Any chute that is useful will be large enough for a small child to go down. If they are not that size then laundry gets stuck. We have 8, soon to be 9 kids and have laundry chutes in our build plans.

I am now considering just putting a stacked laundry set on the 2nd floor and doing their laundry on the 2nd floor. We will still need a laundry on the 1st floor since the boys will be in the finished basement and the girls on the 2nd floor.

You might install some sort of metal bar in front of the opening so clothes can fit through it but not children.

Alex

I put one in after we bought the house. It's bad enough to have to haul clothes up the stairs, but at least you only have to do it one way. I would suggest to have the chute dump into a cabinet. Also, have cabinetry set up so you can then sort the dirty clothes. It's then easy to see when you need to do a load. I never really thought about kids or pets taking any kind of ride down the chute.

Whirlpool trainee does have a good idea about maybe a bar to keep that from happening if you have concerns.

You need a fire stop door to prevent a basement fire from spreading rapidly throughout the house. Dependng on your fuel type and heating equipment you may also need to consider the risk of spreading poorly-vented carbon monoxide closer to your sleeping rroms.

At the very least, I would install both a carbon monoxide detector and a smoke detector on the "roof" of the chute.

L.

+1. Not sure if just urban legend, but I have heard they are not to code in some places due to fire regulations.

My contractor (who is a friend), told me they were not done where we live due to fire regulations, which does make sense here. However, anywhere in the US the number one cause of house fires is the dryer, so if the chute is near the dryer, which is the only way it's useful, then its dangerous. And all adventurous kids will go down them if they fit.