I don't understand that it isn't an 'option'. I guess that means that they don't normally offer it in their production homes? I'd think if you had money to pay them to do something, they'd be willing to do it.

BUT, perhaps it is because your house plans doesn't really set up well to have one. Assuming it sets up ok to put one in, it shouldn't be that difficult during the build. Afterwards will be messy, more expensive and more timely, but certainly can be done.

When we were doing major remodeling 32 years ago in KY, we asked for a clothes chute. We were told it was cost-prohibitive as in our city, it was treated as an elevator and considered a fire hazard. As such, it had to have all sorts of special things (they never said what they were). They kept mentioning the risk of a lighted cigarette going down the chute and starting a fire. As we are non-smokers (and if we did smoke we would not be using our clothes chute as an ashtray!), this seemed like a moot point but it was a no-go.

Our house in St Louis had one - it was made out of metal ducting just like the rest of the duct work in the house. Not possible here! Sometimes building codes go to extremes.

@ doc5md - it's not in their plans so they won't offer it. We offered to pay if it's reasonable but they said they have to change their drawing etc and too late for it.

Yea, its going to be messy, more expensive - trying to determine just how expensive. Is it going to be $1K more or are we talking $5K more?

We are considering if possible getting this work done after we close the home but before we move-in. That way, it might help with clean up etc.

@Anglophilia - the way it was explained at the model home was that, it was a simply design - a square aluminium box that connects the upstairs with the laundry cabinet downstairs. When you drop clothes, it drops into the cabinet which is closed. You have to open the cabinet to retrieve clothes.

I didn't think it needed to be fire-proof etc. Heck, my husband was telling me at worse, he can make a big hole in the floor upstairs right above the laundry room to drop stuff(he was kidding)

hmmm...laundry chute lined with sheet metal sounds good.

or at the very least sheetrock. not only will you want things to

slide smoothly, you'll want to seal off any unwanted air

infiltration. other wise the open framing could turn chute into

thermal bypass.

talk to the carpenters on the job, I don't see it as a huge

change order, but I'm a diy gal...

best of luck

Oh the code thing is very interesting.... we are planning one, I hop I don't hit a roadblock... but codes here can be pretty lax.

I would think $1K should do one assuming everything lines up from one floor to the next nice and easily.

Our tract home had a laundry chute. Pretty much all you do is put a metal duct (ours is indistinguishable from a heating duct other than it isn't insulated) from the upstairs point to the downstairs. They make custom doors you can put on the thing on the upper part. The model building codes now require self-closing (spring loaded) doors on both ends of the chute I believe.

I owned a 1917 bungalow that had a laundry chute that could be used from the second and first floors to the laundry in the basement. We heard many stories of the previous owner's children using it to travel between floors both up and down. Oh, to be young again . . .

I owned a 1917 bungalow that had a laundry chute that could be used from the second and first floors to the laundry in the basement. We heard many stories of the previous owner's children using it to travel between floors both up and down. Oh, to be young again . . .

Oi. If I put one in, I'd never sleep again....

I grew up in a large house built about 1900. The laundry chute was in a cabinet in the hall bathroom, went down into a kitchen cabinet by the sink (so we cold throw dirty tea towels into the chute), and past that point to a large wood bin that could collect and hold the week's laundry for a family of 6. I found it useful. The chute built in my tract home goes from the upstairs hallway cupboard to the first floor laundry room small cabinet and could never hold a week's laundry for our family. It is too small to be useful. So we just use that hall cabinet to store extra pillows and the small laundry cabinet to store cleaning and laundry supplies.

We are adding one to our build and haven't heard any push back from the City. It'll be from the upstairs hall bath (kid's bath) to the master closet. We are planning on building some sort of box that'll be smooth on the inside and dump into a hamper.

I think nowadays, they probably have to be too small in diameter for even toddlers to get into. Talk about sucking all of the fun out of childhood, lol.

(I totally understand safety concerns and whatnot, but overall, we have seriously limited our children's ability to have wild crazy fun in modern times. There is significant value to having wild crazy fun as a kid.)