LESLIE: Amanda in Nebraska is looking to install a dishwasher. Hopefully we can help. What’s going on?
AMANDA: How easy is it to install a dishwasher – a built-in dishwasher – and put the fixtures in for it, like the piping and stuff, for a house that has never had a dishwasher in it?
TOM: Well, first of all, Amanda, you need enough room to do that. To the left or right of the sink area or somewhere in the cabinet area would you have a space that’s 24-inches wide?
AMANDA: Oh, yeah.
TOM: OK, because that’s the space that you need for a dishwasher. So you need to carve out that space. Now if you happen to have, for example, a 24-inch drawer base or a 24-inch cabinet that you can remove and you don’t mind losing that much storage …
LESLIE: Then it’s a perfect fit.
TOM: Yeah, now it’ll fit fine. In terms of the plumbing itself, not that hard to do because the lines are flexible. You can have a flexible water supply line that connects up and you can also have a flexible drain hose that connects up.
Is this house over a crawlspace?
AMANDA: No, it’s just a regular house with an attic.
TOM: But is it on a slab? What’s underneath the kitchen floor?
AMANDA: Oh, no. There’s a full basement.
TOM: Oh, OK. Then you have access to get under it; you have access between the cabinets. So it’s actually not that terribly hard. You have to run the wiring so you can plug it in and you have to hook up the plumbing; so you have the drain line and you have the hot water – hot and cold water supply lines.
AMANDA: OK.
TOM: You need to carve out the space in the cabinets. Those are all the projects that are involved. You know, if you’re a handy person it could be a do-it-yourself project; if not, a plumber and electrician could bang the whole thing out for you.
AMANDA: OK, and can you put one under a sink? Like under the kitchen sink itself?
TOM: (overlapping voices) Can you put one under a sink? You know, Leslie and I have been looking a lot into the topic of universal design and I know that we have seen dishwashers that are split that have drawers so that you have almost two dishwashers in one, but I’ve never seen one that fits under a sink. Have you, Leslie?
LESLIE: No, and then you’re putting the dishes so low to the floor that it becomes a tripping hazard and it becomes sort of a backache every time you have to bend down and get them.
AMANDA: OK.
TOM: Yeah, you really want to put it to the side of the kitchen sink.
AMANDA: OK.
TOM: That would be the place to put it. OK?
AMANDA: Alrighty, thank you very much and I love your show.
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