Carpentry and Woodworking - laundry chute

I don't know if I'll have any replies to this in the woodworking projects; it's not truely a wall-related post...and I didn't see "honey-do" as a topic.

Anyway, here is my dilemma: my wife wants me to fabricate and install a laundry chute like older homes have already "built in". She wants to get rid of the old hamper and be able to throw clothes from the mainfloor into the chute into/in through the wall into a bin that will collect the clothes in the basement laundry room. Has anyone done this? Is there something to retrofit into the wall between the studs? Or will I need to custom engineer this and how? Have you any suggestions on how to do this without totally destroying the walls and house?

Thanks.

Just a suggestion, but you might want to consider a floor trap door in some out of the way place, i.e. closet floor, etc. The one in my grandparents house long time ago had one under kitchen sink (corresponded in basement to location of laundry area).

My friend removed his chimney when he put in a direct-vent boiler, and replaced the chimney with large diamater round duct work for a laundry chute. You could probably use rectangular too.

No matter how you slice it, you're going to have to get into the wall from the bottom to make this work anyway, so you could feed and connect sections from the bottom.

wE HAVE A WALK-IN CLOSET IN THE MASTER BEDROOM, I TOOK UP A SECTION OF RUG AND LUCKLY THE JOISTS RAN IN THE SAME DIRECTION I JUST FRAMED IT OUT AND PUT IN A TRAP DOOR, SHE OPENS THE DOOR AND DROPS THE CLOTHES DOWN TO THE MAIN FLOOR AND INTO A BASKET. LUCKLY THE LAUNDRY ROOM IS RIGHT UNDER THE CLOSET. IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM I JUST BOXED IT OUT AND PUT ON MOLDING. WORKS FOR US. BILLNMAR

Laundry chutes are convenient, but they also can be a fire hazard.
They can act like a blow-torch in the middle of your home in case of fire.
For that reason, they may be against local building code which could possibly void your homeowners fire insurance coverage.
Double-check with your Building Inspection Department and insurance company before installing one.
They may be perfectly fine where you are, but all it takes is a couple of phone calls to find out for sure.
Good LucK!
Mike

I manufacture laundry and trash chutes, a properly designed chute is made in 36" or 48" sections, to install them a wall needs to be removed, the chute will need support at the floor level and the opening through the wall at about 40" above the floor.
Modern linen chutes for residential use are usually 14" x 14" which fit between 16" O.C. studs or 18" in diameter.
The intake doors are placed high for safety and the size range from 9"x12" to 15"x15" also for safety reasons.
Chutes must be ventilated to the outside for odors as well as fire safety. Chutes have to be enclosed with 2 hour fire rated construction, codes for chutes are similar to codes for chimenies.
At the bottom the chute discharges into a closet/basket, a hamper - door to hold linen in the chute is creating a fire hazard inside the chute.