you could always wash you sneakers and soak stains and handwash woolens in the kitchen sink but i'd prefer to have the laundry tub for hand washing and fold the clean linen on the kitchen bench ...option 1 would be my choice and we also a neat cover (made out of the carefully cut out piece of counter made for the hole for installation of the sink) so we had sink and bench

I placed a cedar slatted bath mat over my laundry tub....fits perfectly and looks great with black counter and white cupboards.

our understanding is that it is a regulatory (BCA) requirement to have a separate trough

Ok ... thanks for that.

I would always opt for a trough or sink in a laundry, no matter how small the room is...…….I'm still old-fashioned enough to want to wash delicates and woollens by hand and I'd rather not use the kitchen sink to do it!

I have a very small laundry and did decide to include a sink. I actually hardly ever use it except for filling vases that don't fit under my tap in the kitchen. In hindsight I'd have got more use out of a cupboard for my ironing board. That's my water heater at the back. A necessity but I could have done so much more with the space without it!

We are renovating a 2 br unit and have a laundry cupboard in the kitchen. Like a pantry but with washer and dryer mounted above. We decided not to have a tub or a sink. Bench space is far more useful than a tub. Especially in a laundry. It's brilliant to fold up your washing on. We've done away with all low cupboards and put in drawers as a better use of the space. Easily accessible and you use the entire space rather than neglecting the space at the back of a cupboard shelf. We've also put blind corner cupboards in to maximise easily accessible storage.

We've lived in houses with full laundries including a tub for 30 odd years and we rarely use it. If you want to soak something, use a bucket. If you can't fill the bucket at the kitchen sink, use the shower.

Space is at a premium in a unit. If you really want a sink, I like the option of having a removable cover sounds great.

It's not a simple debate between what you want/need more or less....understand that this a regulatory thing.........if you are dealing with a building permit then it's pretty cut & dry - as the BCA reads, a separate trough is technically required to consitute a laundry....happy to be corrected in my interpretation in this regard but we have had to deal with this exact issue on a few occasions....... But if you are doing just an under the radar laundry reno/refit (no permit) then potentially you can get away with none, but you'll of course need to practically connect the washer into the drainage somehow, which still requires an isolated trap set-up, that technically will be illegal. No you can't just connect straight into a sewer waste as if the connection fails and their is no water trap it would be hazardous (not to mention unpleasant) to have exposed sewer gas. If it's in a kitchen an can connect a washer to a sink waste (similar) to the dishwasher) then arguably that could be passed. The easiest way is to fit a small trough next to the washer that even if you develop a cover for so you can use the area as bench space. It then keeps flexibility and everything above board/compliant for future resale.....

That's an archaic regulation that needs to disappear!

No, it needs to be there for heath reasons, All regulations are in place to uphold standards. Sometimes they are open to interpretation, can be confusing, but when their intention is clarified and understood, they generally make reasonable sense. I can certainly understand the debate when it comes to having laundry functions integrated with a kitchen or bathroom in tight/small scenarios, you could argue that connection into the sink or basin could be achieved safely and the sink or basin could double & function for both duties......BUT when it comes to having a separate/disconnected space or cupboard with just a washer, with taps and drainage, then the reg makes perfect sense (for trough requirement ) in that it is the most safe way to manage the washer discharge

We are in QLD and we have building permits and have met all requirements and regulations. The machine drains the same way a dishwasher does. There is no regulation requiring a trough.

It's been around for a while - refer page 2 "Sanitary Facilities" paragraph of the following links

http://www.hpw.qld.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/newsflash316.pdf

But there can be progressive upgrades/changes each year to the technicalities of how various BCA regs are assessed/managed...

In the case of being in a kitchen and provision of appropriate compliant connection into a sink trap then potentially this could be considered compliant if the method of discharge is deemed to satisfy the provisions of the reg

The following is a 2014 BCA amendment notification

So whilst you can potentially get around it in kitchens and bathrooms, in a separate laundry space or cupboard, if you are choosing not to provide a trough, you have to propose an "alternate" solution to the satisfaction of the surveyor to safely dispose/drain the washer discharge

So wouldn't the provision of a drainage system the same as a dishwasher drainage system be suitable for a separate laundry space? A washing machine doesn't drain into the trough, it drains into the plumbing underneath the trough. I'm no tradie/builder but it seems to me that it's effectively the same system.

Our design includes separate traps for the washing machine and the dishwasher/sink with taps on the wall as is standard in most laundries. This has satisfied all the regulatory requirements and must meet the "means for sanitary disposal of waste water".

After the whole process of renovating, I'd love to see simpler, easy to read and understand codes and requirements. I am thankful for the people who know and understand them.

Possibly, if the method/set-up of discharge with the trap is deemed to satisfy to standard. You may have successfully done this, but it's practically what the regs are trying to "discourage" since this method involves having a separate concealed open ended pipe/air vent (that you connect a washer/dishwasher into) that is of greater risk of overflow than say if connected to a sink or trough above that is safer/cleaner/neater set-up. In all the projects we've ever designed/worked on, dishwashers are 100% coupled/positioned next to the sink and washing machines typically are within proximity to a trough (or very occasionally a basin if within a bathroom) which effectively avoids having to deal with this (often painful/arduous) reg negotiation/interpretation business, which I think most people will agree can be extremely confusing and convoluted to achieve something relatively straight forward and logical.

"this method involves having a separate concealed open ended pipe/air vent (that you connect a washer/dishwasher into) that is of greater risk of overflow "

Right. It might be that our set up is ok because our unit is over garages/car ports and the trap is below the floor. It's tricky. I'm so pleased we left the details to the people who know.