'Built to code' is a bare minimum

Q: Last week, I turned on my washing machine, unaware that a hose connection inside the washer was cracked. For the next hour, the water kept running, but instead of filling the washer basin, a flood ran onto the floor, into the hallway, and through the downstairs ceiling. As you can imagine, we have an expensive disaster on our hands.

The contractor who is 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 a pan wasn't installed when our house was built and why our home inspector didn't suggest installing one when we bought the home. Doesn't the building code require overflow pans for interior laundries?

A: If practicality and common sense governed all of the decision-making processes in home construction, an overflow pan would be installed under every in-house washing machine. Unfortunately, the building code, presumably written to promote improved quality of construction, offers no requirement for laundry drain pans. To understand this oversight, it is helpful to consider the declared intent of the code.

The building code specifically defines itself as a "minimum standard," a fact that warrants some reconsideration. Builders and property owners often proclaim with pride that a house is "built-to-code!" as if that is an affirmation of high quality. In fact, the code merely sets a benchmark we might call a grade of "C plus" - 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 a case in point. Each time an interior laundry is built without a pan, three unstated assumptions are set forth:

• There is no possibility that a washing machine will ever leak;

• Should washer leakage somehow take place, significant water damage to the home cannot possibly occur;

• Although leakage might somehow occur, the cost of installing a pan is too high a premium cost to prevent needless damage to a home.

All of these assumptions are clearly at odds with common sense.

The installation of a simple metal pan, with a drainpipe to the exterior of the building, offers low-cost protection against major water damage to the interior of a home. Builders would do well to take this small step beyond the confines of mere building code compliance. Additionally, owners of existing homes that are not equipped with a laundry drain pan should consider having a pan installed, to eliminate the possibility of future damage.

There are many home inspectors who recommend the addition of drain pans for interior laundries. Unfortunately, your home inspector overlooked that consideration.

• To write to Barry Stone, visit him on the web at www.housedetective.com, or write AMG, 1776 Jami Lee Court, Suite 218, San Luis Obispo, CA 94301.

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