Laundry Room Defects

One area of the home that gets neglected when it come to normal maintenance is the laundry room. In this article I will go over some of the most popular laundry room defects. Most people don’t realize the dangers that lurk in your laundry room. Take a look at the picture below that I took during a recent Suffolk County Home Inspection. Notice that the washing machine water supply hoses are rubber. When new these hoses are fine but as they age the rubber becomes brittle and can split or burst and if the water supply valve is in the open position you can have a huge mess on your hands. This issue is the most common laundry room defects found during home inspections.

One way to prevent flooding is to replace the old rubber water supply hoses with braided stainless steel hoses which are far more durable and less prone to bursting. The hoses in the picture below which I took during a recent Suffolk County home inspection are an example of stainless steel hoses.

Another one of the more common laundry room defects is the use of improper dryer vent hose. In the picture below the dryer was vented using a flexible, ribbed plastic vent that is not approved by the Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL). This type of dryer exhaust vent is more likely to accumulate lint than a smooth metal vent, creating a potential fire hazard. Excessive lint accumulation can also increase drying time and shorten the dryer’s lifespan. These type of vents can easily tear which if the dryer is a gas burning dryer can lead to CO2 leakage into the home.

The picture below shows the proper type of smooth solid metal vent that is recommended for all types of dryers. All dryer vents should be cleaned at least once a year to help prevent lint fires.

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