A close friend of mine recently had quite a tragedy. Her washing machine was connected with the old rubber hoses, the kind that comes with the machines. These hoses were probably installed with the machine, over ten year old I would guess. Well, in the middle of the night, one of the hoses burst. Her laundry is in a closet on the first floor of her house in a closet in her 1/2 bath. The water shot out of that hose, spraying for hours overnight while she slept upstairs unaware. The water was running out of her house down the street! There were inches of water on her floors that were all only a year old.

The current tally of the damage: Wood and tile floors removed from the whole first floor, kitchen, living room, front hall.

One computer ruined as it was on top of some cardboard boxes that collapsed when they got wet.

Some of the walls have to be gutted because of water absorption.

The kitchen cabinets are ruined because they were formica on a particle board base (read sponge).

The bathroom vanity ditto.

The basement insulation was all ruined.

All the stuff stored in the basement was ruined.

There may be some damage to the house under the siding. Unknow at this time.

Many personal items ruined.

The living room furniture is still an open question.

All of this happed in a few hours. Naturally I showed up that day and changed the hoses to no burst braided hoses, but talk about being a day late and a dollar short!

So here’s my advice: First, change those hoses, and I wouldn’t trust the ones from a big box store to be made from  quality materials. Buy them from a plumbing supply company if you can. You may be able to do this yourself, or you may have your plumber do it (you might even hire us!) but do it today. Second, make sure you have a valve that can turn the water off easily to the hoses. If you have a single lever washing machine valve, use it when you aren’t doing wash. If you were religous about shutting off the water you wouldn’t have to worry about the hoses. If you have 2 of the old round handle valves, you should at least have your plumber either install a single lever valve, or new 1/4 turn valves on the hot and cold lines that are easy to shutoff.

Change those hoses!!!