Replace toilet with washing machine - cost?

I paid around £500 for a similar job to this. Had new electric ring put in, sink removed, toilet removed, and repiped for washing machine and dryer.

Paid a guy who was qualified as both electrician and plumber as the bathroom needed Part P documentation.

I'm not in a cheap area though (nr London), I reckon Devon should be a bit cheaper.

I wouldnt recommend replacing a toilet with a washing machine, you're more than likely to have an extended flush cycle and will no doubt end up with 'residue' in the drum.

We did exactly this when we renovated our house 5 years ago - there was a rather grim downstairs toilet which was outside the house i.e. accesses by going out of the back door & then into the WC. I know some people love a downstairs toilet, but having it outside made it rather unappealing. We're also in our 30s so no problems getting up stairs yet!

We had our builders at the time remove the toilet, and simply punch through the kitchen wall into the new 'utility room' with power from the kitchen ring as well as a cold water supply. We had space for the WM as well as a freezer above - this meant we could get away with having no cupboards in the kitchen as we had freed up 2 units under the counter.

In terms of plumbing, the WM waste uses the original toilet waste, with a large rubber grommit as a spacer - the WM waste tube runs mostly through 40mm plastic waste tube (same as a dishwasher) and that sits in the rubber grommit so no smells come up. We have lagged the water pipes coming in since the room is not heated, but have not had any freezing issues, even in the really cold snap earlier this year.

Absolutely love have the WM outside of the kitchen - esp as we have a large open plan kitchen/diner, and we never hear any noise from it. Of course it's a bit of a pain getting washing in/out when it's raining but not much of a hardship. If we didn't have the freezer in there, I would probably stick a tumble dryer in there too with a vent to the outside.

My one piece of advice - check whether your WM or other white goods will fit through the door frame, as the units are usually 900mm wide and door frames usually are NOT. We had to remove the door and frame to get the WM in and will no doubt have to do the same one day in the future if it needs replacing!

Head_The_Ball wrote: »

Am I missing something?

Standard size washing machines are usually just under 600 wide x 600 deep x 900 tall and will easily fit vertically through most doorways.

Sorry you are right of course, 900mm was a typo as I was writing on my phone!

Still, however, my Hotpoint Aqualtis washing machine definitely did NOT fit through the PVC doorframe so off it came to get the WM through the (amittedly narrow) door aperture. A bit of a pain but not something I expect to do very often so not much of a worry. I suppose the door is narrow as the room itself is very small, and literally just held a toilet & small sink in the past.