We bought a house with a second floor laundry. There is no drain in the laundry room for washing machine leaks/explosions/etc. It is new construction, so I am not worried about prior water damage.
The laundry room is above the garage and next to an exterior wall, so putting drain in would be relatively easy, I would think. Has anyone done that before? Any guesses on cost? Any other solutions?
There is a sink in the laundry room, so some sort of drain pan under the washing machine linked to the sink with an automatic pump might work – though such a pump may not exist.
I am just trying to figure out the best way to prevent water damage before we move in.
be careful what type of washer you put in. I believe most front-loaders are not recommended depending on your house construction. It can cause structural damage in some cases…..
If you don’t want to mess with the plumbing or it’s hard to access, build a slightly raised drain pan for the washing machine. Then just run a PVC pipe from the drain pan through the wall on a slight downslope to end 4-6″ out from the house. Or don’t raise the drain pan and run the drain down through the garage to the ground.
This is an emergency drain, not one that will be used on a normal basis, so flooding your yard or promoting mould is a non-issue.
If you’re concerned about un-conditioned air getting in, put some sort of rubber flap on the end of the pipe that won’t open unless water needs to come out.
If you wanted to go 100% ghetto, you could just open a hole in the floor, cover it with a grate, and have any leakage leak into the garage. Most garages are built on a slope to allow any water on cars to drain out via gravity.
Because you also have the normal washer drain on the line, you should be able to tee (don’t use the straight cornered tee, use the curved corner tee) into it for the floor drain. It would mean pulling up the floor linoleum or tile.. alternately going up through the garage ceiling and cutting into drywall from underneath and using a ceramic hole bit for the floor. I would put a pan and drain into that because you can’t guarantee the slope of the floor. The floor will also not have any ‘borders’ to contain the spill and direct it to the drain. The normal drain should already have a vent associated with it. The other question would be where the trap is located.
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