How To Connect A New Washing Machine Yourself For Free

Getting a new washing machine can be expensive especially if you have to pay someone to fit it. Some major washing machine retailers offer an installation service which can range between £25-£45.

As you would have already paid several hundreds for the appliance wouldn't it be nice if you could connect the washing up yourself, gain a skill and save some money in the process ?.

Well this is what I decided to do and to help anyone else in my situation I created this step-by-step guide so they wouldn't have to go through the hardship of figuring it all out.

How to install a new washing machine

1. Disconnect and remove your existing washing machine - If you have not completed this step already I have provided a guide called 'How to disconnect, remove and dispose of a washing machine for free'.

2. Maneuver the washing machine into position - Not an easy job as they are quite heavy but move the washing machine roughly where you want it to be, which is probably where your old one was. Make sure to leave enough room to access the rear pipework and power cables.

3. Attach the cold water feed hose pipe to the back washing machine - Your washing machine should have been supplied with a cold water feed pipe. The pipe has two different ends, one that looks like a hook and another that is straight. The end that looks like a hook is the one that needs to be connected to the back of the washing machine and can be easily screwed on (See right).






4. Check hose pipe and cable length - You will now need to check that the power cable, waste drainage hose pipe and cold water feed cables are long enough. Take the power cable and hold it to the plug socket, take the waste pipe and hold it to the relevant connector (in my case sink U-bend) and take the cold water feed pipe and hold it up to the cold water isolation valve.

If you find that the waste hosepipe from the washing machine doesn't reach then please follow my instruction within the post 'How to connect a washing machine with drain waste hosepipe extension'.

However, if you are happy that everything will connect then proceed to the next step.

5.  Connect the cold water feed hosepipe - The cold water feed hosepipe is the easiest to fit as it has a threaded end so just screw it onto the cold water isolation valve.

6. Connect the drain waste hosepipe - Fitting this hose pipe can be quite tricky depending on the position of the pipework it connects to.

The first step is to place the loose hose pipe clamp ring over the unattached drain pipe. You do this first because trying to add it after the pipe is in position can be a nightmare.

Slide / push the waste hose pipe over the drain pipe (in my case included as part of my sink's U-bend). This will be a very tight fitting so it may take some effort to get it properly located.

Once in position slide the hosepipe clam ring into the position shown on the right and use a screw driver to tighten.

7. Just add water - Release the water from the isolation valve into the washing machine by moving the tap into the 'Open' position. You should hear a rush of water at this point.

Check for leaks







8.  Plug in the power lead - All you need to do now is plug in the power lead and you are ready to use your new washing machine.

**Side notes**

• Read the instructions that come with your washing machine. The appliance will likely have bolts inserted into the back that keep the drum and other components still in transit which need to be removed before installation and use.
• You will find that your washing machine is wet in certain places when you receive it. This is nothing to worry about, it is just residue from when they test it at the factory.
• Apologies for the slightly grotty pictures from under my old sink. We have a whole new kitchen now and hopefully less dead spiders !!

I hope you found this post helpful, please let me (and others) know how you got on with your installation in the comments below.

How To Disconnect, Remove And Dispose Of A Washing Machine For Free

When a washing machine breaks down you know that replacing it is going to be expensive. Not only do you have to spend several hundreds on a new machine and installation but if you lack confidence with plumbing you may also have to pay for someone to disconnect your existing broken machine and dispose of it.

As some of my previous posts have shown, jobs can seem quite intimidating until you break them down and realize they are actually quite simple. No-one likes spending money unnecessarily so here is a step-by-step guide to disconnecting your washing machine and disposing of it for free.

How to disconnect a washing machine

1. Disconnect the power supply - The first step is an easy one just unplug the washing machine from the mains power.

2. Stop the water supply to the washing machine - Your washing machine will be fed cold water from your house's main water supply. If your plumbing is installed correctly there will be an isolation valve located inbetween the water inlet pipe from your machine and the mains (See image to the right). The purpose of this isolation valve is that you can stop the flow of water to an appliance without having to shut off your house's main water supply at the stop cock.

Turn the handle on the isolation value to the 'Off' position as shown in the image.


3. Drain/empty the washing machine of water manually - Hopefully your washing broke down after it was empty of water, however, if this was not the case empty the machine at this point. If you are unsure how to do this, you can find all the instructions in my post entitled (How to drain a washing machine manually that is full of water)

4.  Disconnect the washing machine waste hosepipe - Your washing machine will have a waste pipe that originates at the back of the machine and fixes to a section of pipework that connects to your main waste drain. In my case this was under my sink and is shown in the picture to the right.

The pipe will be fastened with a hosepipe clamp ring. To remove the hose you will need to loosen the clamp with a screw driver. When the clamp is no longer holding the pipe, pull the pipe (in my case off to the right) to disconnect it from the sink's U-bend pipework.

Removing this pipe is actually the most difficult part of the whole process as it naturally attaches to the U-Bend pipework very snuggly which means that quite abit of force is required to get it to move. Not only that, there was very little room to maneuver under the sink and I had to sit in quite an uncomfortable position to get any leverage.

Hopefully this will be easier for you but I just wanted to give you a warning.

If all goes well, your perseverance will pay off with a disconnected washing machine drainage hosepipe as shown here on the right.

**Always have a container handy to capture any excess water which may be contained within the hosepipe after removal**

5. Disconnect the cold water hosepipe from the isolation valve - This hosepipe has a threaded seal so all you need to do is unscrew it from the isolation valve (which should still be in the off position).

**Always have a container handy to capture any excess water which may be contained within the hosepipe after removal**

6. Unscrew the other end of the cold water hose pipe - At the back of the washing machine (usually at the top) you will see where the cold water hosepipe connects. Unscrew this as you did in step 5.









You will now have a fully (and safely) disconnected washing machine which you can now remove from your kitchen or laundry room !!.

How to dispose of your washing machine for free

Possible ways to remove your broken washing machine include the following :

• Trying to get it into your car and taking it to the city dump / recycle center yourself (fee may be applicable).
• Asking the local council to collect and dispose of the item for you. My local council charges £29 for this service
• Hire a 'man with van' to collect the item and dispose of it for you which can cost up to £100.
• Get the supplier of the new washing machine to disconnect and dispose of your existing washing machine. The place where we purchased our new one from offered to disconnect and dispose for £20.

My favourite option however is the free one. Scrap metal is valuable and although you don't see (or hear) a rag and bone man too often I knew that there must be a company out there that would like my old appliance. After abit of googling and a couple of phone calls I found a local company that would be happy to come and pick up my washing machine for free. So all I had to do was disconnect it and drag it outside of my house. The following day as promised they turned up in their van and hauled it away.

Google search terms I used : Free washing machine removal, free scrap metal removal, kitchen appliance removal for free *and location

I hope you found this post helpful and it gives you confidence to do this very simple job yourself and save you some money. Please let me know (and others) how you got on in the comments section below.

How much does it cost for an electrician to rewire a 3 bedroom house

When we moved into our house we noticed that not only did we have too few electrical sockets but the ones that we did have were located in strange places and were surface mounted. For example most of them were on the skirting boards which made it almost impossible to plug certain items in as the plug was almost on the ground and the wire leading out from the plug was pressing against the carpet.

In the living room we had two double sockets on one chimney breast and a single socket (with burn damage) by the television.

As a result, we made the decision to rewire our entire house. Our builder recommended a guy he had worked with previously so I contacted him with a list of what I needed.

Under stairs : New consumer unit and light switch
Living room : 7 double sockets, light switch and fitting of two ceiling pendants
Hall : New light switch and fitting of a previously purchased light fitting
Landing : New single plug socket, New light switch  and fitting of a previously purchased light fitting
Bathroom : Boiler timer, New light switch and fitting of a previously purchased light fitting.
Rear Bedroom : Two double plug sockets and ceiling pendant
Front Bedroom : Two double plug sockets and ceiling pendant
Box room/Office : Two double sockets and ceiling pendant
Kitchen : We would be replacing the entire kitchen at a later stage so we didn't need rewiring at this point.

Italics show items we had purchased previously so they weren't included in the electricians quote.

The electrician offered us two options £1200 without him supplying materials or £1500 supply and fit of everything. In the end we went for the £1500 'all in' option as the wires, pendants, sockets, consumer unit and boiler timer etc would all add up. Also it was just less hassle for him to get everything he needed.

The work took a week to complete and did cause a lot of damage to the walls so my advice would be to make this first job you do when you move into a new house. Thankfully we did this so it didn't cause us too many issues.

If you have any re-wiring experiences you would like to share, please leave a comment below.

How much does it cost to add skirting board to a box room/small room

As part of our house renovations we needed to re-plaster our box room (which we use as an office) and replace the skirting boards.

We wanted to keep things consistent so we opted for a 4" skirting board which we had also used in our living room. The box room/office dimensions are 2m x 1.8m.

Our builder agreed to remove the old skirting boards and supply and fit the new for £120.

This seemed reasonable and only took part of a day to complete.

If you have any experiences of adding skirting board to a room, please leave a comment below. 

How much does it cost to add skirting boards to a large living room

The previous owner of my house had his plug sockets located in the skirting boards. This was obviously how wiring was done years ago but it isn't what I wanted going forward. As a result I had the house rewired and needed to replace the skirting.

The living room is the largest room in the house as it has no dividing wall making it a "through lounge". In total it is 7.5m x 4m.

Our builder said he would supply and fit 4" skirting board all around the room (navigating two chimney breasts and one fireplace) for £280.

This seemed quite reasonable to me and only took him a couple of days including some other work.

If you have any experience with skirting board that you would like to share, please leave a comment.

How much does a plumber charge to fit a radiator and how long does it take ?

If you are not a seasoned property developer house renovations can be difficult to budget for.

I recently purchased a house which needed a lot of work and the living room seemed an obvious place to start.

One of the main issues was damp located near the front bay window. We called in a damp specialist who said the issue could be solved by placing a radiator underneath the front bay window. We already had a radiator in the room (at the back) so there was some pipework we could tap into if needed but we had no idea how much it would cost to add a new one.

We had a builder and qualified plumber that we trusted so we obtained a quote and he completed the work.

So in summary he fitted a 1200 x 600 mm double radiator and charged us £350. I'm not sure if this is considered cheap but it included the radiator, all of the valves, pipework and only took him two days.

If you have any experiences regarding fitting radiators and would like to share them with others, please leave a comment.