Laundry Mudroom Door to Master Closet | Mebane NC New Homes

Universal design. Aging in place. Accessible: Laundry room checklist for your new construction home

Looking for a universal design / aging in place laundry room checklist for your Chatham County new construction home? Find everything you’ll need in a new, aging in place home, from doorway widths to accessible features and layout recommendations.

Experts at Travars Built Homes are certified to build aging in place style new homes. Contact us to get started on next steps for your universal design new home.

Appliance configuration

When you choose your appliances, it’s important that they be front load, for easier loading. We strongly suggest getting a matching pedestal from the appliance manufacturer. Or ask your custom home builder to create a 12-15” platform for the equipment to sit on. Stackable appliances are not universal, as neither appliance will be at the ultimate height to avoid bending and stretching.

Chatham County New Home Laundry Room

Size

Your builder will look for a way to have a 36” wide doorways and 5 foot diameter of open space in front of the washer and dryer. If the laundry is located along the hallway, it will need to be at least 4′ wide.

Wendell North Carolina New Homes | Dog House Under the Stairs

Location

Keep your laundry room on the main floor for accessibility, unless your home will have an elevator.

Storage

Cabinetry over the top of the washer and dryer may not be as useful to you as cubbies or shelves at an accessible height. Check with your builder about reconfiguring the laundry room if necessary, to allow for the kind of storage you need.

Chatham County New Home Laundry Room

Convenience

Some plans allow for a washer and dryer in the owner’s suite closet. Others can be built with a door from the owner’s suite or closet directly into the laundry room, which also has another entrance. Tell your builder what your needs are – some plans can be modified to relocate the laundry room or add extra doors.  

Chapel Hill Modern Farmhouse | Black and White Laundry Room

Task Management

Consider where you will be doing the laundry, as well as where it will be folded and put away. Do you need a table in the laundry room? Countertops can be built at varying heights. Hanging rod? Pull down ironing board? Sitting area? Your builder will take a look at the plans, to make sure there’s knee room and a 36” wide circumference, for full accessibility.

All of these features can be designed and built in for accessibility by a custom home builder.

Lighting

A universal, aging in place feature that’s important in your laundry room and throughout your home is appropriate lighting. In addition to LED lighting, ask your builder for extra lights if there are areas where you need additional illumination. Consider motion detector lighting for convenience when your arms are full so lights can operate automatically when you come and go. If there are work stations, think about under cabinet lighting, flexible track lighting, or even natural light from windows or doors.

Chatham County New Home Laundry Room

Flooring

One way to help eyesight in an aging in place design is to change flooring color in the laundry room to differentiate from surrounding areas. There are a lot of great tile choices in a huge variety of styles and colors when you work with a premium custom home builder. Consider cork, too.

Talk with an experienced NC builder

Make sure to talk with a custom home builder experienced with universal design who is flexible enough to meet your goals in design/building your home with the features and convenience you need. Contact Travars Built Homes to get started.

Where can you find an EV charging station in Pittsboro, North Carolina?

You can plug your electric car into an EV Charging Station at dozens of locations in the Pittsboro and Chapel Hill area – including your new home.

This active map from PlugShare shows where you can find public stations, designated as high power or ‘ in use’ and where they are located. ChargeHub is another great resource for EV Charge Station information, where users can also edit, add comments, and post pictures.

You can find a place to plug in while you sit outside welcoming places like this: Penguin Place – One of the Top Places to Eat in Pittsboro NC.

Nearly all of the dozens of EV Car Charging stations in the Chapel Hill/Pittsboro area are free. A typical electric car can be fully energized in about 3-6 hours, depending on the vehicle.

Talk to your builder about adding a charging station to your new home. It’s a great way to make reducing greenhouse gas emissions simple and easy, with your home as the center for your ability to have a clean alternative to conventional fossil-fuel powered vehicles.

It’s one more way that high quality custom home builders like Travars Built Homes customize your home to fit your lifestyle – along with the ability for your home to perform efficiently with lower utility bills, with your Eco-Select certificate from Southern Energy Management.

Car charging stations can be added to your new custom home during the design phase – one of the most interesting and fun parts of your home build.

Travars Built Homes can build just about anything into your new home. Just let us know what you’d like built in – and where you want your Charging Station! We also help you find a lot in Chatham County or anywhere else within about an hour of RTP.