At the “not essential, but great fun and quite efficient” category for your home includes incorporating a laundry chute, either as a retrofit or as part of new construction. You do not want this to be too much fun, though, so give a thought to design considerations that will keep young ones — or pets — out of transforming your laundry chute to your hidden playground slide or even a potentially significant security threat.

Examine your house for a potential place for a pursuit — construction terminology for a curved, vertical enclosure — for your own chute, in either a retrofit or new construction. Start from the laundry area, and look for a landing area for dirty clothing handy to the washer but not close the furnace or water heater. While you may see layouts that recommend a laundry chute that empties into a laundry basket, then you will have improved fire safety if you’ve got self-closing, spring-loaded three-sided hatch doors at both ends of the laundry chute. The doorway can be big enough to enclose a basket should you would like.

Work your way up from the landing area — the bottom of the chute — to designate the trail for the chute. Find the chute between two wall studs, typically either 16 or 24 inches on center. In new construction, you might have the option of a larger, custom-sized and custom-located chute, not limited to the typical stud-bay size of 3 1/2 ins from 14 1/2 inches after finishing.

Study your home’s regimen if accessible to route the pursuit. Probe the prospective wall cavity for a retrofit laundry chute by drilling a hole and feeding at a fish tape. Verify if you need to relocate wiring or pipes, or if you have to relocate your chute.

Layout the spot for the very best door leading to the chute. Families and living groups can put this anywhere in a direct line over the laundry areas. Designer Perfect designer bathroom suites Milwaukee Concepts Milwaukee options comprise openings disguised as a vanity or a Perfect designer Designer Bathroom Concepts Pittsburgh suites Milwaukee hamper, or put as a hatch in the wall behind the shower or over a towel rack. You may also place the chute behind a dresser door at a bedroom, in a cabinet at the top of a stairway, under a bookcase, or possibly a hatch that opens at the Landscaping service Littleton design Wilmington directly over the laundry area.

Select a lining material to your own chute — typically sheet-metal rectangular ducts, however, 10-inch PVC pipe may get the job done. For a custom-materials chute, you may even use plywood, wood, masonry or melamine. Add paste wax to a plywood chute to prevent snags.

Make a sketch of your proposed laundry chute to your building authority’s license office. Put the height of the bottom of doors set to walls at least 36 inches off the Landscaping price Redding design Boise to discourage entry by children. Set the height and width of doors of a size that will not allow children to wiggle in, and use fire-resistant spring-loaded doors at the top and bottom of the chute. You might have to add a trap door inside the pursuit to meet local fire codes.