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PSA: I was wrong about putting the laundry room upstairs for 10 years... until my water heater burst. | Custom Home Builds - SMM Buzz

jamesfox•5mo ago

PSA: I was wrong about putting the laundry room upstairs for 10 years... until my water heater burst.

4 comments

4 Comments

robinj295mo ago

Ugh, that's the worst... I had a washing machine hose let go upstairs a few years back. @grayc27 is right that water travels, but having it all start on the second floor was a nightmare. It soaked through the laundry room floor, then the kitchen ceiling below it started to sag and drip. We ended up having to replace a big part of the kitchen drywall and the flooring in both rooms. The cleanup guys said it would have been way less damage if it happened on the concrete slab in the basement.

grayc275mo ago

Okay but how much damage are we really talking about here? A burst water heater is a pain for sure, but it's not like having it downstairs makes the water magically stop flowing. That stuff will find its way down through the ceiling anyway (trust me, I've seen it). Maybe the cleanup is slightly easier on the ground floor, but you're still dealing with a huge mess either way.

riley_taylor4mo ago

Oh man, @robinj29 is spot on, I went through almost the exact same thing with a burst pipe in my upstairs bathroom a few years back. The water soaked through the subfloor and ruined the ceiling below, plus we had to rip out all the trim and baseboards because they swelled up. It's not just the mess, it's how everything multiplies when you've got two levels of damage to deal with instead of one slab.

lauras834mo ago

Did nobody think about the mold factor though? Once water gets trapped between two floors it can start growing inside the walls before you even realize it's there. I had a friend who didn't rip out enough drywall from their second floor leak and ended up with a MASSIVE mold problem six months later that cost way more than the initial repair.