Ideal place for washing machine/tumble dryer or utility room

[samosamo]

Dear all

I HATE walking up and down stairs with bags of laundry. Currently the utility room is in the basement with bedrooms on the first floor. Two flights of stairs is too much!!!

My next home will have a ground floor, first floor (bedrooms) and loft (yet to be done).

Where should a utility go? I don't want it on the ground floor, but please school me if that's not a good idea. I'm thinking either no utility room and just put washer and dryer in a cupboard space on the first floor landing (though, then where to put the clothes airer with drying clothes?), steal from the bedrooms upstairs to make a utility room (but noise?), or in the loft where I am yet to configure (there will likely be a linen cupboard there/ space for towels, maybe that becomes a utility room?), though I'd still be taking clothes from bedroom level up there (although there parent bedroom will be in the loft).

Just wondering what would/have you done and your experiences.

Benefits of first floor:

• that’s where most laundry is generated and put away, so no carrying baskets up and down
• leaves more living space on ground floor, if living space is more limited than bedroom space
• less noise on the ground floor (although a decent door on the laundry room blocks a lot of noise)

Benefits of ground floor

• Can dry laundry outside much more easily (if you wish)
• Easier to quickly swap loads over etc whilst cooking or doing other things downstairs
• Won’t disturb sleeping people
• Less vibrations (assuming floors downstairs are more solid)
• Any muddy clothes can be taken off downstairs and go straight into the laundry room rather than taken upstairs
• Personally, I fold laundry whilst watching tv so it suits me to have it downstairs and I’d be carrying it down anyway

Remember you ideally need an extractor fan in any utility or it will become very steamy and damp - so consider whether you can run a duct from your cupboard on the landing for example.

I definitely wouldn’t put it in the loft, that will be a real pain if you’re in the middle of something downstairs and the laundry needs unloading, and means you’re still carrying laundry up and down.

Oh and we went for ground floor!

Yes. Very good points on ground floor including multitasking!

In Germany its very common to have it in the bathroom.... Makes sense when you think about it.

Are you building your new house? I would put it on the ground floor, but then I don’t have an issue with carrying the laundry up and down. We currently live in a 4 floor house (incl. basement) with the utility room at the very bottom, meaning I have 3 flights of stairs to the bedrooms at the top! I have several lightweight laundry bags from IKEA which are easy to carry up and down.

I often put laundry on with the timer so it’s ready to dry first thing in the morning, so wouldn’t want it near any bedrooms due to the noise.

Given that you have 3 floors you will inevitably have to carry something up and down. A cupboard on the landing is a bit risky in my view in case you have any leaks. I’d rather have a WM on a tiled floor. You might also need the floor reinforcing as a ground floor is obviously much more stable than first floor or loft.

We’re about to build a new house and will be having a laundry room in the basement again.

I'd love a laundry chute! Friends have one in their bathroom, clothes get sent down the chute to the utility room.

In Holland the top floor attic is used as the laundry though we did have a balcony up there that we could also dry things outside on. In Germany it is nearly always in the basement/cellar with a room strung with washing lines to dry stuff. Now in UK we have the utility room on the ground floor. I liked the German basement the best. Can't imagine ever having the washing machine in the kitchen but maybe that's because it's something we have never had.

Having just had my washing machine leak all over the floor you need to consider if it leaks on the first floor you may have damage to your ground floor ceiling. and machine machines leaking aren't that uncommon

We are seriously considering a chute for our new house!

@Bells3032 we had a container under the washing machine in Holland. It nearly came up to the door level and would hold any water that leaked out.

Yes, I wondered about making the floor just like a wet room, or a container.

Hadn't thought about reinforcing the floor, but im guessing its not too tricky?!

Do they make chutes that go up?

Maybe it's just because I was pregnant, but the lifting laundry up (down not too much of an issue at my age as yet) just got to me. And I have my pelvic floor to think about!!!

I just take a load down at a time. Not very heavy or difficult.

We have a ground floor laundry room but I iron in the kitchen. Upstairs, do you shut yourself in the laundry room to iron? Or not bother? I have hanging racks with coat hangers for drying, a big sink with plumbed in draining board, large drying radiator, and cupboards for cleaning materials, vacuum cleaner, batteries, lightbulbs etc. Plus my lovely wine fridge! That type of laundry space won’t fit in a cupboard and I like mine downstairs. We also store recycling paper in there and our muddy boots etc. It’s multi functional and better on the ground floor I think.

Yes, you can tank a room to contain spills. Definitely stand the washing machine on a lipped mat if upstairs.

I have a chute from the main landing into the utility. I would have liked a dumb waiter the take stuff back up, but the budget couldn’t stretch to that!

Our washing machine and dryer are on our large landing since we moved and it's amazing. The only stuff that needs carrying up and downstairs is tea towels!

My advice is to stack them upstairs, had this in the us and so much more convenient

Yes, I do feel that I'd like them closer to where clothes are removed and kept. A problem is space for the airers (I dry them in an airer rather than the tumble dryer typically). I could give them a dedicated room in the loft, but not on the first floor with the bedrooms.

So, I don't know what I'll do. But thanks for your contributions, very helpful.

Why is a loft more convenient than the ground floor? Do you have waste plumbing there?

Will have a bathroom up there. Will have one bedroom. Will have a linen cupboard up there so thinking of making a little room for washing machine and dryer. I just don't find downstairs convenient at all. There are 5 of us, three kids 5 or under. Cloth nappies. So much laundry!! They mess themselves up, they mess me up. Can't ever wear clothes twice before washing. We all know it well. Up and down the stairs is not for me anymore, so now I have the chance to change things around im going to do my best to lighten this load!!

My PIL converted their tiny bedroom into a utility room and it works so well. Laundry never has to be carried on the stairs, and can be washed, dried and ironed all in one place. I dont know why this isn't the norm! If you can't do that, having them stacked in a cupboard is a good idea. Could you dry with a pulley maid over your bath/stairs? We don't notice ours once it's up but do have very high ceilings.

My friend had a washing machine upstairs and it made a cracked down the whole side of their house! It was a 400year old building though.

I have seen a laundry shute with a basket and pulley system. A simple addition that seemed to work very well.

This house was once split into 4 flats (?!!!) So I'm thinking it probably won't literally crumble because of a washing machine, but that scared the bejeebies out of me when I read it!!!

I love my upstairs laundry! Am hoping to replicate in the new house but it will mean losing a bedroom on the first floor.

All ironing, ironing board, bedding etc is all in there out the way and very convenient for bedrooms so minimal trekking up and downstairs with baskets of washing. I have a ceiling drying rack and a clothes horse and between them I can dry loads of washing.

Our newish samsung machine is pretty quiet too so I can put it on overnight when the washing is piling up. You can get a rubber mat to put underneath the machine that helps with vibration and noise.

In new house I am contemplating doing the attic too and would put a kid in an attic room to free up a room for the laundry.

I would love a little first floor laundry room, or even the laundry cupboards on the landing. Unfortunately the upstairs layout means there’s nowhere to put one without seriously compromising one of the bedrooms/losing the separate shower in the main bathroom.

We’ve converted one of our reception rooms into a large kitchen/diner and our previously small kitchen is now being converted into wc/storage/utility. Previously the washer and dryer were in the cellar and it was too much of a faff managing laundry whilst watching a toddler.

If I was starting from scratch I would definitely have a small laundry room on the first floor.

If I was buying a house i absolutely would have it upstairs. I've spent my life up and down the stairs with laundry! I currently dry some laundry on an airer in the bedrooms. It's not ideal

We have made a utility in our loft! Same problem as yours combined with tendency to air dry the clothes so we were marching upstairs with wet clothes regularly.

We have a small but efficient utility with a WM, tumble dryer (both drain to a pipe which directly goes out of the house and connects to the bathroom waste externally). Plus we have a regular airer and heated airer in the utility. It also has a velux windows for fresh air circulation.

Totally efficient and saves us loads of trips plus the clothes chaos of drying.

We didn't have to reinforce the floor but we did put shock absorbing mats under the washer & dryer (Amazon).

I would totally recommend it.