You may be limited in your choice of position for a laundry. If none of your rooms is suitable for conversion, consider building an extension.
The position of a conversion or extension should be influenced strongly by the existing plumbing in your house. Laundries need hot and cold running water and a waste outlet. Position the laundry as close as possible to the existing water supply and drains, as this will enable a simple connection to be made to the water supply. It will also reduce, or eliminate, the need for the installation of new drains (underground), which can be very expensive.
Ideally the waste pipe (above ground) from your laundry appliances should issue directly into the existing gully (sink at ground level leading to the drain). You may consider that other factors take priority over the cost of extending a drainage system. Access, for instance, is one which is very important and is influenced by the size of your wash and when you do it. A large family, living in a house, will probably want easy access from the kitchen and to the garden. A young family with no children, who are out at work all day, and live in a flat, may find a room off an upper floor bathroom quite adequate for a laundry.
Additional requirements
A well-equipped laundry should have a deep sink for some soaking prior to machine washing, and for hand washing. Provide hanging rails over the sink for drip-dry clothes, and also a draining board if the sink is not large enough to catch all the drips. A working surface approximately 1.83m x 610mm (6 ft x 2 ft) is necessary for sorting, folding and temporary stacking of clothes. The top should be strong enough to take an ironing machine if required, and should be 864mm (2ft lOin) high for ironing in a standing position.
A retractable lower board can be incorporated for seated ironing. Storage should include a cupboard out of children’s reach for bleaches, dyes, detergents, washing powders etc. A tall cupboard is also required if you use a portable ironing board. This should be fitted with an fireproof material, ventilated compartment for immediate storage of a hot iron. Provision of storage for dirty clothes, clean linen and an airing cupboard will depend on the layout of the rest of your home. If you are generally short of such space, large cupboards in the laundry could be very useful.