Leak

[ReevesRd]

Last week, I realized I had a leaking line behind my washing machine. Honestly, how often does one check behind their washing machine?
A local restoration company came out, gave me an estaminet, and I contacted my insurance company to make a claim. The restorers came and tore out the drywall, repaired the leak, and set up drying equipment for the weekend. This morning, the restoration guys are here to install new drywall and paint.

I am pleased with how quickly everything has been done.

Inspect the plumbing in your home frequently.

 

[Wilmywood]

Curious as to how you discovered this leak was occurring.

 

[ReevesRd]

Curious as to how you discovered this leak was occurring.

Mold was beginning to form on the drywall behind the washer.

 

[gjmalcyon]

I've had to use Servpro several times for some pretty substantial (it was raining in the offices below us) leaks at my firm, and they've always been impressive with their ability to remediate. The faster you get them on it, the better the results.

I don't know that it would catch slow leaks like behind the washing machine, but our next house will have a whole-house leak detection system. It sits on the main supply line and watches for sudden, atypical pressure drops.

 

[ReevesRd]

If I ever have a house built, I'll make sure access to all plumbing is built in. One should not have to remove and replace drywall to fix a minor leak.

 

[Guildedagain]

Washer plumbing lines need to be visually inspected every time you operate the washer.

 

[schoolie]

Sorry ReevesRd. We had a similar experience with a leaking instant-hot-water unit, under the kitchen sink.. Those drying fans are deafening, running 24x7. No fun.

 

[Wilmywood]

Washer plumbing lines need to be visually inspected every time you operate the washer.

Sounds to me like this was the piping in the wall, not the hoses.

 

[ReevesRd]

Washer plumbing lines need to be visually inspected every time you operate the washer.

I agree that you should inspect the hoses and connections.

 

[ReevesRd]

Those drying fans are deafening, running 24x7. No fun.

Yes! The fans are loud. But they dried everything out. The fans also played havoc on my heating system. Hot in the areas where the fans were running and cool on the other side of the house.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Having seen and done everything in home remodeling/repairs, a leak at the washer/dryer is your best case scenario and the easiest/least costly to repair. All other interior leaks tend to result in damaged cabinets/flooring, or even having to bust out tile to get to it.

 

[tonepoet]

We had a similar experience with a leaking instant-hot-water unit, under the kitchen sink..

Those "instant-hot" under the sink units are notorious for leaking. When I was on the Engineering crew at a hospital complex they were in every staff break room in every department all over the place and leaking all the time. We finally started removing them and telling everyone to use their microwaves to heat their tea/coffee/soup water. Of course, we would get complaints that microwaves were "too slow"

 

[ReevesRd]

Having seen and done everything in home remodeling/repairs, a leak at the washer/dryer is your best case scenario and the easiest/least costly to repair. All other interior leaks tend to result in damaged cabinets/flooring, or even having to bust out tile to get to it.

Yeah, I agree. The guys are finishing up now. Quick repair and good service. I'm pleased. However, it is not a good time to have an additional expense. One of the workers is interested in buying a pedal car I have in the garage. That will help offset my cost a little. You have to look for the positive in any situation.

 

[Midnight Toker]

Craziest leak I’ve ever dealt with originated with what was thought to be a condensating hvac trunk line (the big main square ductwork that comes right off the air handler) It was causing a basement bathroom wall and ceiling to mold and eventually fall apart. I pretty much cut out all the drywall under the entire trunk line and heavily insulated it, and also replaced all the flex duct to all the registers near the exterior walls w/ insulated flex duct. And I was STILL getting dripping! After much head scratching, I did a full inspection of all the water sources in the house. Turns out, the renter was storing large cutting boards and baking trays under the kitchen sink. The sink cabinet had a register in it’s toe kick panel at the floor, meaning there was a floor register under that cabinet. It turned out the renter’s big cutting board kinked and broke a plastic ice maker line to the fridge that was tied into the sink shutoff, and it just happened to drip directly into the floor register and fill a few inches deep and run through the entire 25 ft flex duct back to the main trunk line in the middle of the basement!! Literally a 5¢ fix by cutting a few inches of ice maker line and a new compression ring…..that resulted in over $2000 in damages, repairs, and upgrades! Ugh!!

The flex duct that was full of water between the kitchen and the hvac unit….I cut a hole in the ceiling 1/2 way between it’s 2 ends, stood on a ladder w/ 2 empty 5 gal buckets at the ready, and cut a slit in the flex duct. It filled 1 1/2 buckets!! 🫣 That was this past summer. I don’t know many people that would have ever found that leak. On a different floor…25 ft away from the effected area.

 

[West R Lee]

If I ever have a house built, I'll make sure access to all plumbing is built in. One should not have to remove and replace drywall to fix a minor leak.

We built our home in '09 Gary, and fortunately at that time, PEX plumbing was the thing. Unfortunately, when I mentioned to the builder how much cheaper plastic was than copper, and asked for a price break because of it, they told me it costs just the same to plumb with PEX as it does copper. Many homes nowadays also install plumbing "headers" where all lines intersect at one common connection, with valves branching off the header to each line so that individual lines, which supply various areas of the home can be isolated in the event of a leak.

Other than your lines inside the wall, which is apparently what you had leaking, it's also a good idea to periodically change those supply lines behind the washer as they can fatigue as well. I do that about every 5 years with SS braided lines.

Glad you were taken care of my friend.

West

 

[ReevesRd]

Many homes nowadays also install plumbing "headers" where all lines intersect at one common connection, with valves branching off the header to each line so that individual lines, which supply various areas of the home can be isolated in the event of a leak.

Other than your lines inside the wall, which is apparently what you had leaking, it's also a good idea to periodically change those supply lines behind the washer as they can fatigue as well. I do that about every 5 years with SS braided lines.

Thanks for the information and suggestion.

 

[Midnight Toker]

^Sounds to me like a plumber was pricing per house no matter the material...just because they can. Pex or cpvc should never ever cost as much as copper. The difference in materials costs are major! Labor time is also a major increase w/ copper as every sweat joint requires 10x the amount of time as a crimp fitting. And w/ pex you don't need 90's on corners. You can just drill holes in the studs at an incline around corners to reduce the bend and simply pull the line through. (And yes, it's nice w/ pex to have a centralized manifold that can shut off/isolate every water source from one area...so you really never have to ever shut off your main water line.

 

[West R Lee]

^Sounds to me like a plumber was pricing per house no matter the material...just because they can. Pex or cpvc should never ever cost as much as copper. The difference in materials costs are major! Labor time is also a major increase w/ copper as every sweat joint requires 10x the amount of time as a crimp fitting. And w/ pex you don't need 90's on corners. You can just drill holes in the studs at an incline around corners to reduce the bend and simply pull the line through. (And yes, it's nice w/ pex to have a centralized manifold that can shut off/isolate every water source from one area...so you really never have to ever shut off your main water line.

And I was well aware. And I made it up later on a couple of other items. But yes, I voiced my displeasure.

West

 

[chazmo]

We built our home in '09 Gary, and fortunately at that time, PEX plumbing was the thing. Unfortunately, when I mentioned to the builder how much cheaper plastic was than copper, and asked for a price break because of it, they told me it costs just the same to plumb with PEX as it does copper. Many homes nowadays also install plumbing "headers" where all lines intersect at one common connection, with valves branching off the header to each line so that individual lines, which supply various areas of the home can be isolated in the event of a leak.

Other than your lines inside the wall, which is apparently what you had leaking, it's also a good idea to periodically change those supply lines behind the washer as they can fatigue as well. I do that about every 5 years with SS braided lines.

Glad you were taken care of my friend.

West

My house has miles of copper, Jim, but pex is da' bomb! Cheers!

 

[West R Lee]

My house has miles of copper, Jim, but pex is da' bomb! Cheers!

I think one of the several reasons plumbers switched to PEX was they couldn't keep copper on job sites. Thieves were carrying off copper like crazy........ripping it out of the walls of houses under construction, stealing copper air conditioning coils, you name it. To me, one of the beauties of PEX is it's ability to swell when frozen and return to normal diameter without bursting. No doubt for plumbers, it's much easier to work with. My only concern was PEX getting brittle over time, but it has a 50 year guarantee,

West