we have an enclosed laundry area the size of a deep closet that does not have any doors on it at this time. to control the noise from the machines we are considering putting in doors. the closet does not have any ventilation, except of course the dryer vent is ducted down through the floor and out to the exterior wall of the house.

my wife thinks we need to have louvred doors because she's worried that without louvred, the lack of ventilation while the machines are running will be bad. my concern with louvred doors is that they will not control the noise and also they will collect too much dust and lint, and be difficult to clean.

are louvred doors necessary in this application? would you experts recommend them over non-louvred doors? please settle this debate for us

thanks for the advice
kevin

 

Not an expert Kevin, but we have louvered bifolds for our laundry space. They block some noise (we usually do laundry with the doors open anyway) but not all and they do collect dust but a quick pass every now and then with a vacuum takes care of it. Overall we're satisfied with them.

 

I think her idea of allowing ventilation while the doors are closed may outweigh your idea of noise reduction. Louvered bifolds won't reduce noise that much, but will provide good ventilation for items you may hang up to finish drying, or just generally keeping the area fresh with recirculated air.

 

i vote for non-louvered doors. with louveres, you'll have lint dust all over your house eventually, or rather "constantly". we had a little laundry closet in our kitchen and even with the solid doors, there was always a fine layer of lint dust on the nearest cabinets. i think the most important factors here are keeping the lint/dust contained IN the closet and muffling the most noise possible (unless your closet is located far away from where you'll be - washers & dryers are very noisy when operating - more so if they're sitting on tile). both of which call for a solid door.

 

Not necessarily true Annette. We have a little dust on the louvers and that's all. The dryer is vented outdoors and we clean the lint filter after each use and that may be the difference or it may be that some dryers are less dust prone. We have a window with blinds adjacent to the laundry and the dust on the blinds is no greater than in the rest of the house.

 

thanks for all the replies - our dryer does not produce a lot of lint/dust that escapes the lint trap. and we always keep our lint trap clean between uses.

what about from a safety standpoint, will more heat build up inside the closet from the dryer being used if the doors are not louvered? is this something to consider? i appreciate any and all comments

thanks,
kevin

 

our house was 15 years old, and it was never a problem. however, if noise & lint aren't a concern, go with the louvered doors.