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| Hello, newbie here. I usually hang out in the decoration forum. We are going to be rearranging our laundry room (9'6"L x 5'8"W) to make it more functional and to add a dog shower. We live on a dirt road in the country and from March to October (whenever the ground isn't frozen!) there's dirt and mud everywhere and my kids spend a lot of time at the beach so there is sand everywhere too. A place to wash off dirty kids, boots, puppies, etc would be wonderful! Our laundry room is right when you come in the garage door.
Here is a picture and a diagram of the current set-up (ignore my husband's mess on the back counter - we are putting a slop sink in his shop and ALL of that stuff will go in the shop). The W/D are right when you come in and if anyone is doing laundry they block entrance to the room.
Current plan:
We will be moving the W/D to the back wall and the sink and pet shower will be right away on the right when you come in the room. The question is, how do I arrange the W/D? Below are two arrangements.
Should I stack or should I not? Pros? Cons? W/D Side-by-side
W/D Stacked
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| You will have to stack them with the dog shower/sink on that wall. You show only 22" of space in front of the dryer in the first plan. Don't know about yours but my front load doors are 22" wide and I imagine some may be even larger. Another problem is that you have to account for the depth of the shower and sink cabinet. With a counter top it would be around 25.5 minimum. The shower is not going to contain water at only 2 feet deep either. You will need at 30" overall even with a narrow curb. That puts your space in front of that area at 38". A bit tight for washing a dog of any size larger than smallish medium. What size are your dogs? If they are 50 pounds or less maybe a larger utility tub could be the answer. Don't mean to be a downer but I guess you are posting to avoid mistakes. If you do the shower be sure to add a good bathroom vent to the outside and since I don't see a window some way to return air to the space might be a good idea also. |
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| Thank you! Yes, I am definitely posting to avoid mistakes. I really would not like to give up my dream of a small shower. It's not just for my dog (a four month old black lab/cocker spaniel mix), but also for dirty/muddy/sandy kids and boots and shoes. I would use it all the time, honestly. There are a couple other inspiration photos out there. The one I posted was just one example. I plan on using a pre-formed shower basin bottom and it will help contain spills. This is how I would normally use the shower, but it needs to be a bit deeper and I would do without the bench. This is the type of basin I would use. It can be ordered in a variety of sizes. We would build a half-wall so it would only be open to the front. My original plan was to use the 32x32 shower basin to fit into the 36" wide space next to the sink. But now I'm thinking, why do I need two water sources right next to each other? I should get the 32x40 base and eliminate the sink altogether. That would give a lot more room in front of the W/D. Pros for stacking though are that we have 9' ceilings so going vertical is a better use of space, but a big con is what to do if the machines need maintenance? Or is that not an issue? Also, we have a whole house exhaust system (that small square vent near the ceiling), so venting is taken care of. Thank you for your help! Any more thoughts? |
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- Posted by justgotabme (My Page) on Thu, Apr 12, 12 at 11:58
| If there is even the slightest possibility that you'll be using this as a shower for adults too I'd leave out the wall cabinets directly above the shower making it more like the first inspiration shower. That way if anyone taller than your children wind up using this when coming in, lets say... dirty from gardening or maybe changing the oil on the car... they too can use the shower to avoid soiling the rest of the house. Stacking the W/D is the wisest use of space allowing you to keep a place to hang your clothes as you remove them from the dryer. I have an obsession with space management so I drew up a couple ideas for you...  I hang dry most of our one hundred percent polyester/Lycra work out clothing to help it last longer. Heat breaks down Lycra. As a bonus it saves energy. That is why I gave the option of the longer rod over the counter because much of what I dry would easily hang over the counter. Ofcourse you could always use a shower curtain rod to hang clothing from also. |
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| I would not have anything above the shower that might interfere with my head:) |
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| Thanks, justgotabme! Yeah, I'm 90% convinced stacking is the way to go. The other 10% is concerned about what happens if the machines need to be maintained. Another plus is that I love the idea of having empty space under the countertop like I do now. I have four hampers there now (I'm teaching my young kids to sort their clothes) and I love it. It makes doing laundry so much easier. Great idea about eliminating the cabinet. I kept it because I didn't want to waste it, but DH said he could really use it in his shop. Problem solved! I'll have to do some real life mock-ups of where to put the clothes rod. I like the idea of having more so I can hang dry more items. Still not sure what to do about the shower and sink. DH says a sink is nice for quick handwashing, rinsing, etc. The shower won't be a full-height full shower like in a bathroom. It'll be more of a place to just rinse off quick, especially those dirty/sandy feet...on the pets and people. :) Thanks again! |
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- Posted by justgotabme (My Page) on Mon, Apr 16, 12 at 1:53
| You're welcome. |
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