Washing machine waste

[Adrian Godwin]

I'm thinking of moving a washing machine from its position against an outside wall to a brick-built cupboard. This involves replumbing it, which I hope is fairly straightforward as the cupboard contains boxed-in pipes for the bathroom.

However, I'm not sure about the waste outlet : currently it goes through the wall and into an outside drain along with the sink waste.

In the new location, it needs to be combined with the bathroom waste. I presume that this is the sewer downpipe but it's possible that the sink/bath waste are separate (I haven't unboxed the pipes yet).

Is it OK to put washing machine waste into such a downpipe (via a suitable trap) or does it need the open outfall that it's currently got ? I can imagine I might get too slow a flow into the bath waste for a washing machine, resulting in flooding. And I'm not sure if soapy waste is put in with the foul water or handled separately.

I shall probably get a plumber to actually do this part of the work but would like to know whether it's an OK thing to do.

-adrian

[David Hansen]

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 10:41:58 +0000 someone who may be Adrian Godwin wrote this:-

Bungalow? Three storey house? Basement? Are the washing machine and bathroom on the same level?

What diameter are these boxed-in pipes?

Probably.

Not usually.

[Adrian Godwin]

Two storey house, cupboard on ground floor off kitchen, bathroom above. There's a boiler in there right now but I'm intending to replace it with a modern wall-mounted one, perhaps elsewhere. I hope that will make room for the washing machine, if the plumbing's practicable.. There's also an air inlet in the floor fed from an airbrick which is presumably to help the boiler breathe, though it later had a louvred door fitted as well.

I know there's a ~6-inch sewage pipe in there. Without tearing it open, I'm not sure whether there's a smaller bath/basin waste as well. It seems possible that the bath waste just empties into the sewage, but I've only ever looked at externally-plumbed drains with independent piping before. I vaguely recall that rainwater goes into a groundwater drain rather than sewage but unsure where grey water goes.

OK, good. Just trying to make sure I'm not asking the impossible.

-adrian

[robgraham]

One thing to think about is the floor surface that the current w/m is on, versus where you are going to move it to. What I'm getting at is that it is possibly on a concrete floor currently such that any vibrations are not transmitted anywhere. Is this true also of the floor of the cupboard ?

The other thing is to make sure that the drain further up the stack is adequately ventilated such that the w/m does not suck out any traps.

Rob

[David Hansen]

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 17:48:56 +0000 someone who may be Adrian Godwin wrote this:-

The chances of there being a smaller vertical pipe taking such wastes separately are close to zero, but not zero.

That is probable.

Generally a washing machine outlet can be connected to such a downpipe. How easy that is depends on the materials it is made from.

Fit or get a plumber to fit a vertical standpipe to put the washing machine outlet hose into.