Moving washing machine upstairs (shaking house apart???)

[jthorneuk]

Hi, Im reposting this in this section as per the suggestion in this post...

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1632412#1632412




Hi all, Hope you can help or at least put my mind at rest...

I have a 3 story town house and as such have a lot of space on the top floor in the bathroom and a walk in wardrobe... however my kitchen is a little on the small side... about a month ago i came up with the idea of putting my washing machine on the top floor in the bathroom. The thought behind this was that rather than loading firty clothes into a washbasket. Taking them to the bottom floor and washing them and then drying them and taking them back upstairs I would simply undress into the washing machine and then put it on when its full.... brillient plan i thought..

So i went about adding the pipework and all was well... I carried the washine machine up the 2 flights of stairs and installed it...

Now my problem is.. that although the washing machine functions totally well and my idea works fantastic... the entire room shakes like a nutter when the machine is doing its spin... its so bad that when you are sat in the lounge (2 floors down) you can hear it clearly and i also sware the wall is moving.... I have balanced the machine and its level ... there seems to be nothing i can to do stop it shaking so much...

Im worried that after a few more uses the plasterboard is going to start coming off the walls... or the joists will shake loose and the washing machine will go through the floor....

Am i worried about nothing and this should be fine? what could i do to stop it shaking? sit it on rubber maybe?

anyhelp/advise would be great.

 

[noseall]

The effect of the vibration is exacerbated by the fact it is high up in the building. Less mass up there.

Although it is a very poor choice of w/m location it will do little structural harm. Anyone that has lived next to a busy main road will know what it feels like when a 38 tonner bounces by.

Buildings do shudder a bit. In fact older less rigid buildings cope with vibrations better than a modern rigid counterpart.

 

[Master of None]

Could be the machine. My old one shook a lot from new. My new Hotpoint starts to spin and if it senses the clothes are out of balance it stops jiggles them around a bit then restarts. Virtually silent and dead still.

 

[jthorneuk]

thanks for the replys.

The machine itself is fine as its run downstairs for 6 months without a problem. its simply the fact that it is now on a chipboard floor right at the top of the house...

As long as its not going to shake joist supports off and bring the floor crashing down then thats fine by me... we only really run it when we are not there and in the middle of the day so it does not bother us...

thanks for all the help

 

[Static]

You could always build a platform for it from a few old car shock absorbers..

 

[IJWS15]

How do your neighbours feel about it?

 

[jthorneuk]

How do your neighbours feel about it?

well to be honest I couldnt care less.... this is only because since they moved in over 2 years ago I have been subject to music shaking my walls at 2am almost every weekend.... and im not actually connected to them anyway...

the general gist is that I must be mad to have moved it up their in the first place... but i honestly had no option with only 1 under counter cupboard and 1 draw in the kitchen i needed more space..