Dishwasher Failure

8/27/2021 (Permalink)

When it comes to your dishwasher leaking, you need to take immediate action to prevent the spread of water damage in your home.

Dishwashers are essential to most residential homeowners these days. Most homeowners use them without giving a second thought to the possibility of the appliance leaking and causing water damage to their kitchen floor.

Unfortunately, if your dishwasher leaks it can quickly cause water to pool on your kitchen floor, leak into the subfloor, damage your cabinetry and more. When it comes to this appliance leaking, you need to take immediate action to prevent the spread of water damage in your home. 

When dishwashers flood your kitchen or cause water damage to the floor underneath it, there are certain steps you should take to stop the spread of flooding in your home and to properly clean up.

Be Aware Of Potential Safety Hazards

Whenever there's water you should make sure to check for any electrical hazards. The safest choice is to disconnect the power to your kitchen while cleaning up and call a licensed electrician.

Remove Standing Water

The average dishwasher uses about 6 gallons of water per wash. While this amount of water may not seem like a lot, it can cause serious damage to your home. You want to clean up puddles of water as soon as possible to prevent them from seeping under the kitchen flooring, into the subfloor, or even into the room below.

While cleaning, pull out your dishwasher if possible. You don’t want to overlook water damage underneath the dishwasher or the walls and cabinets around it, as this can worsen over time.

Look For Signs 

Once you’ve removed the water the job is not done. Depending on how long your dishwasher leaked, there may be water damage to the floor underneath the dishwasher, the wall behind it, the surrounding cabinets, and even the ceiling below your kitchen. 

You should inspect your kitchen cabinetry, flooring, walls, and room below for the following signs of water damage: 

• Bubbling or peeling paint
• Soft or squishy walls
• Bending or buckling flooring
• Drooping ceiling
• Water stains
• Mold growth
• Musty odors

If you find any of the above issues, you must take steps to have the additional areas of damage to be addressed. 

Following these steps will help to minimize the damage to your home and may be all that is necessary to clean up the mess. However, if you uncover additional areas of water damage or if you are simply not sure if the drying process is complete call the water remediation experts at SERVPRO of Saratoga Springs, Gansevoort. We will make it, "Like it never even happened."