Here’s One Way to Chuck the Laundry
Question: My daughter has a four-bedroom house, and three of the bedrooms are over the garage. She would like to have an old-fashioned dumb waiter to get the daily laundry downstairs and up again without walking up and down.
Her husband can do the work if he has the plans. I’m sure many young couples with a baby would like to just dump the wash down to the laundry area, wash and fold it and return it with a pulley sort of thing. Can you help?
Answer: Sorry to be so long in responding to a question that may be of interest to a number of readers.
Actually, we’ve been unable to locate plans for a dumb waiter, but we suggest you contact an architect who will draw plans for the unit.
Or perhaps an architect who has been practicing for a number of years--back to the time when dumb waiters were considered almost essential in many two-story homes--can salvage a blueprint from an older house plan. If your son-in-law is skillful enough to install a dumb waiter, he’s probably clever enough to work out a system of pulleys and platforms and design his own.
If that seems too complex, it might help matters to install a chute between the first and second floor, so at least your daughter can toss the dirty laundry down. A chute could be cut into the wall between studs or a square can be cut in the floor on the second level with a hinged trapdoor to cover it. The shaft should be lined with sheet metal or another smooth-surface material to prevent fabrics from catching on wood fragments.
Also, as a safety measure, the shaft should have a safety lock or be small enough or high enough on the wall that a small child cannot fall down it. A good place to position the shaft would be in an upstairs closet floor or wall, adjacent to a wall on the floor below, of course.
Another solution to the problem might be to install a washer-dryer unit upstairs, perhaps in the bathroom.
Meanwhile, if a reader knows the source for a dumb-waiter blueprint, let us know and we’ll pass the word along.
Q: Our kitchen needs new cabinets, and I’d like to attempt to make them because I can’t afford to buy them. Do you have some suggestions on where I might get some free advice before I tackle the job? I don’t have much in the way of tools.
A: It’s not free, but it’s inexpensive. Los Angeles Trade-Technical College (see Los Angeles Community Colleges in the Los Angeles telephone directory) usually offers a course in cabinetmaking. You might check with the teacher of that course to see if you can choose your own project when you take the class. It’s about time to make application for the summer session.
Q: You mentioned boiled linseed oil in a recent column. What is that?
A: Linseed oil is produced from the seed of the flax plant. Raw linseed oil will not dry, so it is heated with a drying agent, such as litharge, which causes the linseed oil to harden. Boiled linseed oil can be purchased at home centers, hardware stores and even art-supply stores.
Dale Baldwin will answer remodeling questions of general interest on this page. Send your questions to Home Improvement, Real Estate Department, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles 90053. Baldwin cannot answer questions individually. Snapshots of successful do-it-yourself projects may be submitted but cannot be returned.
