Utility room

My friend did the same and all was fine until the washing machine broke. When she ordered a new one (I can’t remember which big firm it was), they said they were not allowed to take it upstairs. Health and safety, I think. Just something to be aware of. Other than that, she lives her upstairs utility room.

I presume your dishwasher is in the kitchen?
Otherwise, seems a good idea.

Do you have good access to water, plumbing and sewerage where you plan to move it to?

I had mine moved last year from the cellar utility room to an alcove near the kitchen. I am not in the UK but it required quite a lot of building work
- the plumber had to draw water pipes from the kitchen and then it needed to be attached to the soil pipe for waste water
- an electrician had to rewire because the circuit would have been overloaded
- where I live the space under a washing machine has to be waterproof so a flooring contractor had to lay a vinyl floor

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.

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.

Well it would save carting all the dirty washing downstairs, and then back up again once it was clean and dry!

Sounds a good idea to me as you have the space upstairs.
I dry a lot of ours indoors on two big laundry airers, helped by a dehumidifier, as well as using the tumble dryer.

Not answering the question at all, but would hate not to hang washing outside, in lovely summer weather especially.

I realise many people don’t have the suitable space or garden though.

DD has just done that in a 3 storey house. She said that, as most of the washing comes from the bedroom floor, it made no sense to take it down to floors then up again, so she turned the shower room on the middle, living rooms, floor into a cloakroom/utility.

In her case, she does have a first floor balcony, so as well as using a tumble dryer, she has a wall fixed drying facility on the balcony wall.

It has been in use for 4 months, so far without any problem.

I think it all depends on your lifestyle. DD works from home and her office is on the middle floor so she has shoe horned hot/cold drink providing facilities into the room so that when she is working everything is to hand.

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

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.

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.

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

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 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

… 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.

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 ..

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.

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 😲

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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!