My wife are relatively new to investing, but last year, we dove in. One of our properties is a 4-plex in the Birmingham, AL area. It was built in the late 1970s, is a 2-up 2-down with an unfinished basement. The basement is accessible from the driveway via a door, so anyone can easily access the basement if they know the lock code. This property has no washers or dryers in any of the units, and it would be difficult to retrofit hookups into the units. We would like to add washer and dryer service to the basement. I am trying to decide the best way to do this.

The layout of the electrical and pluming: Each unit has its own electric meter, but there is only 1 water meter. We pay the water bill. Each unit has its own electric water heater (4 total) sitting in the basement, each water heater's electric is fed by each unit's separate meter. There's a dead bulb on the basement ceiling but it's unclear which of the 4 electric meters it is being fed from. There is no common / owner electric meter (yet), and no exterior lighting of any kind.

On one wall is a water line. I am not sure whether it is cold only, or both hot and cold, (or hot, which heater feeds it). In the distant past, this was used for a washing machine. But there is no drain line. There is also no hookup for a dryer anywhere. My best guess is that in the distant past, a washer was down there with a hose running outside to drain. This is not going to happen again on my watch. There are neighbors down the hill, and I won't allow gray water to freely flow to anyone's property. The residents seem to think that I (the owner) need only to put a washer and dryer in the basement and it will magically work. They are mistaken, but I would like to find out how to do this right for them, both to enhance their quality of life, and to enhance the value of the property.

My preferred plan is to install 2 sets of coin operated washers and dryers. This is going to require a new electric meter and breaker box, as well as a separate water heater. The sewer line sits overhead in the basement, and so I was told a pump needs to be installed to facilitate the washer's drain line going up into the sewer line.

Another plan that was proposed by our property management company was to install 4 separate laundry rooms in the basement with plywood walls, and 4 sets of hookups, each getting hot water and electrical from each unit's respective water heater and electric meter. Put doors and locks on each room, and if a tenant wants their own washer and dryer, they can purchase it and install it and be given a key to their laundry room. This keeps it more fair to operate, but I do not like the idea of the tenant bringing their own washer, mainly due to the possibility of problems from their machines flooding, or worse. But it would at least prevent the need for a common electric panel and water meter. The challenge with doing this is the cost of having 4, not just 2 hookups.

I have called a dozen or more area plumbers. So far, only one has shown up and given a quote of $15k for ONLY the plumbing aspect of the job. This was high apparently because of the drain pump, as well as the need to trench into the concrete foundation. I haven't dissected this quote very much. I would like at least get a couple more quotes first. This quote was for plan #1 (2 hookups). So I imagine if the plumber carried out plan #2 it would be significantly more expensive.

I am curious if anyone reading this has done a project like this before? What (if anything) did you decide to do in the basement? What is involved in adding drains and drain pumps? Thoughts are welcome, and thank you in advance.

Birmingham, Alabama

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