Washer and Dryer in Garage

[Eric Rivera]

Does anyone have experience with having a washer and dryer in the garage? I'm closing on a property, and belatedly realized the hooks-ups are located on the insulated (ie., the wall shared with the kitchen) wall of the garage.

I'm concerned with the washer\dryer holding up for a decent amount of time, and the pipes freezing. Has this been a problem for anyone else? Any recommendations for steps I can take to mitigate the issue?

[Mike H.]

I bought a house with that once as well. I ended up framing in a small portion of the garage just to help address that fear (pipes freezing). Luckily the hvac was nearby and I had a duct added for it too.

But here in illinois where the temp has been below 0 for over a week straight now, it would have been a risk for sure.

I actually had someone's pipe leak in a house that was a trilevel and the w/d were in the unfinished part of the lower level. No vent so no heat and the thing went.

Wrapped pipes with heat tape and hopefully that fixes it.  But I would be very afraid of that happening in an open garage in colorado there. Best you can do is frame it in and maybe put a baseboard heater in there?  Or at the very least, insulate the heck out of the pipes.  But that still won't help with the connections or with the tenant's washing machine as some of that water will freeze in it.