Moving laundry to another location in basement. Wood laminate floors? Ontario, Canada building code. (1 Viewer)

[Chris PC]

I am moving my laundry around in the basement, from inside a room to just outside that room in an alcove that leads to a crawl-space storage area. The area has a wood laminate floor. I could remove it, as it's not really necessary in this space, but leave it between the bottom of the stairs and the door to the room. I am working on this room to make it my home theatre and that is why I am moving the laundry out of the room.

I haven't been able to get to the library, but I have stumbled across at least one or two citings that refer to the Ontario building code stating that the floor of a laundry area has to be concrete, or tile, or something other than wood, basically something water-resistant. I could remove the wood in the area right where the laundry is sitting, or, I wonder if I could install a sort of basin pad that the washer/dryer sits on. The washer and dryer are to be stacked in this location. I have taken pictures.

thanks in advance for any feedback,

 

[Jerry Almeida]

Google "Washing Machine Pan", and I'm pretty sure that's all you'll need.

 

[Jay H]

Something underneath the washer/dryer would be good anyway, especially if it's a wood floor that you want to keep nice, as I know my washing machine is old and slightly unbalanced. I bet if it was on a wood floor, it would put small tiny scratches in it so something underneath it would be good, waterness or not.

Jay

 

[Chris PC]

Yep, a washing machine pan is what I need. The word 'tray' is also used. I'm stacking a front load washer, and they don't wobble nearly as much as top loading units, even though my front load washer spins so fast I think it's a about to take off like a 747. I will probably get a rubber pad and place a tray/pan on it with the highest curb and deepest shape so it stores the most water, and put the washer into that. Front load washers are sealed while running, so unless an inlet or drain hose fails, or the pump seals fail, the washer probably won't leak. The issue is, I think these washer pans are designed such that they work well with top load washers which, if overflowing, have water/soap dripping down their front/back or sides. If something fails on this washer, like the parts I mention above, it may spray off in a random direction.

Anyhow, It's not easy to find a washer tray/pan that is a good 3" deep. Most are only 2" or less. I can't realistically drain the pan either, unless I raise it up off the floor quite a bit, and then that will make the dryer too high for convenient easy use.