Washing Machine in bathroom

Jenferdog

Hi, we are renovating our house which will involve a new kitchen. We don't really want to have the washing machine and tumble drier in the kitchen and have no room to make a untility room. We currently have an area in our bathroom that we could put a door on and make it into a cupboard which would be ideal to put the washing machine and drier in. I believe it would need to be hardwired and have seen somewhere that if it was in a bathroom it needs to be 3 meters away from a bath or shower. This would not be the case in our bathroom, maybe only about a couple of meters away from the actual shower head, but there would be a door on the cupboard. I asked my plumber who wasnt sure, and our electrician seems to think as it is in a cupboard it would be classed as a different room, but he doesnt really seem sure either. Any help would be much appreciated before we go ahead and order the units for the kitchen (which would not allow for space for the washer)

grumbler

AFAIK, 3m is for a socket and/or a wall switch. Hardwiring with a pull cord or outside switch is fine. 

SameOldRoundabout

Our electrician is very fussy about water regs (rightly so) but had no problems using a normal socket inside the washing machine unit, which is a proper cupboard about 2m away from the bath tap. I love having the machine in the bathroom it seems to make so much more sense. 

One thing to think about if your bathroom is upstairs is strengthening the joists, spin cycle can be a little wild in the hall outside the bathroom, something we hadn’t thought of, so we’ll be adding extra pieces between joists when the kitchen ceiling come down to try and reduce the bounce. 

FaceHead

If your electrician isn't sure about the regs, you need a new electrician. 

Agree than it can go inside a cupboard. The circuit must still be RCD protected, but if you have a remotely new consumer unit, all your sockets probably are anyway. 

floppydisk1

Most of europe have washing machines in bathrooms with no problems.. Follow  regulations and common sense and you will be fine, millions of households in europe have exactly the same setting after all.

grumbler

FaceHead said:

If your electrician isn't sure about the regs, you need a new electrician. 

It was a plumber, not an electrician.
😂

grumbler

floppydisk1 said:

Follow  regulations and common sense and you will be fine,

No, it's either, not both.

Most of europe have washing machines in bathrooms with no problems.. Follow  regulations and common sense and you will be fine, millions of households in europe have exactly the same setting after all

Well, the regulations in Europe are different. They have normal sockets in small bathrooms.

neilmcl

grumbler said:

FaceHead said:

If your electrician isn't sure about the regs, you need a new electrician. 

It was a plumber, not an electrician.
😂

Jenferdog said:

I asked my plumber who wasnt sure, and our electrician seems to think as it is in a cupboard it would be classed as a different room, but he doesnt really seem sure either.

Electrician also.

grumbler

I stand corrected...

Jenferdog

Thanks thats great to know. We have a bungalow so will be downstairs anyway. Perfect. Thanks all.