I’ve had a laundry chute in the house plans since day one, and had seen an article in some magazine [I don’t think it was FHB] about using PVC pipe, maybe 12-13″ diameter, for the chute. Basically running from a cabinet with a hinged lid on the second floor, a tee in the pipe for the first floor, and dropping out of the ceiling in the laundry room.
So I go to the local plumbing wholesaler, who routinely carries the stuff, and am shocked to find that the pipe is ten bucks a foot and that the tee is almost $200 by itself. Plus it’s insanely heavy (12″ schedule 40 PVC) and so I need ring hangers or strap clamps or something to that effect.
So what else can I do? I have looked into plywood or pine 1×12’s as a box, but I worry about something getting caught in there. Not necessarily a smooth interior. I have also thought about sheet metal stovepipe or square duct, but fabrication of that promises to be expensive as well.
Any ideas?
Replies
Sheet metal fabrication = inexpensive.
Just a WAG; materials for a laundry chute = $100 - $500 per floor
SamT
Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either. [Einstein] Tks, BossHogg.
Edited 3/6/2007 2:58 pm by SamT
Go to your local HVAC supply house. You want rectangle wall stack. Its sized to fit in a stud space and is much cheaper than the PVC. If your set on round pipe I still say goto the HVAC house. You can get round duct in sizes up to 24". Its light and the price of the tee wont kill you.
Assemble it with metal tape so there are no screws to hang your underwear up on.
Round duct work. I'm wondering what your local FD has to say about it? We have a house with one installed plus 2, 4 inch chases (PVC) from the attic to the basement. They wanted blood.
No issues with the local FD. If there's a fire, I'll be the first FF on the scene.
I thought of using the PVC because the kids could always use a bowling ball to clear the stack if something hung up..... just don't be looking up from below!
We have a house with one installed plus 2, 4 inch chases (PVC) from the attic to the basement. They wanted blood.
Residential floors aren't fire rated so almost anything goes.
edit: Or at least that's how our building departments over the years have interpreded the fire code. A two or three story stair well would be just as dangerous and those are everywhere.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
Edited 3/7/2007 11:07 pm ET by IdahoDon
Melamine has the ideal surface and is easy to work with, but I can't get too excited about particle board cores so the last two I've built are smooth white FRP over 3/4" ply. Having said that, melamine is dirt cheap and would be fine if the seams are carefully screwed together. It's probably better to back up at least two sides with ply to hold screws more securely.
Spray foam makes a great adhesive for FRP and it sets up quick, which seems better than FRP adhesive in this application.
Building with sheet goods allows us to curve sideways, join two shafts into one, and make the outlet shoot the clothes in a specific direction. Our standard test is a couple of thick towels--they seem to fly as well as anything.
Our hvac guy can build one from scratch that has smooth seams for less than I can out of wood and frp.
If it works in the design, $10/ft pvc is a bargain since it would be very quick to install.
A single 2x6 stud cavity is about as small as I'd feel comfortable making it. The narrow areas will work if it's wide and slick enough.
Everyone has their own favorite door, but I like an inswinging hidden door up off the floor at a comfortable height to place clothes. Frame the opening out of ply and tape and bed with the sheetrock. The door is similarly textured. It's easy to see the outline, but it's less obtrusive than other designs. Up off the floor it's also not a hazard to small crawling kids.
Good chuting.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
Not the case around here. I swear some of these fire chiefs make the rules as they go. It's done, it's over and they work. I can tell you for the final all we did was cap the 4" wire chases. These were for future wiring. (like cat5) What I think some are missing is that it's not a case of an opening in the middle of the house like a stairway. We're talking about a chase within a wall. As a pt FF I understand this. As builders I'm sure you know the problems of balloon construction and fire.
Rob,
Same general problem in some of our jurisdictions. Building inspectors beat U up on the draftstopping at all thru penetraitions (plumbing, elect. cables, etc.). Our code, based on the UBC specifically details what is expected for draftstopping and concealed spaces, that seems to be what most BI's will reference. Unless you put in a spring loaded doors at acceptible intervals they won't allow a laundry chute.
Agreed but draft stopping wasn't written when this house was built. :-0
The wind between the 2nd floor and 1st floor ceiling would take your hat off. I've never felt anything like it. If it ever caught fire (it's on the water, shingle style, built 9 years ago) the FD will only need to bring a broom. There would be no saving this one.
We're talking about a chase within a wall.
As long as it's lined with something that resists flame spread it wouldn't be any different than installing a cabinet in a framed opening that hasn't been rocked.
I can see how a PVC chase would need an additional chase that's sealed to prevent flame spread.
But, as you've said, each location can interpret the situation and make formal or informal amendments to the fire code.
Perhaps there's finally a use for all those scraps of hardi that get thrown out! We've lined long wire and duct chases with it in the past to passify a picky inspector.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
Today it dawned on me what our HVAC guys said they charged for other laundry chute chases. For about $125 they can do a one story (a few feet) and it was $175 from the second story to the basement.
I was trying to remember what we did for draft stopping and it was no different from what was required of a wire/plumbing/HVAC chase. In fact the last laundry chute was sharing the same two story chase with just about everything imaginable.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
we just made one from 2 sheets of 1/2" mellamine..particle board
arthur
Made one about 15 years ago out of melamine. Left over from shelving. Still works!
You've already heard sheetmetal ducting suggested. One good thing with that is that the fabricator will be comfortable with the idea of a square-to-round transition.
The spiffiest laundry chute I remember seeing was clearly site-built. It was a stack of plywood rectangles with a circular hole through them into which surplus (from the color/pattern plastic laminate had been looped into a tube. The top had what looked like some cast-off melamine used to make a curved "hood" to the chute.
I'd love to know how they made the "funnel" at the top. I've guessed that they took out the circle cutter they were using, went a couple inces bigger than the chute, then glued laminate over it all. Then, they put a paint can or some such in the center of te hole and patiently took a heat gun to the underside until the laminate sagged into a vague angle/curve which was blended to the top of the chute. Just a guess, I was there for the demo, not the construction, sad to say.
Yeah, that's an idea -- a relatively crude box as a frame into which you insert pieces of scrap laminate or vinyl flooring, formed into a slightly flattened tube. "Shingle" the chute bottom to top with strips of the stuff. Most fasteners can be concealed (especially with the help of a little glue), just as with shingles, and if the lapped "vertical" seam is angled a bit the odds of anything catching on it are vanishingly small.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
Or you could always use this stuff --
http://www.superchute.com/enhanced/overview%20c.htm
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
Corrugated plastic drainage pipe.
Can't use the plastic culvert - I only have 13" square to work with, and I'd be using an 8" culvert to get the proper O.D. That's not big enough.
You can make it out of ply or SM, but it will cost a lot in labor. I've been there - twice.
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Why do you need a T? I have heard people making shutes out of plywood. If you want, paint the plywood before asseming so you can get a good gloss on the inside. That should be fine.
Don't know. I never said anything about a T
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we used sheet metal at our house. I originally was thinking PVC , but the costs got me too. I also considerd using sonatube ( those round carboard footing tubes)
Metal or melamine, I'd say. Though there is the new plastic heating duct that should be lighter and hopefully a hair cheaper than regular plastic pipe. (It's also fire rated, which is a help.)
In any event, if you're spanning more than two stories (which you would 2nd floor to basement) I believe most codes require some sort of fire door arrangement.
Thanks for the plastic duct tip. I am going to contact the local HVAC guy and see what he knows about it.
As for the fire codes - not applicable here, and anyway, the chute is right next to a two-story stair tower which is wide open from the basement to the second floor.
This is the stuff:http://cdcenterprisesinc.com/?AK_Duct:Product_ListI suppose you can contact the mfgr and at least ask the list price on it.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
You can go to a sign co. and but pvc sheet from approx 1/8 (some damn mm no.),up to an inch thick. if you don't mind what color you can get the scrap cheap. Jim
Or go to an outdoor sign company and get some of the cloth they use for signs now. Heavy fabric kind of like the stuff used for canopies, and the used stuff is cheap.Sew it into a tube, fit loosely in the stud cavity, and there you have it.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
if you chose the plywood route
i would recomend MDO
if you chose the plywood routei would recomend MDO
Or prefinished ply-it is really smooth and slippery.
When you look at basic cost - prefinished ply is around $75 a sheet here. That gets me an eight-foot section of chute for about $9.38 per foot. The PVC is $9.42 per foot. So I save four CENTS a foot (over about 15 feet) by using sheet goods versus a smooth pipe. I guess the cost isn't that big a deal. What I need to do is figure out how to install a tee/opening/door of some kind about halfway down, that doesn't involve spending an additional $200 for the PVC tee.
I guess I'd have the same problem with sonotube. And you can't just buy a cardboard tee.....
2 ideas.Metal roofing. Very cheap per sheet for the standing seam stuff.Or... Just about everywhere, you can find those 55 gallon plastic barrels somewhere nearby.Buy several. Cut them at the ring. (Not at the top and bottom. You want to eliminate the sloping parts.) Stack the resulting tubes.
H T R J
Sonatube.
We built one in 1981 which is still working perfectly.
Sonotube... that's exactly what I was going to suggest. But the FD's won't allow 'em around here anywho. Not without a fight anyway.View Image
I'm skeptical - you really think a sonotube will hold up to the abuse of a laundry chute? Yeah, I know, it's only soft clothing, but I have five kids and they like to break stuff.
It has held up for over 25 years. How much longer should the test last?
Dieselpig is right about the FD. We haven't been able to put one in since then. Most people want the washer/dryer on the second floor anyway.
Piffin, the original post menioned a T. I was wondering how a T is used in a chute.
The laundry chute covers two floors - starts at the second floor in a cabinet, passes completely through the first floor, and ends below the ceiling in the basement laundry room. The tee would be installed at countertop height or just above, on the first floor, in order to receive laundry items from the main floor (master bath/bedroom, kitchen towels, etc.). The whole thing could be done on the cheap if it weren't for the tee.
I looked up the plastic ducting - it's more expensive than regular schedule 40 PVC pipe. I've also looked up everything else you guys suggested, and I'm trying to decide between MDO and sonotube. I think the sonotube will win - I just have to figure out how to support it and hang it. And reinforce the ends, while I'm at it.
As best as I can remember the sonatube was screwed from the inside into a plywood ring that fit the outside of the tube. These rings may have been a doulbe layer but I think they were just one layer of 3/4 inch plywood. There was also regular blocking between the joists that the tude was screwed to.
I don't know how a tee would work but I am sure that you could fashion one out of a scrap piece of sonatube and plenty of duct tape. How it would hold up in the long run is anybody's guess.
Jon,
Instead of a Tee, maybe you could just make an oval cut-out in the pipe / chase / chute, and have a slide-in . . . well, damper, sort of like the gate that you would use on a dust collecter in the shop. You could make the plate out of a piece of thin steel, a cookie sheet, something like that. Mount it like a drawer just beneath the cut-out. Whatever came from abouve would just accumulate. I say to use smooth steel because of the fire concern. A damper. You could have the same sort of thing at the top as a lid or firestop. With the stop in the open position, everything would just free-fall right on through.
Just an idea.
Greg
Our chute is cement board liner in a 2x6 stud wall cavity.
Been in use 33 years, no problems.
1/4" hardboard (masonite) - slick side in.
(I'm about to build my own ;o) )
Jeff
Hey I like your idea - You could even build the chute as smaller pieces, say 4' long sections, out of 1/2 plywood, and line the plywood with the masonite. Let the masonite stick out 1/2" on one end and inset 1/2" on the other so the pieces interlock. I don't know a better way to describe it. Kinda like metal chimney sections.
Cool.
I'm gonna second the 1/4" masonite suggestion. I've built a coupleof them using that and it works great. I personally don't like the idea of using metal hvac ducting because it's very oily. also no matter how good the installer is, ther're still gonna be sharp edges to catch the scanties on their way down" If I were a carpenter"
No ... you can fab the sheet metal with the seams on the outside, but masonite very slick and a lot cheaper ... 'low tech'
You can drop the masonite chute into the top of a cabinet - open cabinet in laundry.
Jeff
What about plastic culvert? It comes 12" diam. and seems to me you can get it 10' and 20' in length. Might be worth looking into.
Dave
I made my own home laundry chute approx. 20 years ago out of Masonite attached inside framework connected to stud wall.
Inside finished dim is 12 x 14 inches.
Set it in corner of bedroom, and drywall outside. with 13 x 17 framed picture door.
Lot of compliments.
Never had a snag or block even with big load.
Fire door at bottom recommended.
You don't have any hog confinement operations in your area by chance? I should ask my neighbors where they get their PVC ventilation ducts. They look to be about 12" in diameter, thin walled, and all the typical corners, T's and Y's you need. You don't have to tell the wife it came from an AgriSupply retailer.
CC
you did'nt say how long of a chute you need but you can buy mdf sheets up to 16 feet long, maybe longer. its inexpensive, plenty durable and smooth. your local lumber yard can order it in