# Laundry Chutes illegal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 24, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017 "2006-04-24T17:49:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017/21 "2006-04-25T08:14:12Z")
Are most laundry chutes big enough for a kid to fit down? I saw one a couple weeks ago that would fit a cat, but not a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017/22 "2006-04-25T08:43:14Z")
As long as you’re putting chutes in your house, why not add a [Recycl-A-Rolla](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adam_Carolla_Project)? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017/23 "2006-04-25T12:27:36Z")
[QUOTE=dnooman] Are most laundry chutes big enough for a kid to fit down? I saw one a couple weeks ago that would fit a cat, but not a kid. [/QUOTE] Funny you should mention that, in my last house, my kitten, Kelsey, took a swan dive down the chute when I turned my back for a microsecond. You’ve never seen a woman fly down three flights of stairs so fast! Thank jeebus there were towels on the bottom of the chute. She was startled but fine. (this house, circa 1920’s had a sealed off coal chute. 🆒 ) My current house has a chute but I don’t use it since I have to duck under a pipe to access it in the basement, pain in the ass. The current chute is lined with the same (aluminum?) that is used for furnace ducts. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017/24 "2006-04-25T13:15:59Z")
Our house was built in 1989. We have a laundry shoot from the second floor to the basement. (There are doors on the second and first floors, and a receptacle in the basement.) ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017/25 "2006-04-25T14:05:02Z")
[QUOTE=dnooman] Are most laundry chutes big enough for a kid to fit down? I saw one a couple weeks ago that would fit a cat, but not a kid. [/QUOTE] I’m a small person, and I know I could fit down my laundry chute. It’s located in the floor of the linen closet, and I always approach it with exaggerated caution. (Unreasonable fear, I know.) I try to keep the door cosed, because I have visions of one of my dogs sliding across the hardwood floors and plunging down it. > [@The Chao Goes Mu](#): > > {T}his house, circa 1920’s had a sealed off coal chute. My house was built in 1938. It has a coal chute (sealed) a laundy chute and an ash pit below the fire place. The ash pit was destroyed by the idiot who lived in the house before us. He was showing Hubby the basement when we were first looking at it, and said there had been this box in the basement wall and when he opened it, there was all this _gunk_ inside. “You wouldn’t believe how much foam insulation I had to pour in there to fill it up!” he said. Every time I have to scrape the ashes out of the fireplace with a dust pan, I curse that man’s name. ---
**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017/26 "2006-04-25T15:29:03Z")
A kid or a small adult could easily fit down the laundry chute in my parents’ house, but man that thing is convenient. Oh, and my parents and my grandfather still get milk and juice delivered every week. Eggnog, too, at the holidays. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017/27 "2006-04-25T15:29:56Z")
[QUOTE=Crafter\_Man] Our house was built in 1989. We have a laundry \*\*shoot \*\* from the second floor to the basement. (There are doors on the second and first floors, and a receptacle in the basement.) [/QUOTE] I meant _chute_. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017/28 "2006-04-25T15:55:07Z")
[QUOTE=Mr2001] As long as you’re putting chutes in your house, why not add a [Recycl-A-Rolla](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adam_Carolla_Project)? [/QUOTE] I have been in a coupla bars that have a similar device. A plastic pipe that the bartender can drop nonreturnable bottles into for a fast ride to a basement collection device. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017/29 "2006-04-25T17:30:05Z")
man the laundry chute in my parents old house was just a hole cut in the floor in the bathroom closet. you basically dumped your clothes on the floor and kicked them down. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017/30 "2006-04-25T17:34:45Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] My house is 70 years old, and I have a laundry chute with doors on the first and second floors, and a receptacle in the basement. Only once has one of my cats gotten into the 2nd-floor door, and fortunately had a soft landing in the basement. . [/QUOTE] And if I know cats s/he liked wallowing in the pile of dirty laundry just fine. Especially the socks, most likely. I’m curious about the whole setup with basements and laundry chutes, since both are extremely rare in Southern California. Do the houses with laundry chutes also usually have dumbwaiters or some similar system to help get the clean laundry upstairs to the bedrooms and bathrooms? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017/31 "2006-04-25T19:01:49Z")
I’ve never heard of a dumbwaiter in the basement. Laundry is brought upstairs the old fashioned way: you and the laundry basket. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017/32 "2006-04-25T19:37:36Z")
[QUOTE=Tristan] does anyone know the legalities of such a handy laundry tunnel? [/QUOTE] [bullhorn] “Step away from the dirty clothes and put your hands where I can see them”.[/bullhorn] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/laundry-chutes-illegal/354017.md?page=1)