Upstairs Laundry Room

[Tunnocks34]

Has anyone put a laundry room upstairs? I have purchased a 5/6 bedroom house but the 6 is extremly small - could maybe fit a single bed and a rug. I was thinking of turning it into a laundry room and having a washing machine and dryer up here but I am concerned about any leaks that may happen.

Has anyone done this?

My Canadian grandma had hers in the basement too but had a chute from the first floor bathroom straight to the laundry basket! We used to try and climb up and down it as kids 😅

I had an upstairs laundry in one house and it was a nightmare! Had to keep going upstairs to put washer/dryer on/empty it etc when I had a load of washing. You don’t spend most of your time upstairs you spend it down

No need to worry about getting a washing machine upstairs, weight, vibration etc. what about all the people who live in flats, there could be multiple floors with washing machines and dryers in one building? Just make sure it’s done properly

The fact that washing machines are often in the kitchen is specific to the UK, in most other countries the default is to have it upstairs, either in a dedicated laundry room or in a bathroom.
Yes, it means taking laundry downstairs to dry outside, but not more than having to bring dirty laundry downstairs and then back up to put it in wardrobes. And you avoid having dirty laundry near the food area!
I’m in a Victorian terrace now and the washing machine is in a walk in cupboard upstairs.

Yes would rather have a utility room downstairs which I have as I line dry as much as possible

Because we dry outside as much as possible and carrying wet washing downstairs is harder work.

I hang everything outside to dry. Wouldn’t want to be lugging wet laundry up and down stairs.

In our previous house the sixth bedroom was tiny so we converted it into an home office. It worked really well, there was enough room for a desk, chair and a few plants. Door closed for Zoom meetings or concentration work, open for everything else.

We are having one upstairs when we do our house extension - I will still take to downstairs to hang outside to dry and will have drying racks on the ceiling for rainy days.

I think it’s the thing I am most excited for!

I can see it would be annoying if you hang most things outside - OP I reckon that's the deciding factor!

I don't have space for a utility downstairs and in any case don't line dry anything.

There is already an office - we have 4 reception rooms

Thank you everyone. Lots to think about!

We have a middle floor laundry room for 20 years. The boiler and mega flow are also in there. We dry in a pulley ceiling aired and I have a set of wall fixed drying racks from ikea which are good for all the small stuff. Get a washing machine with a timer so you can load at night and programme for it to be finished at x o’clock the next morning when you want to unload. The last time we bought a new washing machine both when I ordered and when I took the delivery, John Lewis was very clear that their delivery people wouldn’t carry a Miele machine upstairs because of the weight of the machine. I’d ordered a Bosch so that was ok - but worth checking.

I live in a top 2 floors flat in an old house and JohnLewis installed my old Meile machine in the kitchen so not the very top floor.
I have a Bosch now and have to say
it does make a racket spinning but not much I can do with that. I might look into these vibrations mat, but not able to level the floor

My SIL has and she loves it!

We have a laundry chute that goes from our dressing room (disguised as a chest of drawers) into a cupboard in the laundry room downstairs. You then open the cupboard door to remove the washing and place it in one of the two washing machines. It at least saves lugging the washing downstairs.

I did consider having a dumb waiter to haul it back upstairs again, but decided to save the space. Maybe in the next house! 😊

Nonetheless I quite liked having our office away from the main living areas. But I agree four reception rooms does give you options.

As a laundry room I think the noise for adjoining rooms might concern me, and also you would need to make sure it was properly vented for humidity.

We rented a house in Sicily that had a laundry room upstairs that opened onto a roof terrace for outside drying . Perfect !

Sounds like a great idea.

I do! It's brill.Washer dryer, airer from the ceiling, ikea kalkax with a washing basket in it for each member of the family big pull out baskets for light and dark dirty washing and ironing board permenantly set up. It makes laundry a breeze.

Personally an upstairs laundry room would have disadvantages for me, I am often up early and put a load on, others in my family are asleep, noise & vibration would disturb them. When my boys were little and were sick often I put bed linen in the washing machine at night. I like to line dry whenever possible. Risk of leaks, delivery of machine upstairs, they are heavy to lift for delivery team etc. Our utility room was downstairs.

This is the dream, it just makes so much more sense. Whoever decided they went in kitchens or utility rooms beside kitchens got it so wrong!

AO delivered machines upstairs without problems. The room has lino down, easy to mop. It is off the back of a bathroom (standard uk terrace layout re bathroom at top of stairs). I line dry in the summer, tumble in the spring, autumn and winter so it's much more convenient than downstairs for us.

Yes. No a room as such but there was a cupboard in the hallway and the surveyor suggested I push it back into the spare room enough to house a washer/dryer with shelves above, and then square off the resulting bump in the spare room by building custom closet. Works brilliantly.
Just be aware of water source and drainage. My machine sits in a tray in case of leaks and also has a vibration mat. Five years no issues.

we’re in the process of moving and have seen a couple of houses with upstairs laundry rooms. I have to say that it was the thing that put me off the houses more than almost anything else. It would be far far more of an effort to wash clothes upstairs and then take them down to hang out in the garden.

You’re lugging it all up and down the stairs at some point anyway, so it’s not much different imo.

For me it makes a lot of sense, especially in any top heavy house that doesn’t have a kitchen diner extension out the back, leaves a lot more space downstairs.