Washing Machine Leak and Overflow Cleanup

Most washer floods come from one of a handful of places, and knowing which one tells us a lot about how much water there is and how dirty it is.

• A supply hose splits or pops off. This is the big one. The hose is under house pressure all the time, so it keeps pouring until someone closes the valve, whether the washer is running or not.
• The drain hose slips out of the standpipe mid-cycle and empties onto the floor.
• The drain itself can't keep up or is clogged, so the standpipe overflows every time the washer pumps out.
• Something inside the machine fails, like a door seal, a pump or a cracked tub, and it leaks a little every load.

We don't fix any of those. An appliance technician or a plumber handles the washer, the hoses and the drain. We handle the water.

The industry standard for this work, the ANSI/IICRC S500, sorts water damage into three categories by source, and R&R Magazine's summary of those categories uses washing machines as its example for the middle one. Category 2 water contains significant contamination, and the examples include discharge from dishwashers or washing machines and overflows from washing machines.

So a washer that overflowed with a load of dirty clothes in it isn't a clean-water loss, even if it looks clear on the floor. That changes what we're willing to save. Carpet pad and drywall soaked by Category 2 water get a much harder look than the same materials after a clean supply-line leak.

Where the water came from matters, though. If the supply hose burst before the water ever reached the drum, that water came from a sanitary source, which is Category 1. And Category 3, the grossly contaminated kind, comes from sources like sewage. If what came up through the standpipe was a sewer backup, it's Category 3 water and a different job, covered on our sewage backup cleanup page.

Builders tuck laundry rooms wherever they fit: between the garage and the kitchen, down the hall from the bedrooms, sometimes upstairs. That's convenient for laundry. It's terrible for leaks.

Water spreads under the washer and dryer, slides under the shared wall's bottom plate, and shows up as a wet carpet edge in the bedroom next door or a stain on the garage side of the drywall. A second-floor laundry room sends it down instead, and our ceiling water damage page covers what that looks like from below. Either way, the laundry room floor is only the starting point for the moisture readings.

1. Close the valves. The hot and cold valves behind the washer stop a burst hose. The Texas Department of Insurance tells homeowners to know how to turn off the water at the main and at the valves near appliances. If those won't close, shut off the main.
2. Leave the plug alone if you're standing in water. The CDC says never to turn power on or off yourself while standing in water. Unplug the washer only from dry ground, or switch off its circuit at the breaker if you can reach the panel without wading.
3. Photos before cleanup. TDI says to take pictures or video of the damage before making any repairs, if you can.
4. Call us, 24/7. Our crew shows up ready to work on the first visit: water extraction, moisture mapping into the surrounding rooms, then structural drying with monitoring until the readings say it's dry.

Speed matters here. The EPA says to dry water-damaged areas and items within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth. Behind a washer, in a closed-up laundry closet, damp drywall can sit unnoticed well past that.

TDI's own list of sudden and accidental water damage includes a broken washer hose, and it says most homeowner and renters policies cover that kind of damage. A machine that has been leaking a little every load for months is a different story, because policies usually won't cover damage from gradual leaks.

Your carrier decides which one it is and what it pays. We help document the damage and work with your insurance carrier throughout the restoration process, but we don't interpret policies or act as your adjuster, and your deductible still applies. The insurance claims page lays out how we work with carriers. We take these calls in Converse, Schertz, Canyon Lake and across the area.