All this talk of insurance made me paranoid enough to check my policy, especially in view of the upstairs laundry room. The exclusions are “floods caused by the overflow of a body of water, waves, or tides” and “damage caused by water heaters”. Nothing about washing machines.
I presume the flood exclusion is just legal boilerplate as there’s no large body of water close enough to be a threat; if there were, flood risk would probably be an extra-cost endorsement.
Ok. I give you that. @Thumper668
But, I don’t think Spice and her Husband are all that handy. Hanging a completely new kind of door might be beyond their ability, if they have tools. A truck to pick the door up. And help.
Time to call a professional, maybe?
If they aren’t handy, probably a good idea. But don’t go overboard - a reputable handyman should be able to resolve this easily. And it’s good to know a good handyman as a homeowner.
I found one with good reviews in our area. I just figured I would need to have a fix in mind before I called them.
I wouldn’t replace the doors with curtains. The doors provide just enough sound-reducing that you’ll really notice a difference if they’re not there.
And any solution that doesn’t allow both doors to open at the same time is a non-starter here.
Btw, you mentioned not knowing what a subfloor is. It’s the floor that your floor rests upon - what your tile or planks or carpeting is attached to. In condos, it’s often concrete. In houses, often wooden boards. So a leak in a house could rot the subflooring.
No one’s used board lumber in decades, it’s plywood or similar engineered sheet goods like OSB. All of them are very susceptible to moisture damage, I.E. they fall apart.
Simplest solution is a smaller drain pan. Can you measure the size of the current pan? Then you can quickly find out if a smaller one is available.
Even if a smaller one is not available off the shelf, a sheet metal fabricator (the people who make ducts for HVAC systems) could make you a custom size out of galvanized steel. Still likely cheaper than replacing the doors.
A good handyman would be a source of ideas for a fix.
I second this. ETA: he also may have the benefit of having solved the same problem in other units with the same layout.
Yep. My house is decades old and it’s all board lumber. So are all the homes in my neighborhood that haven’t been remodeled.
Have you determined why the right hand door doesn’t fold? And the left hand door folds and clears most of the pan except it doesn’t close all the way. The pan looks crooked like vibration of the machine wiggled it forward. Maybe it can be jiggled backwards.
Since you’re going to contact a handyman, check the house for other needed minor repairs. Outlets, fixtures, leaky faucets, ceiling fans.
I can tell from the pictures it is because it is not slotted into the track. There may be missing hardware, but it looks like the tab at the top of the door is spring loaded and can be reinserted into the track.
Good call! I also wonder where the dryer is vented to, the garage or outside? Looks difficult to access the venting tube to clean. Those doors would bug the heck out of me, been there done that trashed ‘em.
Those tracks are nasty. Hard to clean.
One misplaced Lego. Door never closes again.
Hate bi-fold doors.
But it is what she has. I believe there’s a way to make it work. If you tell your handyman the door isn’t working right because of the drip pan, he’ll know what it needs and can tell you. Maybe give you a couple ways to go.
Exactly. I had cement board added under any wet prone areas in the house. Kitchen, bathrooms. The laundry room. Hot water heater closet. Just because manufactured sheet lumber is utter crap.
You couldn’t afford “real” lumber subfloors.
What if the drain pain is slightly rectangular and turning it 90 degrees would solve EVERYTHING?!
J/k I don’t think that’s the issue. I do think that you guys gotta take some measurements and see if you can’t find a smaller drain pan.
That was going to be my first suggestion, but then I noticed how tight a squeeze the dryer is and figured there wasn’t room that way either.
We do have flood insurance, if it matters. We’re not really in a high risk flood area, but we have a lot of expensive stuff in the basement. The insurance covers the whole house.
Also, I don’t think the floors there are wood. I think they’re vinyl. I’m not sure how to tell, other than the appraisal value, but you see this style a lot. There was vinyl flooring in every place we looked at. If we ever come into real money I want to put down all hard wood. But that’s a ways off.
So when we first moved in, the right side door folded, but it frequently slipped off the bottom track, and you had to pull it forward to close it. Then my husband did something to it and now it won’t fold. I have no idea how to fix it. I’ve tried putting it back into the track but it’s quite heavy.
The pan is crooked but I believe it’s because stuff behind the washer is making it crooked. I could see no wiggle room to move that side back.
I do believe a handyman is the next step.
Regular flood insurance doesn’t cover floods from appliance failures.
In my experience, it’s natural disasters only.
Unless you specifically asked for it and wrote that big check.
Homeowners might. But they will low ball that, if they can.
It figures.
My husband arranged the flood insurance so I’ll have to ask him. We added something to it but I can’t remember what.
I don’t think flood insurance is applicable here. An Allstate Insurance website says
Does homeowners insurance cover water damage from leaking plumbing?
Homeowners insurance may help cover damage caused by leaking plumbing if the leak is sudden and accidental, such as if a washing machine supply hose suddenly breaks or a pipe burst. However, homeowners insurance does not cover damage resulting from poor maintenance. So, if damage results after you fail to repair a leaky toilet, for example, homeowners insurance likely will not pay for repairs.
Would the insurance company consider removing the pan under the washing machine poor maintenance?