Washing machine upstairs or in garage?

[MagpiePi]

I’m moving soon and the kitchen at the new house is much smaller than my current one so was pondering whether to put the washing machine in an airing cupboard on the landing, or in the garage, to free up kitchen space.
The airing cupboard is next to the bathroom and shares the wall where the shower head is, so plumbing shouldn’t be a problem. (Or would it?)
I mentioned it to a friend who immediately said it was a bad idea in case the washing machine leaks. But surely a washing machine leaking on the kitchen with built in cabinets would be equally inconvenient?
Would vibrations on the spin cycle be annoying or would specific matting solve that?

I’d have to go out of the back door and in through a side door to the garage, plus plumbing it in would be more work, although there is an outside tap nearby. I live alone so only put washing on maybe twice a week.
I hang clothes outside whenever possible or on radiators or airers if it is raining.

Am I mad; should just stick with having it in the kitchen?

How well insulated is your garage? *thinking about frozen pipes.
Is there drainage in the garage?
Do you have any plans to extend or convert the property? (Maybe organise a temporary fix).
Do you have a downstairs loo you could sacrifice?

I loved having my washing machine upstairs and I’m hoping to do it again

@MrsMoastyToasty
The more I think about it, the less feasible the garage idea is. It was a spur of the moment thought after reading a thread about tumble dryers in garages. It would be easier in a garage that was part of the main building rather than standalone.

@Davros
Can you say a bit more about the practicalities? How was it plumbed in? Were vibrations a problem?

I suppose the main concern would be noise/vibrations. In my house (we live in a terraced house where you can hear everything that happens upstairs) it wouldn't be advisable for our sanity and that of the neighbours.
Another factor is where are you going to do the drying/ ironing, if it's downstairs you might be better off with the garage.

Upstairs. There are various things you can do to make the cupboard more resistant to water damage or detect leaks (just google the topic).

Consider noise though - ours is very loud in spin cycle so I wouldn’t run it overnight for example

Upstairs. Bringing your clean, dry wash in from the garage when it's raining is a real pain. How, you may wonder, do I know this?

There was already a utility room upstairs when we moved in so it was all plumbed. I loved it, it’s so much easier to deal with clothes and bedding in the area of the house where they need to be. We did have an anti-vibration pad under the washing machine for when it was doing a spin but I think these are fairly easy to get and place

Definitely upstairs! Kirsty Allsop always said washers & dryers would be far more convenient near bedrooms not near kitchens.

@RareLemur
It is a detached house so no neighbours to worry about.
If the wm was downstairs I’d still have to carry clothes from upstairs, then out to the garden to dry. The only difference would be carrying wet clothes from upstairs. In bad weather I’d probably put them in the back bedroom to dry. I have a dehumidifier already which would help. I don’t do ironing…

I currently have the wm in a utility room next to the kitchen with an overhead pulley dryer, so it is an ideal set up IMO.
Apart from the issue of space in the kitchen, the idea of it is slightly giving me the ick. Not sure why; the proximity of food prep areas and dirty clothes? I grew up with a wm in the kitchen so it’s not new to me!

I have friends in the southern US and they all have their washing machines in a laundry cupboard upstairs. They were baffled when I told them they are usually in kitchens in the UK.

Thanks. I’ve had a quick look for anti vibration matting but didn’t think about leak detection.

I live abroad and have the washing machine in the bathroom - it's great! The only laundry we ever have to lug up/downstairs is clothes kids throw off downstairs, and tea towels.

I will say though it makes it more annoying to dry things outside - so if you do this in the summer, bear that in mind. I use a dryer for other reasons so it doesn't make a huge difference to us.

We have ours plumbed in under the sink, there is an extra attachment there designed for a washing machine. Of course in the UK that is tricky due to distance required for plug sockets in the bathroom. If you have plumbing lines passing behind it, then you should be OK to open up the wall and put a junction in, as long as you can access drainage as well.

We did have a leak with ours (user error) and it was a bit of a nightmare with water coming down through the floor onto the downstairs light fitting 😅But it dried out and I'm not sure that a washing machine is particularly more prone to leaking than a sink/bath/shower/general pipes? As long as you keep on top of maintenance, and it might be a good idea to only run it when you're at home, so if there is a leak you can go and turn it off.

It can be loud but it's not like a washing machine is on 24/7 so we just shut the door when it's on. We have it on one of those rubber mats but I don't know that it makes much difference. Most of the noise comes from it vibrating against the dryer next to it or the sink on the other side - I tend to put it on a lower spin speed when washing towels or anything that gets heavy when wet, to avoid too much noise and potential damage to the sink here. Then once they have spun at the lower speed and aren't so waterlogged, I put the higher speed on to get a bit more water out.

If you put a tumble dryer in a garage, you don't want a heat pump dryer there as they lose too much heat to the surrounding unheated building and become very inefficient.

Upstairs for sure. I have an upstairs laundry room with the dryer stacked on top of the washing machine. It’s brilliant.

I have my washing machine and tumble dryer upstairs. It makes far more sense.

Looks like this is not a totally bad idea!

I expect I’ll find that the airing cupboard is just a bit too narrow to fit the washing machine in now! 😬

I don't live in the UK but we have water sensors by our dishwasher and washing machine and waterproof mats underneath so if there is a leak the alarm would go off before it would cause water damage elsewhere. Maybe something like that exists in the UK too?

I guess it depends what kind of house you have.

Washing machines are really heavy. So getting them upstairs could be an issue.

The vibration again will depend on the structure of the house and how it is placed, but is likely to be much more transmittable upstairs than if it is sited on a concrete floor. Whether you are detached or a semi/terrace might become a consideration, as although you may be willing to tolerate the vibrations, the ndns will get less benefit and might not be too happy.

Increased potential for water damage from leaks is an issue.

Downstairs every time for me! I prefer to hang the washing outside whenever possible so bringing it downstairs whilst wet would be a complete pain. If you prefer drying in a tumble dryer, I guess it's a different story.

We've not had a washing machine in the kitchen in our last five (iirc) houses and - despite having had plenty of space for one - have never bothered with a tumble dryer. We were tempted when we lived in Wales for six years, because it was so much wetter there, but we were fortunate to have a large, covered outdoor seating area adjacent to the back door so we could put clothes airers/temporary washing line there. We'd then bring it into the large kitchen to air by one of the wood burners.

We sold that house last year and are now back home on the south coast of England in a little cottage with smaller rooms, but I was determined not to have the washing machine in the kitchen, so it's going in the newly created lootility.

We did have friends in Wales with a washing machine in a cupboard in their bathroom, but they didn't have a utility room in their tiny cottage and I do recall them moaning about lugging wet washing down the stairs and out to the garden to dry.

Either way there will always be a "problem" but on balance I would hate having to carry wet clothes downstairs every time it was feasible to hang them out to dry much more than I'd dislike having to carry them in from a garage when it's not drying weather.

Below zero temp inside a garage will be very rare and easily guarded against with basic insulation

People have washing machines in flats and apartments all the time, so not an issue with upstairs

it makes sense to me to have it upstairs and wish new builds came with the plumbing upstairs

my dds new build has a half cupboard in her bedroom ideal for a washing machine or drier and a cupboard in bathroom which isn’t an airing cupboard but just right size for both washing machine drier stack - but no electrics. It could have been designed at build stage as utility cupboard

I would 100% put the WM in the house, having to carry dirty laundry all the way into the garage is not very user friendly and you'd get tired of it fast!

I am a kitchen designer and have worked with many people... some decisions they regret and want to improve in their new kitchen normally are ones that result in more work/longer trips for daily routine things.

When I lived in the US, there was a washer and a dryer in a large cupboard on the landing.
This was very common - but 2 things
firstly they were top loaders as was the norm there, which made leakage much more unlikely.
secondly nobody line dried, so there wasn’t any issue about carting wet stuff downstairs, and of course the vast bulk of laundry is ‘upstairs’ stuff anyway.

and also re running these appliances at night … not really a good idea. Afaik they’re among the commoner domestic devices to catch fire.