Laundry room upstairs or down

[Nutellaonall]

Getting a double extension and have the plans. We will have quite a decent sized downstairs utility/boot room. Talked about getting a shoot down to it as well.
But keep thinking about trying to get the washer/dryer upstairs. There is not an obvious space for this though. We could take out some of the main bathroom but that would mean having a bath/shower as opposed to a bath and seperate shower cubicle. Or take a huge chunk out of my dream dressing room maybe.
what are people’s thoughts on the pros and cons of an upstairs laundry room? Have you moved it upstairs and been pleased/ regretted it?

I don’t think I would in your case, as you’re then taking space from your rooms you mentioned.

For me, the washing/laundry area needs to be by the back door. As 80% of the year I will hang some things on the line. Maybe then bring in and put on the clothes horse overnight if not fully dry. So In my opinion Laundry facilities needs to be near the outside.l!

If at all possible I would have it upstairs but a separate utility downstairs is pretty good too!

I'd personally love to have the various laundry things upstairs.

Lived for several years in Europe where the norm is to have the washer/dryer in the bathroom, we had them in a closet right off the bathroom and the difference was massive! All clothes business upstairs, away from general living areas, and it was so handy just tossing your clothes into the washer right before you stepped in the shower.

Think it's complicated if you also have a utility downstairs, though, because that would be like two of the same thing....? The chute could work.

I have no idea why we drag our washing downstairs and then have to drag it all upstairs again.

Depends if you're a washing line person or not.

I'm not - never hang laundry outside so have no need to take it out. If you take it in and out every day the utility room option makes sense.

We once had a house with an upstairs laundry room and it was absolutely brilliant. I've wanted one in every house ever since. It kept the house downstairs SO much tidier as it was all upstairs, and was all drying in the actual room itself.

We keep talking about trying to squeeze one into this house which is tall and I'm currently traipsing laundry up and down 2 or 3 sets of stairs 😩

I have a laundry room upstairs, the best thing we did. Love it!

Don't put a washer upstairs. On the spin it sounds 100x louder when you're below it. I used to live in a basement flat and the kitchen of the house above was directly above my bedroom. Every bloody morning at 7am it sounded like an earthquake was about to collapse the building when their washer went onto the spin cycle.

Well I'm a line user (even today) & don't have/want a dryer, so a utility room downstairs would be my choice! The chute would be handy, but I'd need to consider how it 'ended' as I know I'd be using it for stuff other than laundry too!!

We have an upstairs laundry room, I far prefer it. I don’t mind carrying baskets down & back up again when the weather is good enough to hang it outside as that is only sometimes. I use a clothesmaid most of the time.

We have a chute and THAT transformed our laundry. It comes out in a cupboard that is next to my stacked washer and dryer. I also line dry in summer so downstairs makes sense.

We also have a maiden.

Thanks for all your feedback. Some food for thought.
I to admit I am not much of a line dryer. I hadn’t thought about all the condensation issues upstairs.
Considering a main downstairs utility room with a shoot from my main dressing room and if I can squeeze it in a washer/dryer in the bathroom.

I would always have washer/dry on whatever ground level floor of the house is, simply because of the practicality of getting the machine up or down stairs.

We have our chute on the landing. We could have had it in our dressing room, but wanted the kids to have access and not disturb me. I’d favour an all access area.

I would always have a WM downstairs because...

1- getting it upstairs in the first place would be a PITA
2 - if it leaks/floods the consequences are much worse upstairs
(I realise both of these are either point in time or unlikely to happen, but still....)
3 - the noise (I do most of my washing overnight, but even during the day I'm upstairs a lot WFH and it would drive me mad)
4 - I would never compromise on bathroom space to put the WM upstairs (especially if it meant losing a shower)
5 - access to outdoors (I don't dry a lot in my sheltered north facing garden, but in summer I try and do as much as possible)
6 - condensation/ventilation (utility windows are locked in a cracked open position AYR)

Just seen your post about having a WM downstairs and another one upstairs! That seems like madness. Just chose a location and commit to it. Having 2 means you've got 2 to maintain, 2 lots of space taken up and you'll end up favouring one over the other anyway.

If you've got a separate utility downstairs then what's the point of having one upstairs too? Unless you've got a million kids who all play football and ride horses in the mud, one washing machine is plenty!

I line-dry whenever I can, but I still miss the upstairs washer-dryer, that I had when I lived in Italy. Over all, there is a lot less traipsing up and down the stairs because you generate almost all dirty washing upstairs (bed changes/towels/undressing) and you store most clean laundry upstairs.

I'd go for upstairs every time, if I had the choice.

If I was building a house from scratch I would have a large laundry room upstairs with space for cupboards for storage, hanging areas, a large sink and lots of worktop space and room for the ironing board to be up at all times and rather than a laundry shute I would have a dumb waiter that opens up into the boot room so I can put a laundry basket of wet washing if I want to line dry, much neater than throwing stuff down a shute. It would also be quite nice to have a balcony from this mythical room as it would be handy for a clothes horse, but not essential. To be honest I’ve not really given it much thought……….

Next house we build… I plan to have an upstairs laundry!
we have an airing cupboard where the water tank is in this house which is big enough to hang clothes to dry and its very efficient, always lovely and hot and nothing needs ironing if dried on hangers. But if id thought about it properly, and had the hot water tank in an upstairs utility room, it’d have saved a lot of carrying washing baskets up and down the stairs.

Upstairs. This year 🙂 I decided to try moving the iron and the iron board upstairs.

DHs shirts ironed and straight into the wardrobe- no more shirts hanging on the door handles down stairs!

I can't see me going back to having it down stairs

We have an upstairs laundry room. It’s the best thing ever! We used an extra small bathroom that was a bit pointless, so all the plumbing was already mostly in place and or electrician sorted the sockets once the bathroom had been removed. Then some time taken to ensure the floor was strong and perfectly level, the washer sits on an anti vibration pad but you can hardly hear it - getting the floor firm and absolutely level was the key. I have a tumble dryer and a heated airer in there too and no issues with condensation, the dryer is plumbed in so water drains away, and I leave the window open most days.

Mines in the middle floor, best thing I've ever had

I’d have it downstairs but that’s because we’re outdoorsy and a lot of stuff goes straight off into the machine. Wouldn’t want to carry muddy clothes through the house.

Laundry shoots are banned in many parts of the US as they are dreadful fire risks

If you get a ducted dryer then you wont have as much of a condensation problem

ours is 1 hour fire rated