DIYbanter - View Single Post

osspam (Joe Bobst) writes:
Originally we had planned on putting in a drain in the center of the floor
and hooking it into the house drain system. However, according to the plumber
this would be quite expensive and complicated since we would need a separate
trap from the washer ...

Find a smarter plumber. The washer drain does indeed need a trap and that will
be conveniently installed just below floor level. More important, there needs
to be proper venting of the drain line (after the trap) into the vent stack.
This may be where your plumber has a problem since it could involve some clever
work that he does not know how to quote for a fair profit. Of course you need a
pan for emergency overflow probelms just for insurance, but this is part of
most washer installations these days anyhow. Good luck.

All the above is true.
But additionally, I was told that we would need a rather expensive
connection from the supply to keep the trap from drying out...

Combining all the above, we would end up spending many hundred $$$
extra to protect against what is (hopefully) a rare event. Plus, even
if we do get a leak, having a drain that flows to the basement still
avoids the major damage potential of ruining the first floor since our
basement is unfinished.

The only remaining risk would be *IF* we get a major leak and *IF* we
are away from the house for a long time, then we could seriously flood
the (unfinished) basement -- but this would be no worse than what
would happen if a basement laundry machine leaked and most people I
know don't even think of putting pans under washing machines in
unfinished basements.

Does this make sense?