In this post: Whether you’re trying to decide whether or not to have a second floor laundry room and want to know the pros and cons of it or are looking for tips on preventing flooding in the second floor laundry room you already have, this post’s for you!
As with open shelving in the kitchen, second floor laundry rooms seem to divide people squarely into one of two camps – those who love it and those who are adamantly against it. When we added on to our house a few years ago, I had several people advise me to rethink my plan to move the laundry room upstairs but in the end I decided to go ahead with it. I’m so glad I did – I love it! It’s been about four years since we made the move to an upstairs laundry room so I thought I’d share my experience, including the pros and cons and some important tips for preventing everyone’s biggest fear about a second floor laundry room – flooding! Hopefully this post will be helpful to those of you considering an upstairs laundry room as part of new construction or a home remodel. (post includes affiliate links – see my full disclosure statement {here})
Why to Move Your Laundry Room Upstairs – The Pros
- No more lugging laundry up and down the stairs! The dirty clothing, sheets, and towels that make up 95% of our laundry are generated on the second floor so having the laundry room upstairs eliminates the lugging of laundry baskets up and down the stairs.
- You can eliminate the use of hampers in bedrooms/bedroom closets. Older houses such as ours have small closets, making closet space a precious commodity. Since our laundry room is in the middle of the second floor, I keep two large hampers in the laundry room and we put our dirty clothes directly in these hampers rather than keeping hampers in our rooms. In addition to freeing up space in the bedroom closets, it eliminates the time it takes to collect the laundry from various rooms before starting the wash.
- For both of the above reasons, doing the laundry takes less time (could there be a bigger pro?!).
Why Not to Move Your Laundry Room Upstairs – The Cons
- Running the dryer during the summer can make it hotter upstairs. However, if I’m vigilant about keeping the door from the laundry room to the hall shut, it’s not an issue.
- Noise from the washer and dryer can be a problem for sleeping kids. I am blessed with having girls who are great sleepers so it’s never been an issue in our house, but if you have light sleepers and like to do laundry at nap time and nighttime, it’s something to think about.
- A washing machine that overflows or washer hose that bursts can cause much more damage to the house when the washer is on the second floor. Fortunately, if you follow a few simple tips (see below) it will significantly minimize the likelihood that this will be an issue.
- If you have a front loading washing machine, it can cause significant vibration during the spin cycle and potentially result in the machine “walking”. Most manufacturers don’t recommend front loaders for second floor laundry rooms unless the flooring has been reinforced. That being said, there are many people who have second floor front loaders who have had no problems with them. I can’t personally comment on this issue since I have an older top loading washer.
How to Reduce the Chance of Flooding in an Upstairs Laundry Room
- Have a water shut-off valve that is easily accessible. When my washer isn’t in use, I turn off the water supply to the washer to eliminate the possibility of a flood due to a burst hose. Another option is to install an electronic valve shutoff kit such as Floodstop (available {here}) that has a water sensor that you place under the washing machine – when water is sensed due to a leak or flooding it automatically shuts off the water supply.
- Use steel braided washer hoses rather than standard washer hoses, as the steel hoses are less likely to burst. Upgrading to steel braided hoses is actually a good idea no matter where your washer is located (a flood on the first floor or basement is no fun either!).
- Place your washing machine in a drain pan. If your washing machine were to overflow, instead of water flooding the second floor, it would go down the sides of the machine into the drain pan, which is attached to a pipe that drains the water away.
- Try using anti-vibration pads such as {these} underneath front loaders in order to reduce the amount of vibration. They get great reviews!
- Consider adding a leak detector to your space for worst case scenarios – the newer ones such as {this leak alert device} have the ability to send you an email alert so you are alerted even if you’re not home to hear it! I actually have one of these by our water heater and luckily we haven’t needed it but I’ve tested it and it works great!
Having had homes with laundry rooms on different levels (including the basement – hated that!!), a second floor laundry room is definitely my preferred spot. That being said, if I had a top loading washer or kids who couldn’t sleep through the sounds of the washer and dryer running, my opinion might be different. I’d love to hear your experiences – if you’ve had both first and second floor laundry, which do you prefer?
Great tips! I am about 90% sure I am going to move my laundry room upstairs but don’t know many people with it. Flooding and waking up (future) kids were 2 things some friends warned us about. Great to hear your perspective and that you had a good experience. Thanks for sharing.
I think you’ll really like it Amanda! My theory about why my kids are such good sleepers is that I never tried to make it 100% quiet around them during naptime so they learned to sleep through anything. So not that you asked for parenting advice… but when those future kids come your way, get them used to the laundry noise from day 1 and I bet you’ll be good to go!
My laundry room is upstairs and I thought I’d hate that, but turns out just like you said… close to all the rooms and much more what I prefer. We have a drain pan too. I did have a front load washer until a few months ago. For several reasons, I changed back to a top load, but the vibration was a big reason! Great post!
It’s funny that you say that Ellora because it seems like a lot of people who get front loaders are unhappy with them for various reasons. I’d be interested to hear what your other reasons for switching back to a top loader were!
We just had to make a similar decision but went the other way. Our house has a laundry closet on the second floor landing, but when we moved here we opted to use the basement laundry room primarily because of the noise issue for the adjacent bedrooms. Last fall we had to replace the washer and considered moving upstairs. The deal breaker this time was venting the dryer. The old system just took the vent hose up to the attic and let it stop under a fan which is now long gone. We considered running the vent house to an outside wall but the angles and length of vent necessary were likely to cause problems. Soo back to the basement. And given the much higher noise level of the new washer, that’s a good location.
Sounds like the basement is the best option for you! When we had ours in the basement, we had a laundry shoot from the second floor which was a life saver. Any chance you could add one??
We have a second floor laundry and I am trying to find a way to move it to the first for two reasons:
Sleep is a major issue – although my younger son has had the laundry room outside his door his whole life he still can’t sleep through any part of it. If I put him down while the dryer is finishing he won’t fall asleep until it is done and may wake back up if I try to open it so I can fold.
While most of my laundry comes from upstairs my really dirty laundry comes from the first floor (muddy clothes I don’t let past the garage, kitchen rags). So I have to carry that up right away anyway. Also, I fold downstairs so I can watch tv/chat with my husband so I have to carry all the laundry down, then back up to put away…that counts as exercise, right?
Thats a bummer about the sleep issue – that would be enough to make me want to make a change too!
When I built, I hear all the issues. I put my washer dryer upstairs and for fear of overflow I decided to put a run-off drain. It is simply a drain with the metal cover under the floor to the outside. My washer has overflowed twice. No water damage because of the drain.
We have an upstairs laundry for the kids and a main floor laundry for my husband and I. Our master bedroom is on the main floor. We didn’t plan on having two laundry rooms but there was an underutilized space upstairs that was perfect for a second laundry room. I love having the upstairs laundry. My teenage daughter does her own laundry without us even asking. Our front load washer is in a pan as advised and has built in vibration reduction technology. We don’t even notice it running most of the time. Love it, love it, love it.
Thanks for sharing your experience Sandra – how awesome to have two laundry room (and a teenager who does laundry without being asked!). I’ve read about the newer front loaders with the vibration reduction technology and it’s great to know that it’s worked for you – would love to have a front loader in our second floor laundry room when the top loader dies.
We are remodeling (kids are gone) and we are doing a master suite upstairs with a laundry room. That is where most of the towels, sheets, clothes will be.
We are also putting a washer and dryer in the basement for when the Grands are here for the parents to use.
Thanks for your input…I was most worried about the vibration but we bought a new top loader so it shouldn’t be an issue for us either.
This was sime great information, nothing like first hand knowledge. We are hoping to put the laundry room on the 2nd floor of our remodel and have been wary of vibration. Found this product and wondered if anyone had used it ?
https://seiconlimited.com/shop/
Thanks
Marty
Putting a laundry room on the first floor, I believe, was the idea of a builder who never had to do laundry. Why go through the trouble of reinforcing the 2nd floor and lugging a washer and dryer upstairs one time when the person doing laundry can just lug heavy laundry up and down stairs forever? I own a two story home which came with a washer & dryer in the garage. If you park your cars in there, you can’t do laundry. If you herniate a disc, like I did, you can’t carry heavy loads. I solved my problem by adding a stackable upstairs where the builder had placed an extra sink outside of the master bathroom. Do I want to brush my teeth while my husband is in the bathroom or would I rather not have to carry laundry up and down stairs? The answer to that was easy. Now I have the best of both worlds. Muddy clothes, rags & dog bed? Downstairs!! Everything else gets done upstairs! I feel like a genius! A happy genius!
Sounds like the perfect solution!!!
My upstairs neighbors has a washer and dryer in an apartment building that is not supposed to have washer and dryers in. I live first floor and I’m getting the vibration off of it it is making me sick I can’t sleep because my bed is constantly vibrating how do I stop the vibration please help this has been going on for a year!!!!
This is an old article I realize, but this is also the Internet and I must add my two cents… Personally the risk of water damage by having the washer upstairs is too great. The pan yes a must. Steel hoses yes a must. Good homeowners insurance just in case a must. Will it happen probably not, but it could. There is another solution. Washer downstairs dryer upstairs. You take the wet clothes in the laundry basket upstairs and dry them where you are closer to their final home. This is the route I took and I think it is a great compromise that might work for someone else. Nobody says washers and dryers have to live next to each other.
Nothing better than a second floor laundry room,No up and down 2 flights of stairs. It is so convenient. All my laundry was basically upstairs except for a few dish towels and hand towels. I love it. I do most of my laundry at night and my children actually use to like to fall a asleep to the noise of the dryer
I totally agree! We are in a new house now and I miss my second floor laundry room so much!
They missed one of the biggest cons for convenience: it is much easier to carry dirty (but dry) laundry downstairs then it is to carry wet clean laundry downstairs when you go to the clothesline (assuming the clothesline is in the backyard on the ground floor).
Unheard of in houses outside of the USA where people use the washing lines to dry clothes rather than environmentally (and electricity bill) unfriendly driers.
Moving dirty laundry downstairs over moving wet laundry downstairs and outside? no content.
Upstairs is for sleeping (peace and quiet), downstairs is for living and being active.
We currently have washer and dryer downstairs but hang dry most closthes for environmental and cost reasons. We use a drying rack and bar inside the laundry room. We are moving to a house with the laundry room upstairs which I consider a plus. I don’t believe sound or vibrations will be an issue nor do I believe a flood will go outside the pan. To save space, I’m using a stackable front loaded to allow room for hang drying as the laundry room is quite small and really only fits the washer and dryer.
I believe the degradation of our floors upstairs are a direct result of having the front loading on the 2nd floor. I didn’t notice the floor feeling “soft” when we moved in 5 years ago, but today they feel weeker.
We have 1400 sq. ft and 3 kids. Our laundry room (closet) is on 2nd floor and I love it. Kids’ clothes go right into washer as they go in to the bathtub. No hampers in their rooms. My friend’s upstairs washing machine recently exploded somehow and gallons and gallons of water burst out of the laundry room causing 40k of damage. A drain pan would not have contained it for sure. Their home insurance paid for all repairs. I wonder how often this really happens? My opinion is that the convenience of 2nd floor laundry room outweighs the small risk of huge damage that home insurance would pay for anyway.
Oh wow – that would be horrible! I would sure think that the risk for something that catastrophic happening would be low. I loved our second floor laundry room!
Starting to build our house this year, have allowed for two small laundry areas, one at the back door where hubby is likely to drag in muddy boots and overalls. these can be washed downstairs as can floor cloths, dish towels and hand towels from the ground floor.
we are putting a small laundry room upstairs then with a top loading machine (thanks for that advice as would likely have got a front loader, more popular in Ireland). the upstairs floor will be reinforced concrete anyway and both floors will have underfloor heating so intend to air dry clothes on a clothes horse in both laurdry. there is a laundry chute going in connecting one to the other. In good weather we can run the wet clothes from upstairs through the chute and dry outside on line. Lugging back upstairs will be required of course in this event but thats the price you pay for free drying outside! hoping not to need a dryer at all, have one in our current home with no underfloor heating or heat recovery system and still rarely use it other than to soften towel and jeans! little worried about the flooding, but going to get plumber to fit isolation valve.