Wwyd: Utility with pump or no utility

[mum2015]

I had planned to use half the garage as utility and rest as bike storage. However architect came back saying the drainage in our house are shallow and we can't have utility in garage without a pump. Garage is on opposite side of the house to where current bathroom and kitchen are.
What would you do? Have utility room in garage with pump or no utility room? I can keep a condenser dryer in garage and put boiler in a first floor cupboard and washing machine in under stairs cupboard. Would that be better than getting a pumped drainage?

Possibly not helpful as I know nothing about pump drainage but I would always choose to have a seperate utility room if humanly possible!

What do you use utility room for other than washing machine and dryer? I can still have half the garage as utility room, but without drainage so without washing machine. Would it be still worth it?

Not sure, I don’t know how reliable pumped drainage is.

I would rather have a WM, dryer, sink and boiler all together in a utility room than spread around the house.

I would look into the pump. My utility is next to the kitchen but I have the washing machine and tumble dryer in there with a wardrobe pole running the length of the utility which is only 1.5m long. I hang up any non-tumble stuff so Dh's work shirts, the boy's school jumpers.

I also have a clothes horse for woollens or bras. Over the top of the WM & TD I store carrier bags, the recycling, lunch boxes and a few kitchen items that I don't have room for in the kitchen that also aren't used that often such as lolly moulds.

Pinterest will be of help looking at what you can put in a utility. I have the WM & TD next to each other then a worktop then a load of storage.

We have pumped drainage in our cellar. it serves our washing machine and a sink. The pump makes some noise, but it's not loud and you can't hear it in the room above, though you can hear the water moving.

thanks. good to know that pump isnt very noisy. I can have dryer, cloth drying rack, extra storage etc in the utility without drainage. It is the washing machine which needs pump.

A washing machine has its own pump. I don't know what height it pumps to, but you could ask the makers.

Most people only need to pump about 900mm up, from ground level up to sinktop.

PigletJohn,

Very hapoy to get advice from you. I am attaching the floorplan. Garage is where I would like to make a utility room. All drains are on opposite side of the house, like that wc. Would a washing machine be able to drain water without additional pump if it is put in garage and drain connected to existing drainage?

If there is no foul water sewer on this side of the house, one assumes there is no sink for the washing machine to pump into. The garage side of the house appears to be living areas and not areas requiring a foul sewer. The washing machine should not discharge into rainwater drainage.

However, I cannot see how a pump would help. Is the architect saying the pump will take the water all the way around the house to the foul water sewer on the other side? In what drainage system will it do this? How are you getting water to the washing machine in the first place? If the garage has no foul water sewer, you cannot connect the washing machine to the rain water drainage. I think you need to do a lot of work and go to a lot of expense, or try and put the utility elsewhere, near the kitchen.

Yes unfortunately it is lot of cost to run water supply and drain connection from Garage side to the other side of the house. One builder said 1600 as rough idea. I would have gone for such expense also, but architect said the drainage is shallow and would need a pump to work.

Have you exposed drainage pipes? How shallow are they?

Hi mum2015, hope you don’t mind me asking but I am considering doing a half garage conversation like you. Apart from the pump issue, would you mind saying roughly how much you have been quoted for this building work? I’ve no idea whether or not it would be affordable! Many thanks!

I haven't got any quote for it yet. It will be part of bigger project of side and back extension plus loft conversion.

I don't know how shallow drainage is actually.