, builders chute, open wheelie bin, washing machine in shed, done.

Only if you’ve paper-thin walls, vibrating floors and a noisy washing machine.

So anyone living in anything built post 1980 then?

Getting rid of annoying animals.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JMv-E9vt48[/video]

Friends had one put in, they seen to like it. You might want to make sure it has a cover if you have cats 🙂
.. Or you fit spikes at bottom if you have cats you don’t like..

follow fire regulations

Ooooh, not thought of that. It becomes quite clear why the companies who fit these things use metal rather than plastic pipes!

We put one into in a house we rebuilt, Best. Thing. Ever. It’s bizarre but everywhere we live we lament the lost laundry chute !

follow fire regulations

But if it doubles as a fire escape its win win

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5G-Mmst59U[/video]

That fire chute is genious…going to fast – stick arms/legs out and you stop!

Regarding the laundry chute, apart from the material, you are creating a chimney from a room with a not wholly reliable tumble drier back up to your sleeping area, this would greatly intensify a fire.

So presumably there will be regs regarding decent fire retardant hatches, and possible between each floor as well.

Yes, the upper hatch has to be 30min fire retardant. I was thinking of the bin at the bottom being inside a kitchen cabinet so it would provide an element of protection.

We’ve never used a tumbler overnight and I can’t see why we would, but sod’s law applies so smoke alarms top and bottom would seem to be the order of the day.

Stayed with some friends in the USA, they have a small laundry room upstairs. Everything is washed and dried next door to the room you put on and take off clothes – and we put our laundry machines in the kitchen??? When you start thinking about it the way we do it just doesn’t make any sense at all.

I thought “that’s brilliant, why don’t we do that?” then figured, it makes perfect sense if you only ever tumble dry your laundry. If you’re air drying on a washing line you’d then have to lug a basket of wet, heavy laundry downstairs. That’s why we have ours downstairs, I reckon.

^ Do you not just feed yours straight to an incinerator?

Peasant.

I Put my washing machine in cupboard in bedroom for maximum efficiency.