Combined bathroom / laundry room?

[JonSnowedUnder]

Currently going through a building project and would love any thoughts on whether it would be a good idea to have a laundry area in an upstairs bathroom. We are having a downstairs utility space which is where I originally planned to have the washer and drier but I was wondering whether it would be best to have the laundry upstairs - I rarely dry anything outside and use a combination of tumble drier and clothes horse with a dehumidifier.

There will be 3 bedrooms on the first floor, one being en-suite and two more bedrooms on the second floor with a shower room. We are planning on being here long term but if we did change our minds, would it be weird to have stacked washer / drier in the first floor bathroom with space for a clothes horse? The room isn't huge but there is definitely space without it being cramped, although it would mean the shower would have to go over the bath rather than separate.

Whatever you choose

I think if you ensure the floor is properly able to support the weight then it's fine, it makes sense to me to have it upstairs where most dirty washing is taken off.

Is there room for washing baskets or will you put them in each room?

How much time do you spend doing the washing? If you like to get loads in first thing whilst people are trying to shower I can see it being annoying, or if it's going to become overwhelmed with 6+ people's clothes? Or can't use the shower because there's clothes on the airer?

But generally, I'd love mine upstairs

@SleepingStandingUp I do a lot of washing, although I am not organised enough to be doing it early in the morning! There are 5 of us in the house but DH and I will use the en-suite and two children will be upstairs with their own shower room so just one child using the bathroom so I'm not too worried about juggling people using the room versus needing to be in there for laundry.

I think it would work for our family set up but I am worried if we did ever come to sell people would find it off putting in what is essentially the family bathroom. If I could figure out a way to have a separate upstairs laundry I would feel more confident but I'm not sure that layout will work. My plan is to have some sort of sliding door to hide the appliances and clothes horse while I'm not using them.

Is there outside space to dry washing? If I was buying a house with somewhere to line dry clothes I wouldn't want to be lugging a heavy basket of wet washing down the stairs. The idea of having a proper space to dry clothes indoors in bad weather is appealing though.

We had a cupboard built up house the washing machine and tumble drier when we had our upstairs bathroom redone 3 years ago. I love it and would not want to go back to having it in the kitchen.

I still use an outside washing line when it’s dry enough to - carrying a basket of wet washing out and dry washing back in is no different to carrying it down to a washing machine in the kitchen.

But when it is wet and rainy (a lot here in Cornwall) it makes it all som much less traipsing up and down stairs!!

I was looking into doing something like this, but I'm not sure it's allowed to put a washing machine into a new bathroom in the UK? I came to the conclusion it wasn't due to building regs.

Would love stuff in bathroom , too small tho

we had this when I was growing up. it worked very well because all the laundry was near where the dirty clothes are. there was a clothes drying rail over the bath (high ceilings) which could stay up while the children had baths.

@coronabeer it is allowed, there are just certain distances from "wet zones" that need to be adhered to and I think the machine has to be hard wired in, potentially with the switch somewhere separate e.g. up high or perhaps on the wall outside the bathroom. Not super simple but if other building work is going on not too much of a faff.

I understood it needed to be at least 3m from a bath or shower - not really possible unless you have an especially large bathroom. But maybe you do?

That said, it would be nice to be wrong about this one - makes perfect sense to me and is commonplace it lots of countries.

@coronabeer It's ok but plugs have to be 3m away from a bath or shower - I didn't actually think about that until you mentioned it...I will have to measure it out.

@RampantIvy there is space outside for line drying, the times I would lug a basket of wet washing outside are rare. However your viewpoint is what I'm worried about if we came to sell, I know there are a lot of people who vastly prefer to dry outside. My DM is horrified whenever I mention using the tumble drier unless it's heavy rain!

I think it's one of those things that you either think it a good idea or not but if the washing machine was downstairs you wouldn't question why it wasn't upstairs if that makes sense?

Can you plumb in the relevant connections in to your downstairs utility so that if you sell an incoming family could easily connect their machines up downstairs? The other thing worth checking is noise/vibration. How much will you be able to hear in other rooms when the washing machine is on?

@Sprig1 we could sort out the connections in the utility so it would be easy if we did sell and the buyer want to switch things up which would be a good idea.

I am worried about noise, not so much for the rooms on the same floor but how much the sound would carry down stairs which feels like we wouldn't know until it was potentially too late!

Just moved my washer into the bathroom and I love it!
Different to you though, because we’re in a bungalow anyway.
The washer is situated in a corner and plugged into a socket outside the bathroom (wire was fed under the floorboards). The original fittings have been left in place in the garage, so if we sell the new owner could move it back in there

We’re doing this at the moment.

Plan is, washer & dryer on floor, in a tall cabinet. Countertop over the appliances and drying rails / shelf above. Space in between washer & dryer for a small trolley to store wash powder etc... Small plug in dehumidifier on countertop to dry clothes. Cork or similar acoustic muffling floor to laundry cabinet. Plug sockets above countertop with bit nibbled out of back of them to fit plug through if we need to remove appliances.
Doors to cabinet will be folding rather than just 2 that open flat / wide.

I ‘think’ it will work!

I seen this in European flats and houses and to me makes far more sense than having it in a kitchen.

I've seen this in houses I was viewing (usually downstairs, a 'loo-tility') - seems fine to me and better than in the kitchen

Is the first floor bathroom en-suite? If so I wouldn’t put the washer/dryer in there as I wouldn’t want people traipsing through a bedroom to reach the washing machine.

I prefer washing machines in bathrooms to kitchens but if you have the space for a utility room I’d always choose that, to be honest.

@Porridgeislife it's the main bathroom I'm considering this option for - the master bedroom has an en-suite, so although I suppose the bathroom would be considered the main bathroom it will only really be used by one child on a regular basis as the others will use the shower room on the top floor.

@AntonMeyersNo1Fan does it cause much noise downstairs when it's on?

We had this setup in our old house - worked very well. We had the machines built in to a cabinet under the sink so nobody even noticed them.

Noise wasn't an issue for us but we had very thick walls and floors!

We’re in a Victorian maisonette with our washing machine upstairs & it is extremely noisy downstairs during the spin cycle. Our spare room/my office is underneath and I need noise cancelling earphones when it’s on.

No more than it caused when it was downstairs! I work directly underneath it and normally don’t notice when it spins.

[quote JonSnowedUnder]@coronabeer It's ok but plugs have to be 3m away from a bath or shower - I didn't actually think about that until you mentioned it...I will have to measure it out.

@RampantIvy there is space outside for line drying, the times I would lug a basket of wet washing outside are rare. However your viewpoint is what I'm worried about if we came to sell, I know there are a lot of people who vastly prefer to dry outside. My DM is horrified whenever I mention using the tumble drier unless it's heavy rain!

I think it's one of those things that you either think it a good idea or not but if the washing machine was downstairs you wouldn't question why it wasn't upstairs if that makes sense?[/quote]
I have an upstairs utility room and line dry as much as possible.

Having had a downstairs utility and I actually found that a pain the arse having to traipse baskets down. Forget something, walk back up etc. I find it much easier to sort upstairs where the clothes etc and the laundry baskets are. Most other countries combine the two.