Cost of Adding or Remodeling a Laundry Room
A laundry room stores the entire family’s dirty garments, muddy shoes, wet towels, and heavy backpacks, protecting your home from dirt, dust, and unwanted outdoor elements. Despite this, it fails to attract homeowners’ attention. A person realizes its value only when it is missing in the layout. Otherwise, there can be various reasons for not recognizing its presence. One of them can be the out of sight out of mind story. But the laundry room doesn’t deserve this treatment. You can end up messing with its efficiency due to a lack of proper storage and order.
While small flooring and appliance upgrades are possible within a budget of USD $1,300, the expansion cost can shoot up to USD $15,000. You can prevent unpleasant scenarios by remodeling the existing working space to make your cloth hanging, folding, and pressing tasks simple. Here are some insights to give you a sneak peek into what it means to remodel or add a laundry room for clarity.
Laundry room size
Generally, most homes come with 35 square feet laundry rooms. For such space, you may have to splash out a sum of USD $230 per sq ft on average. It doesn’t account for a countertop, electrical outlets, new cabinets, floors, and appliances. You can restrain this cost by cutting down on cabinets and flooring parts, though. Experts say that laundry machines are the main features in this room. So, expanding floor space will not cause a sudden price increase. Even if you extend the room size to 70 square feet, you will need to cover painting and flooring charges more than other things.
Remodeling or expansion cost by different components
Adding or remodeling a laundry room will have different consequences for your budget. Since remodels include working with an existing area with walls, foundations, and outlets, you may wonder what to change or leave for its better efficiency without denting your savings. However, additions focus on plumbing, wiring, ventilation, and other types of installation work. It involves building up a new space. For this, you have to get a remodeling contractor. Let’s check the breakdown of the entire cost now.
Floor space
In both cases, flooring will be an integral part. You will want to keep this thing for last to avoid any potential damage when other types of construction work are underway. Generally, flooring charges can be anywhere from USD $280 to USD $840 and subflooring USD $155 to USD $495. Material quality can impact the final range. Nevertheless, you must choose water- and stain-resistant floors for this area.
Countertops and cabinets
You need a decent worktop size to deal with your clothes. You can buy a nice countertop for about USD $300 to USD $1,400. In laundry rooms, limestone and slate countertops can make a common sight. Adding the perfect sink to your laundry room can be the ultimate touch of optimum efficiency and capability no matter what you pick. When discussing the choice of worktop, it is natural to have curiosity about cabinets that help you store all supplies safely and neatly. They keep your room clutter-free. Well, the installation cost of cabinets can be anywhere from USD $250 to USD $2,000. It covers materials, hinges, etc.
Electrical work
In a newly added laundry room, you will have to create electrical wiring. You cannot run your washing and drying machines on regular connections. That’s why it makes sense to hire a professional electrician. This project will have various variables, such as outlets costing around USD $500, wiring USD $160, and lighting USD $500.
Ventilation system
There has to be a proper route for the heat to escape through your dryer. You will pay for this if you build a new room or change the position of your appliance. Else, you don’t have to make any updates. The installation cost of the dryer vents can be around USD$400. It can go up based on the nature of the project. Since most laundry room renovations make ventilation errors, you would want to be extra careful in this aspect.
Other costs
A complete laundry room revamping will include appliance replacement. If this happens, you will pay for installation and delivery. On average, you can expect the overall replacement cost to go up to USD $2500 or more. It covers drain connection, valve, installation, and washer and dryer connection. Besides, you may have to take permission for specific works. So, for permits, you can estimate a budget of around USD $500 to USD $2,000 based on the requirements. You don’t have to bother about painting, even in the case of the new addition. It may cost about USD $35 to USD $150.
If it involves simple changes, you can calculate your labor cost to be around USD $150 to USD $200 per hour. However, labor charges will be higher for a complete renovation, amounting to USD $200 to USD $350 per hour.
Things to consider
The location and type of the laundry room can be another factor to consider. The renovation or building cost will vary based on its presence in the garage, upstairs, basement, etc. Moving your laundry upstairs can be as expensive as USD $15,000, while keeping it in the basement may cost around USD $7,500. If it is a small space, you will probably need a laundry closet, consuming about USD $4,500 to USD $8,000 budget on average. For a DIYer, it can be a project of USD $3,000 to USD $5,000. But it doesn’t include any complicated work.
Whether you ignored your laundry for too long or desperately need one, you can study the price points of everything before going ahead with your planning. Note down all the things in one place for an easy reference. If you want to consult your designer or contractor, it can be a good idea. A functional and integral part of the house, like the laundry room, needs professional involvement for precision and accuracy. Plus, you can stop giving your clothes to dry cleaner and save a few bucks over time once it is ready. Hence, it can be an intelligent investment for sure. Make sure you don’t compromise with the quality of the appliances. Get energy-efficient and modern models for smooth operation.
