By Barry Stone
Dear Barry,
Last week, a hose connection from my washing machine sprung a leak and the water ran onto the floor instead of filling the wash tub. To understate the matter, we now have a very expensive disaster on our hands. The contractor repairing the damage advised us to install an overflow pan under our washer to prevent a repeat performance. This seems like a sensible idea, and we're wondering why there wasn't one when our house was built and furthermore why didn't our home inspector notice it when we bought the home. Isn't there a code that requires this? Helen
Dear Helen,
If practicality and common sense governed the decision-making processes in home construction, overflow pans would be installed at all interior laundries. Instead, reverence for the building code is the primary source of direction for the building industry, and unfortunately, the code provides no requirement for pans at laundries. To understand this oversight, it is necessary to consider the declared intent of the code.
The Uniform Building Code specifically defines itself as a "minimum standard," a fact that warrants reconsideration. Builders and property owners will often proclaim with pride that a structure is "built to code," as though this is an affirmation of high quality. In fact, the code merely sets a benchmark that we could call a grade of "C plus" -- a level below which a building could be regarded as marginally to poorly constructed. Quality construction should not be measured in terms of code compliance, but rather to the extent that a building exceeds such standards.
The omission of a laundry overflow pan is an excellent case in point. Each time an interior laundry is built without a pan, three unstated assumptions are set forth:
- There is no possibility of leakage at a washing machine.
- Should washer leakage somehow occur, water damage to the home is certain to be minuscule.
- Notwithstanding the possibility of leakage, the cost of a pan is too high an insurance premium to warrant a home against needless damage.
Obviously, all of these assumptions are at odds with common sense. A simple metal pan offers low cost protection against major interior damage. Builders would do well to take this small step beyond the confines of mere code compliance. And owners of existing homes would be wise to install a pan as a prudent maintenance upgrade.
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