Good grief. Must be being built with tax dollars.

When we remodeled our 65-year-old former lake cottage, we just basically boxed in a chute from our new dressing room to the double cupboards that were located directly over the washing machine. I opened the doors and clothes poured out! After the first couple times, I remembered to put a basket on the washing machine.

We didn't even put a door on the opening, just framed it. The only problem we ever had was the time the cat got a little too curious and we heard a big thump in the laundry room. I opened the cupboard doors and found a very disgruntled cat on top of a pile of dirty clothes. He only did it once. Oh, yes, and occasionally it got jammed and I had to poke a broom handle down, but that was no big deal.

Your code might require a door on the upper opening but I still can't figure out why it would cost much more than a couple hours framing time.

Giggling at the visual of balls of laundry bouncing, rolling, and acting like marbles on a cross-house run.

Seriously, the framework is the expensive part, but not if put in place before the sheetrock. Depending on code, it may be required to be lined with metal. Hold that thought... a friend retrofitted by having a metalworker put in a duct run [just like for heat], after ensuring there were no raw metal edges or snags inside. The total cost was less than $200, including nice door at the top and bottom (I can't imagine not having doors!)

I didn't pay $15,000 to have a dumbwaiter installed, let alone the chute.
You do need self closing door and probably fire rated (metal/fire rated drywall) liner.

I thought they were a gret idea until I had three boys.

For $15,000 I'll come do your laundry for you!! LOL

Hosta... I had a cat jump in the chute once too, even with a door (it was a push in door and it jumped up there I guess figuring it was a shelf, but immediately slid to the bottom). Hearing the racket I opened the bottom door and extracted a few clothes and the cat. It never did that again.

However, vertical shafts are fire issues and what got by around here decades ago, won't fly now. And frankly, laundry rooms are one of the major fire start points in a house (right behind the kitchen) so you don't want an open pathway to your sleeping quarters regardless of what the code says.

Okay, we just finished building and we did a laundry shoot for $200. It is a heating duct from our HVAC guys and my builder put a door at the bottom with magnet latch so I just open the door and the laundry falls out. It is great and I highly recommend a shoot if you have kids. I will try to post some pictures so you can see. My builder would probably fly out to whereever you live and build you one for that kind of money! :)

Thanks for the responses.

He must have been working late the night before or something.

No worries about the cat...now if my english bulldog finds his way down there we've got problems. He'll probably get stuck and look like a chihuahua from the front and a sharpei from the back.;o)

Believe me the building inspectors are super, super strict around here, but I could buy a decent used car for that amount.

I'm going to call him back. He was supposed to call to find out the building code. I'll update when I find out.

I had a laundry chute built. It is in the bathroom, inside a linen cabinet. The hatch in the cabinet was put in at the factory. I think it was a $100 upcharge. The chute itself is metal ductwork, and it's trimmed out. There was no extra charge for the chute because we had specified it in the contract. My guess that between materials and labor and the GC's upcharge, it might have been $50.
We made the chute opening 8"x10" because that was the size of the chute we had previously, and when our son was a tiny tot and fascinated by the chute, we found him -- when he had disappeared -- stuck in the chute, when he tried to take the fast way down. We decided that 8x10 was big enough for laundry, small enough to prevent little kiddies from hurting themselves.

We were told it would have to be metal, fire-proof, and have auto-closing doors at the top and bottom. I don't know what it would have cost, but I skipped it. Doubt it would have been $15k, though.

Around here (Boston area) Sue36 is exactly correct; metal, fire-proof, and with auto closing doors! The builders I work with don't like to do them for those reasons...and they're a pain in the butt, but I can't imagine one would cost $15k...

Our HVAC guys did the metal thing too and it was a few hundred dollars!

The 2003 IRC and the single family portion of the MA state code are silent on the subject of laundry chutes therefore building inspectors generally make up whatever requirements they think are appropriate and this can lead to some odd and expensive designs.

These codes do not require fire protection of vertical floor penetrating shafts like laundry chutes and HVAC ducts but such elements are required to be fire-blocked at floors (externally not internally) and where a duct passes through a garage it must be 26 ga. steel and have no openings to the garage. No fire-dampers are required in ducts at floor or wall penetrations by either code.

I would think it would be appropriate to use 26 ga. or thicker steel for the laundry chute, seal around the floor penetrations with approved materials, and enclose the chute with 1/2" drywall (make it 5/8" type X is you like).

As for the openings to and from the chute itself, a 3/4" wood self-closing door at the top should be sufficient to prevent hot gasses from moving from the basement to an upper floor. Adding a metal face and a latch would be even better. I don't know why there would be a requirement for a door at the bottom. Even in a commercial building, a vertical shaft is only required to be protected at the top or bottom but not both as long as it is enclosed by properly designed walls for its full height.

In MA, for issues not specifically prescribed by the building code, a building inspector can accept a compliance alternative from a MA licensed design professional. Wherever you are located, before confronting the building inspector, I would ask the architect to provide a reasonable laundry chute design with an explanation for why it either meets the code or is a reasonable compliance alternative. This proposal should bear the professional's stamp. I've never had a compliance alternative proposal rejected in any state.

I don't know why the attitude of a builder should affect the design of someone's house. If there is an architect involved tell him/her to provide the necessary documents and get on with it. However, the fact that an architect would give you an off-the-cuff prohibitive cost estimate without a suitable explanation suggests that the architect might have a poor attitude or doesn't know how to properly design a laundry chute.