Upstairs laundry - possible?

Not all houses have a solid (concrete?) ground floor, I have lived in 4 houses in my lifetime and all had wooden floors on wooden joists on both the ground and upper floors.

In our previous house we had the problem that the kitchen was too small to have enough space for both our dishwasher and our washing machine, while the bathroom upstairs was large and had plenty of unused space.

We had the WM in the bathroom, far enough away from any water source that you could not touch water and the WM at the same time. It was plugged in out on the landing. We had it like this for 6 years, until we extended to make a new kitchen and the old one became the utility room, and had no problems with excessive noise due to the floor being wooden.

My niece, who lives in Norway, made an upstairs utility room, with both washer and dryer and loves it. After all, most dirty washing is generated upstairs in the bedrooms and bathroom. Her whole house is built of wood.

Our present house has the utility room and all the bedrooms downstairs, living rooms and kitchen upstairs, I find it very convenient to have the WM on the same level as the bedrooms.

Regarding putting units in front of a low windowsill, my sister-in-law has an older house where all the windowsills are quite low and she has done this in her kitchen. The sill was cut back flush with the wall and a board was fixed to continue the wall line up and a few inches beyond the worktop, that way things do not get pushed off the back of the worktop.

My wife lived in the States for a while and the house she rented had the machines upstairs in a cupboard, the washing machine on the floor with the tumble drier above it.

I think a lot of EU folk have their washing machines in the bathroom, it seems the UK is a bit odd in having the washing machine in the kitchen.

So long as their is plumbing and possible sound insulation I don't see too many restrictions on where you put it (other than washing machines are pretty heavy to shift around)

We have it upstairs in the cupboard despite the risks of flooding.

Yes washing machine does shake the floor a bit (we have a very very heavy miele) when on spin - but we do not use it at night.

Dryer (above washing machine) does not shake the floor etc

However, we did tile the floor of the washing machine cupboard.

If I could afford to, I would have put a drain in the cupboard - in that way if the washing machine floods, it would drain off - you would need to find a shower tray of the appropriate size/material - or find a tiler to incorporate a drain......use your imagination!

Then there are American houses timber framed with timber floors with laundry rooms upstairs very common.

Why do we have so many problems with building in the UK.

Things like basements and laundry upstairs should be a doddle.

peachyprice wrote: »

Probably because we're all crammed together in terraces/semis, unlike the US where so many more family homes are detached. It's a lot easier when you don't have to worry about disturbing your neighbours.

There are plenty of duplex double family homes, townhouse blocks and apartment blocks built timber frame in more built up areas.