Fitting integrated washing machine into existing cupboard

molenpad

Hi,

Forgive me I'm a bit clueless.

We are buying a house that has no space designated for a washing machine. Apparently the current owners had their mother do all their washing and when they got a new kitchen left it out of the design. There are plenty of 600mm cabinets, and I want to use one of them for an integrated washing machine.

I am told the plumbing for the washing machine is behind one of the end cabinets, which is just a cupboard where they keep their bin now.

How easy is it to convert this and what's involved? Can I just remove the inner carcass, back and floor of the cupboard? Will it generally just unscrew or is some joinery involved?

Browntoa

This seems to say no

https://www.mybuilder.com/questions/v/6402/how-to-integrate-washing-machine

Integrated and freestanding are the same dimensions

jennifernil

You will need to remove the complete unit as the WM will use the full 600mm width.

Remove the door from the unit, and remove the plinth from the run of units.

Look inside the unit, it should be secured back to the wall, so remove those fixings.
Then check whether it is screwed to the adjacent unit(s), the screws may be in the adjacent unit. Remove the screws.
Then look to see if it is screwed to the worktop, and remove those screws.

The unit should now be loose and you can carefully slide it forward to remove it. If it is an end unit, make sure there is still sufficient support for the worktop. If the unit has a cover panel on the side because it is at the end of a run, this can be used to support the worktop. If it has a cover panel, this will be fixed by screwing into it from inside the unit, so you will need to remove those screws before removing the unit.

If not, you will have to fit a panel to support the worktop.

Once the integrated machine is in place, follow the instructions for attaching the door.
Finally, replace the plinth, make sure it can be secured at the end where you have removed the unit.

tacpot12

I've just been to check our integrated washing machine and the above post is correct, it is 600mm wide, so will not fit inside a standard 600m cabinet. The space is formed from the two end panels with cutouts made for the plinth.

I inherited the kitchen layout, and am not a fan of integrated appliances. Every time we needed to replace them, the new one need extra work to get the front panel to fit. There is much less choice of integrated appliances and they cost more than the same specification of non-integrated appliances. The integration also tends to make access for cleaning the washing machine filter more difficult, but I have now changed the plinth so that the section in front of the washing machine is now attached with magnetic catches rather than being screwed on as it was previously.

If I was to refit the kitchen, I would not have any integrated appliances again, apart from the double oven.

jennifernil

The problem with the freestanding appliances is that they are often deeper than the adjacent units and stick out when in place.

You can deal with this by using a deeper than normal worktop, we have used a 650mm deep worktop where we have freestanding appliances.