Laundry Room - Upstairs..Cons?

[Thamizh]

Planning to have laundry room upstairs, as we will be converting the garage space to living space. Is there anything I need to be aware of please? Any tips and suggestions in terms of avoiding water leakage or any other hazards are much appreciated. Thank you.

We looked at buying a house with one but decided against. Didn't fancy manoeuvring all the wet washing downstairs to hang it out in the summer.

in a world where electricity is increasingly expensive don't you want your laundry to be close to the garden to hang it out to dry?

The noise and vibrations from the washing machine might be a bit much.

plus if you run appliances at night like we do it would be rather noisy to have them going whilst you're trying to sleep.

I used to live in the states and they seemed popular there upstairs. But I never liked the idea

Downstairs would be more convenient for me as I line dry most things but I could adapt. I don't like to use appliances over night but for those that do I can see that that might be a downside. Generally with washing and hanging out I am squeezing it in between other tasks so going upstairs each time might be annoying.

Makes sense to me , you get undressed upstairs ,the clean washed laundry is not that heavy to carry if it’s been spun well
we’ve just moved , and bought a new washing machine , it is so quiet ! As long as it’s not running at night , I think it would be fine
we had the washing machine upstairs in the bathroom when I was a girl , IMHO much better upstairs than in a kitchen

We are doing this - so am interested potentially cons and how to circumvent them.
We rarely dry outside, usually on a clothes stand in the spare room, so it makes sense for us to move the laundry upstairs - it’s a pain to take the laundry downstairs and then back up again.

I had them in the USA but we didn't line dry anything (against local covenants!) now I put everything on the line if I can

Put sound insulation in and humidity detecting extractor fans. I love ours. We can still hang the washing outdoor when it is summer but can also put it on the airers in the Landry room when it isn't.
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Our incredibly-quiet washing machine was only so very quiet on a concrete based flooring (wood over concrete). When we moved it into an extension built on wooden suspended beams, as the upstairs of most houses are, it shook the entire extension. I'd test out your washing machine upstairs before making any firm plans.

Make sure your joists can take the weight.

The number of stair trips the laundry has to do (assuming your bedrooms are upstairs) will be the same whether your washing machine is upstairs or down. If it’s upstairs, then dirty laundry goes into machine, taken downstairs to hang outside, brought back upstairs when dry. If it’s downstairs, dirty laundry taken downstairs, hung outside, taken back up again when dry. I think I’d prefer to carry a basket of clean wet washing than a basket of dirty laundry downstairs!

Washing machine would not fit up our twisty stairs. And it would shake our rickety house to bits, bad enough in the kitchen.

This is done as a matter of course in most Dutch houses. It seems to work well in DS and DIL's house, undressing upstairs, etc. There is plenty of drying space, if they don't tumble or line dry. It doesn't seem to be that noisy either.

But basket of dirty but dry laundry = not very heavy. Same for basket of clean and dry laundry. So not a problem carrying up and down the stairs down to the washing machine and up again to put away.

Basket of wet laundry = very heavy. Wouldn't want to carry that from a first floor washing machine downstairs to the garden to hang out.

I also tend to sort some laundry etc whilst cooking which would be difficult if it was on a different floor.

I'm going to get flack for this but I think the weirdest room to have a laundry machine is the kitchen. Just so weird.

There's water and a drain. Makes sense to me.

I inherited upstairs laundry in the last house I bought and absolutely loved it and would look to have it again

Thank you all for the insight...looks like spinning and the vibrations it makes will be an issue. Any solution for it?

I think you can get anti vibration rubber mats and insulate the walls

and perhaps put the machine in a cupboard

@BeyondMyWits there is water and a drain in a bathroom too.
Dirty pants and socks in the kitchen is weird. Where do you put your dirty clothes whilst you have a load on. Is it in a basket in the kitchen? It's such a bizarre thing.

That's such an odd thing to say.

Do you not wear clothes in your kitchen? Why is it that when in a laundry hamper waiting to go in the machine they're too dirty, yet when you walk into the kitchen, prepare food, sit at your kitchen table etc, wearing those same garments it's perfectly fine.

In our house there's no electric socket in the bathroom, and the dirty washing is upstairs in a laundry basket on the landing until it goes down into the washing machine... my house was built before washing machines, so is not designed to have one upstairs, so not bizarre here.