The Steers Laundry rm. Addition

This was a big project which made a huge difference.

The cabinets are made of prefinished clr. maple plywood with solid maple doors and face frames.

There are double rods in the left and right tall cabinets with 4 shelves above the center drawers.

The black granite counter tops have an interesting texture to them, like leather.

Dovetailed drawers are made of 3/4” solid maple and have HD full extension slides.

My shop is small and I don’t have a spray booth so I like to buy 3/4 prefinished clear maple plywood for the casework, wrap with hardwood panels and solid frames and have them sprayed by my cabinet finisher. Then I install them with biscuits.

The stain finish is an oil based product that was sprayed on followed by 2 coats of poly.

FYI- you have to tell these guys to finish all sides of the face frame if you prefer it. I hate it when painters don’t finish things just because they claim, “you can’t see it, doesn’t matter.”

These stacking units are tough to install inside a cabinet due to the exhaust vent and the water supply box. Code requires that it be accessible for service so we put it inside the broom closet and the vent slides in to a foam donut placed in just the right spot.

We also had to install a drain pan with a separate drain that connected over 10 ft away to avoid soap foam backing up under unit and to help with odors.

Alberto helped me build this unit. He is a proud cabinet maker who loves woodworking like me.

We had a SS pan made (200.00) that was exactly the size of inside the cabinet x 1” tall and then we glued it to the new treated sub floor. The 1/2” durock and tile butted flush to top of the front edge. We installed using silicone, treated 1” x 3” cleats with 2” holes x 3/16” deep, in front only, for the feet to keep it from walking.
To remove, just unhook lines, grab the bottom and lift slightly and pull it forward. Plug is behind unit and easy to reach once unit is out. The exhaust was the tough part. to get the unit this tight you can’t use a flex vent.

Note: this pan requires that you pour a pint of water in it at least once every 6 mos. to keep the p trap full to prevent odors from backing up.

The floor joists were doubled and blocked to prevent shaking and noise from vibration. Very important on a second floor. I would never recommend installing these units on a 2nd floor without a wall directly under it.

2nd floor addition in production.

We installed the 12×12 tiles on the diagonal – square set but the owner didn’t realize what that meant and wanted it on the diagonal – staggered set. Fortunately, we were able to pull the tile up, scrape the backs and reset it without any loss. other than about 4 hours of labor and a bag of thinset. It was well worth the cost to give the client exactly what she wanted.

I always like to snap lines on the floor so the client can see the pattern position. Then, right before we install them, I lay the actual tiles out in the field so they can approve the variations in color or grain direction.

What a difference!

-- mark - Grayslake IL.