Laundry Room Remodeling

Moving the laundry up from the basement

Plenty of older Massachusetts houses put the washer and dryer in the basement, next to the boiler and the oil tank, at the bottom of a steep stair. That worked when somebody was home all day. It works less well when every load means two flights with a full basket. The ask is simple: put the laundry on the floor where the clothes actually live.

That move is very doable, but it is a plumbing and framing job before it is a finish job. A second-floor laundry needs hot and cold supply, a drain with a proper trap and vent, its own circuit for the washer and usually a 240 volt circuit for an electric dryer, plus a path to the outside for the dryer duct. The usual candidates are a hall linen closet, the end of a wide upstairs hall, a slice of an oversized bedroom closet or a little-used bath. On the walkthrough we look at where the existing plumbing stack runs, because a laundry close to the stack is far simpler than one at the far end of the house.

Sometimes the honest answer is that the basement is the right place and the room just needs to be better. A dry, lit, finished laundry with a sink and a folding counter can make the basement trip tolerable. We will tell you which way your house points before you commit to either.

Water lines, drains and the leak you plan for

Massachusetts requires licensed plumbers for supply and drain work, and that work is permitted and inspected through your town or city. We bring the plumber in at the walkthrough stage rather than after the design is drawn, so the location you like is one that can actually be drained and vented without boxing a pipe through the middle of a bedroom ceiling.

Upstairs, we plan for failure. Washer hoses fail. Pumps fail. A recessed outlet box with quarter-turn shutoffs puts the valves where you can reach them in a hurry, and a water sensor near the machine is a small thing next to a ceiling coming down. If the joists below are open during the work, that is the time to look at whether the floor framing is flat and stiff enough to carry a front loader on spin without the whole floor drumming.

In older houses, opening the wall for a new drain often finds old galvanized supply or cast iron that is near the end of its life. When we find something like that, you hear about it the same day, with photos, and you decide whether to replace it now while the wall is open. Nothing gets added to the scope without your sign-off in writing.

A laundry remodel is usually a smaller job than a kitchen or a bath, but it is a room you notice the minute it is gone.

Dryer venting is a safety item

A dryer pushes hot, lint-heavy air, and a long or crushed duct is a fire risk and a slow dryer at the same time. When a laundry moves upstairs, the vent route is often the hardest part of the layout. We plan it early: rigid metal duct, the shortest run the house allows, as few bends as possible, and an exterior hood with a damper that closes so cold air and birds stay out. The manufacturer's limits on run length decide the route, not convenience.

When the only workable vent path is too long, we talk through the options with you, including a ventless heat pump dryer that needs a drain connection instead of a duct. We do not run a duct into an attic and hope for the best. Lint in an attic is a problem nobody sees until it is a big one.

Makeup air and moisture matter too. A tight laundry closet with a door that never opens will hold humidity. Louvered doors, an exhaust fan on a timer or a door undercut keep the room from sweating, which protects the paint, the trim and the wall cavity behind them.

Floors, pans and walls that tolerate water

The floor is where a laundry either forgives a mistake or does not. Tile on a properly prepared subfloor with a waterproofing membrane underneath is the most forgiving choice we know, and it is where our custom tile work earns its keep. Good luxury vinyl plank can work in some rooms. Hardwood and carpet do not belong under a washer.

Above a finished room, we set the washer in a drain pan piped to a drain wherever the layout allows, and we turn the membrane up the wall a few inches so standing water stays on the tile. Wall finishes near the machines get a scrubbable paint. If there is a utility sink, it gets the same attention a kitchen sink would.

Then the part people use every day: a folding counter at a comfortable height, upper cabinets or open shelving for detergent, a rod for hanging shirts straight from the dryer, and lighting bright enough to see a stain. In a small closet laundry, stacking the machines can open up enough wall for a counter. We draw it to scale with your actual machines so the doors open and the shelves clear.

How the job runs while you still need clean clothes

A laundry remodel is usually a smaller job than a kitchen or a bath, but it is a room you notice the minute it is gone. We plan the sequence so the old setup stays usable as long as possible, and when the machines have to come out, you know the day in advance and roughly how long you will be without them.

Every job starts with a walkthrough and a written scope that says what is being moved, what is being replaced and what stays. You deal with Steve, not a rotating cast of strangers. Changes are priced and approved in writing before the work happens. Inspections are scheduled as the work reaches each stage, typically rough plumbing and rough electrical by the licensed trades before walls close, then a final.

Each day ends with the floors covered, the dust contained and the work area cleaned up. You get a short update on what was done and what is next. That is the standard Steve set for the company after years of working for contractors who left homeowners guessing: better communication, and the job done right.

See the rest of our remodeling work, or browse the gallery for rooms we have finished.