Laundry chute

[meow2222]

Heh dont worry about it, keep going and you'll get a fine feature there. How much of an angle will this thing go at? You may still be able to have a dumb waiter, just modifying the design to suit a slanted tube. In fact the only mod you'd need would be to add wheels on one side of the carriage and counterweight, and of course the carriage would be not square..

Fireproofing would mean a fireproof chute and fireproof doors, which arent difficult, and maybe natural fibre rope that doesnt produce nasties in a fire.

Maybe if your carriage is hooked onto the rope it can be unhooked and longer items hauled up on the rope + hook without the carriage.

In fact a dumb waiter system could run at any angle at all, as long as the shaft is straight - and even if it isnt it may still be workable. Why dont you give us more detail about the shaft available.

NT

[dom]

Part B (Protection from fire) of the Building Regulations.

Pages 82-84 have relevant advice/regulations.

(also some stuff relating to refuse chutes p.57 may be relevant).

[meow2222]

If you use something like M12 rod in the centre of a round shaft, with a round carriage made from EML, the weight of the clothes would cause a spin to occur as it descended. This would throw items like coins and so on out of pockets. Now, on the way up you put a weight on the counterweight and the thing spins as it rises to the top floor, thus delivering the clothes and removing any remaining water at the same time.

Make it big enough for the kids to get in and you have a fairground ride at home too.

NT

[nightjar]

A stud and plasterboard enclosure, using 12mm plasterboard both sides and a sturdy wooden door - a 1/2 hour fire door if it really worries you - will be perfectly adequate for domestic use. The main hazard with fire is the spread of smoke, so making the enclosure smoke-proof and using smoke alarms throughout the house are probably more important. If you use the layflat tubing I suggest elsewhere to line the chute, that will also act like a valve, closing itself behind the washing.

Colin Bignell

[John Rumm]

nightjar perfectly adequate for domestic use. The main hazard with fire is the spread

By the sounds of it this conversion would require interlinked smoke alarms on each floor anyway.

[nightjar]

I did say using, which is not the same as fitting :-)

Colin Bignell

[John Rumm]

I was just about to say they need to be mains powered as well...

but thinking about it that actually makes them eaiser to turn off all at once!

[Robbo]

> Thanks, but I think things would stop at the bend if it was a collapsable

Any bend would need to be gradual or *anything* will stop at it. With polythene tube the tube adapts to the shape of the article as it passes down. Also, as others have pointed out, if it gets a little dirty you can just pull it out and replace. The only other thing I can think of that might do the trick is ventilation duct...such as

[Lobster]

But don't make the diameter larger than that of your smallest kid... you know it makes sense!

David

[Moo]

We have a laundry chute but it drops straight down from the children's bathroom to the utility room directly below. It is lined with ordinary hardboard with the "shiny" side facing into the chute allowing clothes to slide down easily. It's about 450mm by

750mm. I appreciate that ours has a vertical drop but I think that an angled chute lined with hardboard would work. Over time I guess that the hardboard would get shinier!

Moo '

[Guy King]

The message from "Moo" contains these words:

Not with my socks.