New Laundry/Mechanicals Room - Part 1

So the idea for the next step was to install the PEX water supply lines for the kitchen and master bathroom (not necessarily connecting them to the water supply, but getting them into the walls), but the attic access hatch and furnace return vent were in the way.  As I studied the construction sequence more, the more it seemed I needed to work on the new laundry/mechanicals room before starting on the water supply lines.

My original idea for enlarging the existing cramped laundry room was just that—to increase the floor space by taking over part of the bathroom/closet from the old master bedroom.  There would then be room for a folding counter, storage space, and a cleaning closet (mops, buckets, vacuum cleaners, etc.).

Here's the original rough floor-plan for that area, and photos of the existing laundry room and the space I intended to annex.

I already ripped out that very low double-sink vanity, and replaced it with the kitchen sink that will be going into my pottery studio.

Later I decided I needed a modern high-efficiency hot water heater, and I didn't want it in the garage, where the old one was.  I was planning to expand the master bedroom, and the old water heater was in the way.  I also wanted a water softener; there was a strange walled-in void space across the hall from the laundry room where that would fit.  But then the water softener needed a drain, and I didn't look forward to trenching across the hall to install that.

The ancient central A/C unit tripped a breaker a few months ago on a very hot day, and the old uninsulated gas furnace unit that circulated the cool air was in the hot, hot attic.

So I decided to replace both the old A/C unit and the gas furnace with an electric heat pump, and put the air handler (heat exchanger and blower) unit in the new laundry room.  That air handler would also need a drain (for condensate), as would the new water heater (also for condensate).  So that meant three drains (plus one for the washer).

If I moved the water softener into the laundry room, it could share a drain with the air handler, and the void space across the hall could be added to my master bedroom.  Would it all fit?  I needed to make a scale drawing.

 The existing wall that runs through the new space will have to be removed, but since it is a load-bearing wall (separating the main house from the lower-roofed garage structure), I will have to install a new beam in the attic to carry the not-terribly-great load.  The double-beam will go at the bottom of this wall in the attic, fitted on both the house side as well as the garage side:

Access to the existing laundry room is via a pocket door, which will now be in the wrong place.  I am going to take the pocket door and install it between the new master bedroom and new master bathroom.  As you can see in the drawing above, access to the new larger laundry room will be a simple 4-foot wide opening in the wall (no door).  But since the new support beam for the space (going in the attic) will end over the access opening, I will install a substantial header/beam over the 4-foot entry opening; one end of the support beam in the attic will rest on that.  Yesterday I started reframing this wall, shared with the hallway.

So, back to the scale drawing:  The gas water heater will go next to the washer; its PVC air intake and PVC exhaust gas outflow pipes will go directly up through the relatively low garage roof.  The air handler (17.5" wide) and water softener (14.5" wide) will go on the opposite side and share a drain.  There will still be room for a 44" wide, 27" deep counter.  The currently open space behind the counter, now open to the home theater, will of course be filled in.

I plan to proceed with the structural modifications for the laundry/mechanicals room, so that when that is done I could start putting in the water supply lines.  But I may end up finishing this room next, so that the house's services infrastructure can be properly finished before work on the kitchen and master bathroom proceeds.  That would be how it's done if someone was building a new house, but not usually how I end up working.

In any case, work will be drastically slowing, as I just volunteered to foster a very pregnant white German Shepherd who was dumped at a shelter.  The rescue organization picked up the scared girl yesterday, took her to a vet, and then brought her here.  The vet x-rayed her and thought she was carrying 12 to 13 puppies (yikes!), and that she would go into labor last night or today.  No pups last night, or so far today.  But taking care of all of them will be my new preoccupation.