How valuable is second floor laundry?

Anonymous
Just bought a home and will be renovating the second floor main bath. The bath is spacious ( 8 by 16 feet) and currently has a large closet with side by side washer and dryer. We ideally want to remake the bath with seperate tub and shower and double vanities, but may have to lose the laudry to do this. How valuable is laundry in the second floor? We have no kids yet and don't know how important this feature becomes for a family. What would you do?

We'd be moving w/d to the first floor mud room.
Anonymous
Love the 2nd floor laundry. Can you covert to stacking machines?
Anonymous
I will never buy another house where the laundry isn't on the bedroom level. It was fine before kids. Now it's just too much.
Anonymous
I have a 1st floor laundry, but wouldn't want it in the mudroom. I hate walking through a laundry room to get into the house. Especially since most washing machine doors need to be left open to air out. It is a big hassle.
Anonymous
I actually would prefer it to be on the first level (I don't even mind the basement as long as the space isn't gross). I spend most of my time on the first floor and don't want to be running upstairs every time I need to check on the laundry.
Anonymous
Valuable? I would not pay more or less for a home with a 2nd floor laundry. It really doesn't matter to me. I have 4 kids and the laundry is in the basement.

Basement laundry is not a deal breaker for me. 2nd floor laundry would not push a house that I'm on the fence about into the buy category.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Valuable? I would not pay more or less for a home with a 2nd floor laundry. It really doesn't matter to me. I have 4 kids and the laundry is in the basement.

Basement laundry is not a deal breaker for me. 2nd floor laundry would not push a house that I'm on the fence about into the buy category.


+1

Some people love it, some people worry about water damage. I don't really have a strong view either way, but I wouldn't let it drive your decisions (I wouldn't give up a great bathroom remodel just to keep it).
Anonymous
It was nice to have pre-kids, but so much more important with kids. Having living level laundry means not having to haul laundry up and down stairs to do this. I would rather walk up to the second floor to move/check on the laundry, than to have to haul the multiple baskets of dirty clothes downstairs and the multiple baskets of clean clothes back up. And that doesn't include bed linens. The amount of laundry that we do exploded when we had kids and we now have to do multiple loads every week and it's so much nicer when you only have to walk the laundry down the hall.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I actually would prefer it to be on the first level (I don't even mind the basement as long as the space isn't gross). I spend most of my time on the first floor and don't want to be running upstairs every time I need to check on the laundry.


Same. Plus we had a leak several years ago, that came through the ceiling of the first floor. What a hassle getting that all resolved.
Anonymous
As someone who has always had the laundry on the ground floor, I wouldn't have gone into house-hunting with this on my wish list at all. Count me as one who would worry about water damage. (We currently are dealing with a pipe that started leaking from our upstairs tub down to the living room ceiling below, so this is utmost on my mind!)
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I will never buy another house where the laundry isn't on the bedroom level. It was fine before kids. Now it's just too much.


+1. Can't say enough how much I love the second floor laundry.
Anonymous
I wouldn't care. A small one upstairs is nice but if the basement or main area it is in is nice, thats all I care about. Do what you want and works for your family.
Anonymous
When we bought our house I was worried about water damage too, but now that we have it, it is so lovely not to have to trudge upstairs and downstairs. But I wouldn't pay less for a house with a downstairs laundry. I can imagine I'd pay maybe 5k more if I had two identical houses in front of me and one had an upstairs laundry. So, not much.
Anonymous
I would only want this feature in a brand new house with brand new pipes. Not worth the risk in an older home with old pipes - flooding!!!
Anonymous
I prefer it on the first floor
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