Laundry chutes are a handy method to deliver dirty clothes and used towels into the laundry area in the basement of a house. They include a length of metal ducting that runs from the top floor of a building. Laundry chutes have baskets positioned to collect the laundry. Laundry chutes can be set up in a wall using a spring-loaded door, or can be hidden and set in a little linen closet with a bottomless basket over the opening of the chute.
Determine the location of the laundry chute. Locate a non-load-bearing wall that’s parallel to the floor joistsparallel to the base or bottom plate wall studs which are directly over floor joists. An perfect location is a wall over the laundry area in the basement. Switch off the power at the main circuit breaker into the area of your house where you are going to set up the laundry chute. Use a stud finder to find two parallel studs which run from the floor to the ceiling in the wall. Drill a small hole into the wall, then poke a screwdriver in and gently move it around to check for obstructions in the walls, such as vertical pieces of timber, gas or water pipes, wiring or service beams. If there are no significant obstructions, you can use this area to install your laundry chute.
Pry up the baseboard situated on the bottom of the wall using a pry bar. Use a utility knife to cut out a rectangular field of drywall that’s 42 inches tall, and the same width as the space between two wall studs (studs in wall frames have been set up either 16 inches or 24 inches apart). Cut down from the center of each stud into the stud. Eliminate.
Use a reciprocating saw to cut the base plate — the bottom 2-by-4 which runs parallel with the floor joists and is perpendicular to the 2 studs — and then slowly pull the cut base plate out of the wall. Cut a hole through the plywood floor underlayment between the two studs that’s the dimensions of the laundry chute dimensions.
Cut 2 pieces of 2-by-4 which are either 16 inches or 24 inches long to fit between the studs. Nail the 2-by-4 pieces to the studs using shank nails in the area where the top and bottom of the laundry chute will be found. Push two 16d nails, spaced 1 inch apart, at an angle during the 2-by-4 pieces into the wall studs.
Connect 3 1/2-heating duct into an 18-inch-long stretch of duct to the laundry chute. Slide the bottom of a 90-degree barbell using a enroll opening onto one end of the duct. Position the 90-degree elbow so that its opening faces you when the heating duct is set vertically on the floor. Cut the corners of this 6-inch enroll opening with tin snips and bend the cut corners so that the opening is the size of your own laundry chute door.
Apply duct tape into the interior seams of the laundry chute where the duct snapped collectively, to make a smooth surface for the garments to slide , and finish creating your laundry chute.
Insert the end of the laundry chute into the pit in the floor underlayment. Twist the cover of the chute into the 2 studs and the 2-by-4 pieces with sheet metal screws and an electric screw driver. Position the screws onto the center point of each aspect of the opening of the laundry chute.
Mark the 42-by-24-inch object of drywall where the opening of the laundry chute is going to be found when it is set up and cut it out. Trim the drywall to size in case your studs are spaced 16 inches apart instead of 24 inches apart. Put the drywall piece onto the wall and then use 1 1/4-inch drywall screws to attach it into the studs.
Employ wrought iron drywall tape based on the seams of the drywall. Use a 6-inch drywall taping knife to apply an even coating of drywall joint compound within the drywall tape. Sand down the face of the joint compound and then employ 2 more layers of this compound. Let it dry and sand down the surface between every layer of joint compound.
Attach to the 2-by-4 support pieces with wood screws.
