I do these things myself. Shelves are relatively straightforward if you have a spirit level, pencil, decent power drill [1] and your walls aren't made out of anything exotic.
As for plumbing in appliances, assuming you mean dishwashers and washing machines, it's a lot easier than you might think (again assuming nothing weird in your setup). You'll need one or more inlet taps and one or more outlet points. All of these can be bought in easy self fitting kits from Homebase or B&Q, you won't even need to switch the water off! For the inlet tap you clamp it around the pipe (using just a screwdriver), then screw it into the pipe, it cuts it's own water tight hole and bob's your uncle. I've done this loads of times without any mishap. Depending on what appliance you have, you might need two i.e. hot and cold. (Self cutting inlet tap for £6.74)
For the outlet you can get a pretty much identical screw in piece which typicaly goes on the drain from your sink. With the application of a jubilee clip you can connect the outlet hose directly to this, you can also get Y-pieces to as to connect two appliances if necesary. The outlet tends to be a bit more twitchy to put in than the inlet. Since the inlet water is under pressure, you can just put the tap anywhere and run the hose as necesary. Even if you need a really long hose it will work fine. But the outlet tends to be fairly unpressurised and requires the assistance of gravity to properly flow away. In particular if the drain is higher than the point where the hose leaves the appliance, you can end up with dirty water sitting in the pipe, this can also happen if a long pipe dips in the middle. This isn't a huge problem for washing machines, but can cause blockages with dishwashers due to congealed grease and the like. It's particularly awkward if you have to run the outlet hose a long way to get it to a drain, but as long as you have a basic under standing of gravity and how it affects water, you should be able to work out most situations. Even if you can't avoid having the drain higher, if you secure the hose higher than the drain immediately after it leaves the machine, the pump will drive the water over the hill and it will flow away fine, leaving only a small amount of stuck water next to the machine.
Note if you have to get past dividers in a kitchen unit, get a hole saw for your power drill. If using a hole saw, don't do as I did and try to use it with the hoses in place, a hole saw goes through a drain hose remarkably quickly!
Seriously, plumbing in washing machines is remarkably easy and not worth paying plumber rates to have done, assuming that is that you actualy have a water supply in the same room. Running new pipes through walls is probably a bit hardcore even for me. :o)
[1] any man who doesn't own a power drill and a spirit level is letting the side down :o)
no subject
As for plumbing in appliances, assuming you mean dishwashers and washing machines, it's a lot easier than you might think (again assuming nothing weird in your setup). You'll need one or more inlet taps and one or more outlet points. All of these can be bought in easy self fitting kits from Homebase or B&Q, you won't even need to switch the water off! For the inlet tap you clamp it around the pipe (using just a screwdriver), then screw it into the pipe, it cuts it's own water tight hole and bob's your uncle. I've done this loads of times without any mishap. Depending on what appliance you have, you might need two i.e. hot and cold. (Self cutting inlet tap for £6.74)
For the outlet you can get a pretty much identical screw in piece which typicaly goes on the drain from your sink. With the application of a jubilee clip you can connect the outlet hose directly to this, you can also get Y-pieces to as to connect two appliances if necesary. The outlet tends to be a bit more twitchy to put in than the inlet. Since the inlet water is under pressure, you can just put the tap anywhere and run the hose as necesary. Even if you need a really long hose it will work fine. But the outlet tends to be fairly unpressurised and requires the assistance of gravity to properly flow away. In particular if the drain is higher than the point where the hose leaves the appliance, you can end up with dirty water sitting in the pipe, this can also happen if a long pipe dips in the middle. This isn't a huge problem for washing machines, but can cause blockages with dishwashers due to congealed grease and the like. It's particularly awkward if you have to run the outlet hose a long way to get it to a drain, but as long as you have a basic under standing of gravity and how it affects water, you should be able to work out most situations. Even if you can't avoid having the drain higher, if you secure the hose higher than the drain immediately after it leaves the machine, the pump will drive the water over the hill and it will flow away fine, leaving only a small amount of stuck water next to the machine.
Note if you have to get past dividers in a kitchen unit, get a hole saw for your power drill. If using a hole saw, don't do as I did and try to use it with the hoses in place, a hole saw goes through a drain hose remarkably quickly!
Seriously, plumbing in washing machines is remarkably easy and not worth paying plumber rates to have done, assuming that is that you actualy have a water supply in the same room. Running new pipes through walls is probably a bit hardcore even for me. :o)
[1] any man who doesn't own a power drill and a spirit level is letting the side down :o)