Base cabinet for front-load washer?

[HeyBub]

Sounds like a plan. I have two suggestions:

1. Overbuild. A washer full of water is VERY heavy. Use screws, glue, and metal bracing.

1. Plan on a pull-out drawer in the base to store stuff.

[RimaNeas]

Absolutely... I just took 10% of 1 metric ton instead of the 11%.... then again the washer can only take 3.7 cuft so it all works out. Not much of a defense actually, since I had not even thought of the water weight originally :-)

[Lew Hodgett]

------------------------------------------ Build 16" tall stud walls using 2x4's. Add 2x4 joists, then cover with

3/4" ply on both sides and top, but not bottom.

Add 2x2 "fiddles" (Found on marine interior counters as follows:

2x2 x "L" where "L" = appliance dimension - 4".

Add 1/2" carriage bolts inset 2" from end.

Drill 17/32" holes in top to accept bolts.

These "fiddles" can now be dropped in place to retain appliance or pulled up to make sliding appliance out easier.

Figure on installing some kind of tile on 3/4" ply top since small foot size on the washer foot will gouge a low point if allowed to bear directly on plywood.

Alternate to above:

Buy a commercial item, it will be cheaper.

Lew

[Lew Hodgett]

Addendum:

See bottom of post for comment.

--------------------------------- The above suggestion is based on building a riser big enough to support both a washer and dryer.

Lew

[HeyBub]

Remember the ditty: "A pint's a pound the world around." Eight pints to a gallon = 8 pounds.

Or, 4cf washer = 4 x 7.5 gallons/cu ft = 30 gallons x 8pounds/gallon = 240 pounds

Don't forget the basket of dirty clothes sitting on TOP of the washer.

[m II]

Remember the ditty: "A pint's a pound the world around." Eight pints to a gallon = 8 pounds.

Or, 4cf washer = 4 x 7.5 gallons/cu ft = 30 gallons x 8pounds/gallon = 240 pounds

----------------------

Only in the USA

mike

[Hoosierpopi]

1. Overbuild. A washer full of water is VERY heavy. Use screws, glue, and metal bracing.

Nah. First off, a FL is NEVER "full of water." No where near it. (One of the selling points is that they use water sparingly).

The pull out drawer idea is a good one. When pulling clothes out of the washer, you may drop something - usually whites - and an open drawer to catch same . . . well, it's a good thing. I got a commercial base at Lowes for $25 (scratch and dent/closeout something like that) and stuck it under the old dryer (doesn't fit right, but) and it's work for a couple years now.

But I will build my own elevated double base when I move the units to their new location. Try a Torsion Box approach to the top of the new base. I'll bet one made of crossed half-lapped two by twos sandwiched between half-inch plywood on top and quarter-inch in the bottom would be more than sufficient for the 60-inch wide drawer approach. Use two by twelves along the rear and on each end and Elmer's or similar wood glue to bind all the members if the torsion top.

I've made similar torsion box "shelves" to hold large TV's using luan

5mm plywood and three quarter-inch white pine ribbs and it works marvelously - very strong, stable and light weight.

[-MIKE-]

How's that any different from having a couple people standing close to one another?

[RicodJour]

...while rhythmically bouncing. ;)

R

[RicodJour]

Ummm...the 3.7 CF is the overall volume of clothes, not the volume of water. Read the specs on your machine - it'll tell you how much water it uses per wash, then divide that in two (wash/rinse) and you'll know the rough amount of water inside at a given time in the cycle.

R

[RicodJour]

We wear ten gallon hats - a hundred pound hat would just be too heavy.

R

[George W Frost]

We wear ten gallon hats - a hundred pound hat would just be too heavy.

R

******************

Shirley you jest sir,! I have heard that a lot of Yankees are big headed enough for a 100 pound hat

[Eric]

=================== "Yankee"???

Isn't that when you can't wait for a "nooner" and you are alone?

[Scott Lurndal]

Yes, my bosch front-loader doesn't have more than three gallons of water present at any one time. All the water is held by the clothing, very little is present in the drum. Certainly well below the level of the door.

These aren't the old front-loaders where the water level was at the top of the window on the door. You won't see the water level at all.

scott

[HeyBub]

Could be. In this case, however, I'm sure "yankee" is the second and third syllable of the word whose use decorum discourages.