What to Consider Before Installing a Laundry Chute

If you, like many homeowners, prefer a workout that doesn’t involve hauling heaps of laundry up and down flights of stairs, the advantages of installing a laundry chute are likely enticing. Like any other home project, however, laundry chute installation requires thorough planning. 

Review the following laundry chute considerations such as cost, advantages and drawbacks, and design requirements, to decide if this convenient addition is right for your home.  

Advantages of Laundry Chutes

So, what kind of benefits will a laundry chute provide? The primary draw of installing a laundry chute is convenience. Instead of carrying piles of dirty clothes, towels, bedding, etc., you simply place them into a laundry chute, essentially dropping them straight into your laundry room.  

In saving yourself a trip to your laundry room, you also minimize the risk of injury from stairs. Because we’re less likely to be paying close attention while taking care of mundane chores like laundry, a tumble over a misstep on the stairs is unfortunately all too likely. With the presence of a laundry chute in your home, you can maximize both your time and your safety. 

When you invest in a high-quality laundry chute, you can also boost your home’s value. A laundry chute is a viable aspect of any multi-story home, making it just one of the ways to enhance your laundry room while increasing your home’s overall value. 

Drawbacks of Laundry Chutes

With the range of laundry chute perks, it’s difficult to imagine there would be any drawbacks to installing one in your home. If not installed properly, though, a laundry chute can disrupt plumbing and electric wiring, causing more harm than good. If the material used for the chute is rough or jagged, your clothes may get snagged and damaged, too. 

The importance of investing in a quality laundry chute brings us to our next question—how much will a laundry chute cost you?

Laundry Chute Installation: Hiring a Professional vs. DIY

The cost of laundry chute installation varies based on whether you hire a professional or do it yourself. Of course, it’s important to consider the cost of a laundry room addition or any other work you plan to have done for your laundry room when budgeting for a laundry chute, regardless of whether you plan to do it yourself or hire a professional. 

Hiring a Professional to Install Your Chute

The starting price for most laundry chute projects is about $800. The more floors you have in your home, the pricier laundry chute installation is bound to be, as more materials may be necessary to create the chute. You can find a trusted professional general contractor to help you with seamless laundry chute design and installation. 

Installing a Laundry Chute Yourself

If you’re up for a challenge, you can take on the project of making a laundry chute yourself at a more affordable price. The materials will cost you roughly $100 to $200, though it’s likely to take longer to install.

However, if you’re new to DIY-ing home renovations, you may want to stick with a professional. Creating the chase, the tunnel your clothes pass through to get to the laundry room, requires cutting through some infrastructure. Familiarity with navigating ductwork, home framing, pipelines, and wiring is a must when designing and crafting a chute.  

Additional Considerations for Installing a Laundry Chute

In addition to the pros, cons, and whether DIY installation is feasible, there are a few other things you should consider when contemplating getting a laundry chute. 

Location

It may seem obvious, but it’s worth stating that you can’t install your laundry chute just anywhere. The chute should be relatively straight above your laundry room so that your dirtied goods can make it down the chute easily. As mentioned, an ideal spot for a laundry chute will not obstruct any framework or home fixtures.

Safety

If you have curious kids and/or pets roaming around the home, it’s especially important that you install the laundry chute entry door out of their reach. Two different ways to ensure your child or pet cannot access the chute are to have the entry doors located high on your wall or to keep a child-proof lock on the door.

There is some controversy over laundry chutes and fire safety that’s also worth noting. Laundry chutes’ chimney-like structure has led many folks to believe they increase the severity of house fires. 

Though most chutes feature doors that would actually slow a fire’s spread, some building authorities still prohibit the installation of them in their buildings. Check with your local building official before preparing your home for a laundry chute.