ᐅ Technical room shape and size, basement construction, entire heating system—is 2 meters too narrow?

Hello everyone,

We are still in the planning phase and our floor plan is causing us some headaches. In the current version, the utility room would measure 5.50 x 2.00 m (18.0 x 6.6 ft), so about 11 m² (118 ft²).

The size itself isn’t the problem, but it would be quite narrow and the question is whether we can fit everything in an organized way. Since we are building without a basement, all important technical equipment needs to go in there (complete heating system with an air source heat pump, ventilation system, electrical panel, washing machine, dryer, drying rack, and a few shelves for storage).

Do you think this is possible or is 2 m (6.6 ft) too narrow?

Thanks for your feedback.

Best regards,
Philipp

Hello Philipp,

our planned utility room, which will contain roughly the same equipment as yours, measures 4.06 m x 3.60 m (floor area approximately 14.6 sqm).

With a width of 2 m (6.6 ft), you will only be able to use one side wall and the wall opposite the door as installation space.

That might be a bit tight...

Regards,

Dirk

It’s a bit of a dilemma...
what starts as a utility room at the beginning of the build often ends up as a technical room... and then we don’t know where to do the laundry anymore.

Consider planning a second utility room on the upper floor. It’s a great idea: at least you can carry your laundry out of the room neatly.
The electrical cabinet needs about 150cm (5 feet) of clearance in front as a safety buffer! Otherwise, a smart layout is to have the technical equipment on one side and shelves on the other. However, it can quickly happen that the tradespeople have a completely different idea about the placement of individual components than the planners (shorter cable runs), which can come as an unpleasant surprise. So always double-check!

I also think 2m (6.6 feet) is too narrow. We have 3.40 x 3.80m (11.15 x 12.47 feet, 12.92 sqm / 139.1 sqft or 12.71 sqm / 136.8 sqft due to an extra wall for better division) and find that to be a good size to a) move around comfortably and b) have some space for storage.

Attached is the floor plan of our utility room:

Depending on what needs to fit inside, it becomes too narrow.

Ours is 2.50m (8 feet 2 inches) and it’s already very tight inside. However, there is a 300-liter (79 gallons) water tank positioned in the center on the left side. The door to the dryer opposite can still open; with 2m (6 feet 7 inches), that wouldn’t be possible.

Just consider this... 3 washing machines are about 2m (6 feet 7 inches) wide. With one on the left and one on the right, you have around 70cm (28 inches) in the middle to walk through. That’s tight.

Thank you for the responses. We will probably choose a different option after all.