I was very excited to find a second washer/dryer hookup in the new house that we bought this year. It's in the utility room in our walkout basement. I mean, who couldn't use a second laundry room? More importantly though, that second laundry room is just off the brand new kitchen I installed for my mother-in-law. Since the washer is a front loader and my mother-in-law isn't getting any younger, I thought it might be an interesting adventure to build a pedestal to raise the machines up so that she doesn't have to reach down so low.
Like so many things in our "finished" basement, the laundry hookup was done incorrectly. For some reason, there's a low concrete wall in the utility room that was in the way of the drain line. The person who put it together neglected to put a P-trap in. We decided it must have been because the concrete wall was blocking the drain line from being installed with enough pitch for the water to drain. They also had the washer hookup on the right and the dryer on the left. That's how the upstairs laundry room is set up but I prefer the washer on the left and the dryer on the right, especially with front loader machines. Most front loader washer doors open to the left. If the dryer is on the left, you would have to pull the clothes out of the washer then around both doors to get them into the dryer. Too many things get dropped between the machines that way! Would you like to know how I know? These machines were in my laundry room upstairs and it kept happening. I knew I wanted to give my mother-in-law a laundry room anyway so we brought these down and I bought a dryer with a door that opens to the left and a washer with a door that's interchangeable for the upstairs laundry room. In the basement, I had our plumber move the washer hookup to the left and install a P-trap. To get around the concrete wall obstacle, he just cut a hole in the wall to get the right pitch for the drain line. I also had him install a gas line since we have a gas dryer. My mother-in-law has been using the setup for months now with no issues. I was excited to get them up off the floor so that she didn't have to reach down so far.
I don't usually draw anything or make much of a plan before I start something. I prefer to just wing it. This time, I decided to draw and plan and buy only exactly the supplies I needed.
By measurements alone, there should have been enough room to build a skinny shelf that would go between the machines but an outlet, the gas line and the dryer vent stack ended up getting in the way so the shelf idea had to be scrapped. I started by building the bottom platform and then the top platform.
I decided to use leftover 4x4 pieces that I had in my garage for the corners and then 2x4s in the middle to connect the bottom and top platform pieces together.
Not surprisingly, it did not fit into the space on the first attempt. I had to pull it apart a bit and cut some of it down before rebuilding it. It didn't take long before I was able to get it into place. In this picture, you can see the new P-trap (that's the dip in the black pipe on the left) and the hole cut into the concrete that allows the drain to be installed at enough of a pitch for the water to drain properly.
Next, I attached a 3/4" MDF board to the top.
It took me a while to get the dryer hooked back up because I had to cut the vent pipe and add flex pipe. Thankfully, no adjustments needed to be made for the gas line.
Here's the part I was dreading. Have you ever lifted, or even tried to move, a washing machine? They're crazy heavy. I can "walk" it across the floor fairly easily but I have never lifted one. Thankfully, we were able to get it up onto the platform without issues (other than the fact that it was tough). Also, thankfully, hooking it back up again takes very little effort.
I ran both machines just to make sure there were no issues. The platform is level but I still had to adjust the washer so that it wasn't wobbling. I also added a piece of trim along the front so that the machines will stay up there if there were ever a time one or both decided to "walk" around. Lastly, I added a floor to the bottom platform so that the new laundry baskets could slide in and out easily.
It's very utilitarian but I still like the way it turned out. Time to think about the next project. Now where's my T-square?
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