In days past, the laundry was never really considered an important design part to your new home. These days, modern design and ease of living sees us transforming the most utilitarian space in most houses into comfortable, practical and well organised workspaces that you actually get enjoyment from being in.
What’s normally included in a laundry
The first step in planning a laundry is to understand what needs to go into it. The ‘standard’ laundry built into new houses these days need to accommodate:
a washer and a dryer
power outlets / GPOs
a laundry trough (or sink or basin, if that’s what you call it)
enough storage space for linen and cleaning products
benchtop (because having somewhere to fold the mountains of clothes is important
possibly a broom cupboard.
When your building your new home dream, it’s best to try and keep your appliances and plumbing all together on one wall - both to help save space, and to keep all the plumbing together. Likewise, when you're planning your storage, you'll need to take into account how 'safe' that storage is. Laundry chemicals can be quite dangerous, and if you've got small kids it's best to make sure you've got somewhere inaccessible to store them.
Where to put your laundry
Laundries are often located near the back door of the house – often with the laundry trough situated right next to the door for convenient access. There are a couple of reasons for this, the most obvious being that it just makes it easier to take your washing out to the clothes line, for those that actually still use one!
But, laundries near the back door also act as a de-facto ‘mud room’, where dirty shoes and clothes can be dealt with before they’re dragged around the rest of the house. These mud rooms have become all the rage, and they make a lot of sense, especially if they are near your garage entry point.
To keep plumbing to a minimum and for the sake of energy efficiency, laundries are usually also located somewhere near your hot water system, and for the same reason, possibly close to your kitchen and perhaps also a bathroom - both of which also require a fair bit of plumbing.
Laundries are quite often situated in the cooler part of the house (e.g. the south-east corner), leaving the cosy, warmer areas free for rooms where you’re likely to spend a lot of time, like living rooms and bedrooms. Keeping the laundry room away from living areas - particularly bedrooms - will also help to reduce the likelihood that noise from your washing machine will be a problem.
Technical things to think about
There are also a technical things that will need to be taken into account for the design of your laundry. Because a laundry is considered a 'wet area', the wall and floor construction will need to adhere to the rules set out in the Australian Standard AS3740-201 - Waterproofing of domestic wet areas. This standard also requires that a water-resistant surface material (e.g. tiles) be built at least 150mm above the surface of the laundry trough.
Electrical outlets also need to be positioned in accordance with the Australian/New Zealand Wiring Rules (AS/NZS 3000:2007).
Adequate ventilation is also very important. If you have a dryer, it should be vented to help to prevent moisture and humidity from building up which can cause mould.
For more design tips, feel free to give us a call or send us a message.
