Moving washing machine upstairs?

pboae

Our washing machine has packed in and we need a new one (it was rubbish anyway, but it was here when we moved in). The current kitchen layout is impossible and it's really hard to actually get to the WM (it's in a corner with a gap of about 1ft between the front of it and the side of a unit.

We are planning to get the kitchen redone in the next year or so anyway, so I'm trying to find a temporary home for a new one. One possibilty is in the bathroom. There is an unused shower cubicle with electric shower up there. (Bathroom will also be redone next year).

Would it be possible to pull the old cubicle and shower out and put the washing machine there instead? There is a mains supply and presumably a waste pipe there. The cabling for the shower is inside a duct, and goes to a switch outside the bathroom. So could we cut that off at the shower and then wire it into one of those fused boxes that you directly wire the appliance into (like they have for electric heaters in bathrooms). It's nowhere near the bath/shower and not in reaching distance of the sink. (If that matters).

Finally, is it going to cause huge noise problems? It would be in a corner, against an outside wall and our bedroom. On the opposite side of the room to the party wall (next door's bathroom). I'm not worried about it disturbing us, but could the vibrations carry and disturn the neighbours?

pboae

Well at least the idea hasn't been shot down in flames! So it can't be too bad a suggestion. Guess I'll give it a go and see.

andrew-b

Alterations to electrics in the bathroom comes under Part P building regs. The wiring sounds like a job for a qualified electrician rather than a DIY job. You'd better check this before you do anything as you might invalidate your house insurance if you bodge the electrics.

Other things to consider:

can the floor take the weight? Assuming you can physically get it up the stairs in the first place!

what happens if your washing machine goes wrong and floods water everywhere? Not such a problem downstairs...upstairs the ceiling below might collapse!

Unless you've got another place to put it, I think you'd be better off keeping the washing machine in the same location and just putting up with the tricky access until the kitchen is refurbished. Or could you do something to make the access easier..like move the unit that's in the way.
Or even stick the new washing machine in the middle of the kitchen floor?

Alternatively you could just goto the launderette instead!

Andy

pboae

Sadly none of those are options :-( there is less than 2 sq m floor space at the moment, the double unit that blocks the access provides the only worktop space, and we don't even have any launderettes round here.

The electrics in the whole house are a bodge already (the electric shower seems to be tapped into the immersion heater switch), I doubt I'd get an electrician who was willing to touch it. We can't even get the (also broken) cooker replaced. The wire has been partially tiled over, hard to explain, but you couldn't wire a new cooker into the same switch as it is now, and a proper spark won't do it, because it's against regs to have a cooker where this one is, but there is literally nowhere else for it to go right now. At least the hob still works :-\

When the work gets done the house will be rewired too. :-D

It wouldn't be the end of the world if the ceiling came in downstairs (the bathroom is right over the kitchen, and the kitchen ceiling will have to come down then anyway.

Hadn't thought about the weight of it though, they have those big blocks in to weigh them down don't they? Hmmm... maybe I better think on that. The stairs are narrow too.

andrew-b

Could you not move the double unit and worktop into the corner where the washing machine currently is (may leave an inaccessible cupboard) and then put the washing machine back into the gap left. The top of a washing machine makes a good worktop.

Andy

pboae

The washing machine is under the drainer side of the sink, so there isn't a gap to push the double unit into IYSWIM.

Maybe I just need to get on with the kitchen refurb!

andrew-b

Yes I see what you mean. Broken washing machine and no usable cooker sound like good reasons to get on with the kitchen refurb though! Good luck ...sounds like you've got a fair amount of refurbishments to do!

Andy

economiser

Our neighbours have relocated their washing machine upstairs in a way similar to that you propose. They do though say that it does cause some vibration and seems much noisier than when it was downstairs. Depends a lot on the rigidity of the floor I think.