Utility room

My home is upside down, with the kitchen and living room on the first floor. The kitchen is quite small so it made more sense to have the laundry equipment in another room on the floor below, it's now in the tank room on our ground floor which is quite convenient.
As regards delivery of the equipment, if you buy from somebody like John Lewis and mention at the time that the machines will not be on the ground floor, you should not have any problems. Our home is actually on the first and second floor of the building, so our ground floor is, in reality, the first floor. Problems can arise if it is a one man delivery.

Yes, they would be able to take it in a lift, but were not allowed to manually shift it up a flight of stairs.

With regard to the elf’n’safety issue of delivering a washer: millions of people live in flats/apartments so it stands to reason that stuff can and does get delivered “upstairs”. Or in blocks of high rise via a lift.
The best set up for laundry was my older sisters’ -a big Victorian house with a cellar that housed the washer. Stuff was literally thrown down the cellar steps and brought out clean through a door up some steps and out to the garden to be hung to dry.

BlueBelle I would love both, but a downstairs loo is a more sensible option. My house was 6 years old when I bought it in 1994, and it had one already. For a 3 bedroom, obviously a family home, the kitchen was too small but I have rectified that.

My house had a walk in pantry but it’s now my downstairs loo

I plan to fit the old utility out as a walk in pantry

I'd love a walk-in pantry.

The house I grew up in was small, no fridge in those days but there was a cool walk-in pantry with shelves, a window with insect screen. In fact, when my parents did buy a small fridge, it fitted easily into the pantry too.

BlueBelle

Does the chute carry it up again when it’s dry 🤣🤣🤣

I knew someone would say that BlueBelle

Paddyanne you have already made your decision and arranged for the workmen etc so I really don’t think that anything anyone here says will make any difference I m sure youve covered all possibilities and seem sure it’s what you want after all it’s down to personal choice and you’ve made the choices So I hope everything goes well tomorrow and you enjoy your new room upstairs

The plan is I do the washing and ironing upstairs the floor has been reinforced and I don’t think it’s an issue.
We lived in a first floor flat for 18 months and never had leaks ,the electrician is coming tomorrow so I need to make a final decision
I plan to fit the old utility out as a walk in pantry and change the layout of my kitchen.
Before I get blasted .it is my kitchen my OH doesn’t cook or clean it he only goes in when I shout him in to be fed or to fix a drink …lol

Charleygirl5

Allira I also had gone out, knowing no better in those days. Now I only visit the bins until all have stopped working.

I learnt a lesson too!

Allira I also had gone out, knowing no better in those days. Now I only visit the bins until all have stopped working.

Being Scottish, it is a lot cheaper to leave it downstairs!

Seriously, you now have a lot of food for thought.

Due to the vibrations from a spinning washing machine on floorboards it may be noisy, you may need reinforcements and sound proofing.

It may be possible to get a drip tray under the machine to limit damage from leaks.

My washing machine, not the best choice I now know, moves when on the fastest spin cycle.
It gets unbalanced very easily no matter how carefully I load it.
I would replace it if I could (a) afford to (b) realise what a bad move ecologically that would be.
It would not be suitable for floors which aren’t solid.

An unbalanced load in a washing machine can make a heck of a noise. Which room is below the proposed site of the washing machine? Another consideration.

Usedtobeblonde

I assume you mean you have moved the laundry room, not the utility room.
My utility room houses not only the washing machine and tumble dryer but the fridge freezer, the dishwasher, the cupboard with cleaning supplies ,the vacuum cleaner, kitchen waste bin and coats and shoe rack.
A general room for household needs.

As does ours, apart from a dishwasher.

How about the ironing board etc, will you be doing the ironing upstairs or downstairs, paddyann?

I think one of our neighbours has relocated their washing machine and tumble drier upstairs but they don't have a utility room.

We lived in a rented 1st floor flat when first married. I bought the washing machine, and over time, it leaked, so the landlady had a flooded kitchen on the ground floor. Maybe something to think about?
Oh, Charleygirl that brought back a memory of when we were first married and lived in an upstairs flat. I put on a load of washing and then went out. Got home to find the poor landlady greeting me by asking if water was meant to be running down the inside of her kitchen windows 😲

We lived in a rented 1st floor flat when first married. I bought the washing machine, and over time, it leaked, so the landlady had a flooded kitchen on the ground floor. Maybe something to think about?

Because of floods and leaks I wouldn't move appliances like a w/machine upstairs.

I never do washing overnight or when we go out.I had one of those dodgy driers that went up in flames in 2014 while I had a houseful of GC .luckily I was baking with two of them while the others were in and out of the kitchen.The smell of burning alerted us so I got them all out and called the fire brigade.
I unplug those appliances that could cause problems at nightTheplumbinghas been done its next to the main bathroom..I wanted to knock the wall down between them but my OHwasnt keen ..

… if there are problems I haven’t thought of …

Another reservation might be how light a sleeper you and other people in the household are - whether you might have machines running in the room next to the bedroom when people are sleeping e.g if you want to take advantage of any special off-peak energy offers.

The water inflow to my own washing machine is quite noisy and shuts off quite noisily too. The dryer can be noisy too depending on what’s being tumbled. Both machines emit loud beeping when the cycles are complete. Both would be likely to wake me if close to my bedroom.

There’s a much more serious consideration in that laundry appliances can and do catch fire. Having them in proximity to a bedroom would expose you to smoke inhalation sooner than if they were tucked away in a closed room downstairs and mean your chances of escape would be reduced.

Does it make sense though? washing machines can leak or go quite wrong and spew out all the water ( I know because mine has done just that) it would be much more of a problem if that happened upstairs than in my kitchen maybe that’s why they are normally situated in the kitchen near the taps and stopcock etc When I worked on the top floor of a hotel we used to tie all the washing bedding etc up in a big sheet and plop it down the stairwell 🤣the good old days

justwokeup

I have used a washing machine in a bathroom (holiday home) and it seemed so sensible not to carry laundry up and down stairs. I wish we had room for an upstairs laundry room. I can’t comment on the practicalities though, plumbing etc.

It’s never made sense to me that washing machines are in the kitchen.

Does the chute carry it up again when it’s dry 🤣🤣🤣

Canadian friends have the laundry room in the basement and a chute from the top of the house which takes dirty laundry down to the basement ready for the washing machine.

I've been in houses in the US where there's been a laundry room, well more of a cupboard really upstairs. I think it's logical after all where does the bulk of the laundry come from, bed linen, towels, used clothes in the laundry basket all usually upstairs. Maybe it's considered unorthodox, I don't know why, it makes perfect sense and could well be a good use of an unused bedroom, particularly if it's sited next to a bathroom.

Calandergirl I m with you all the way even nice blowy fine days in the winter mine go outside with wind and sun on their backs
I have a three story partially inherited house but it’s still back in the 60 s and no spare money to update it but you know what I love it and it’s mine