The Five Hoses in Your House Most Likely to Flood It, and the Twenty-Minute Fix

Burst pipes get the attention, but a surprising share of the water damage we repair in Greater Boston starts at a rubber hose that cost eight dollars. Here are the five to check this weekend.

1. Washing machine supply hoses

The black rubber hoses behind the washer are under full house pressure around the clock, and they are the single most common appliance failure we see. They age from the inside, bulge, and let go, usually when nobody is home. Replace rubber hoses with braided stainless steel ones every five years, and turn the valves off if you leave for more than a weekend. A washer on the second floor of a Quincy two-family that lets go on a Friday night does more damage than most roof leaks.

2. Dishwasher supply and drain

The supply line under the sink is small and easy to kink when things get shoved into the cabinet. The drain hose can slip off its clamp. Both leak slowly under the cabinet floor, where nobody looks, and the first sign is a soft kitchen floor or a stain on the ceiling below. Pull the kick plate once a year and look.

3. Refrigerator ice maker line

A quarter-inch plastic line that runs behind the fridge and gets crushed every time someone pushes the fridge back. It leaks at the compression fitting, usually a drip at a time, and ruins the subfloor over months. Switch to a braided line and leave an inch of space behind the fridge.

4. Toilet supply line

The short flexible line from the shutoff to the tank. The cheap ones with a plastic nut crack at the nut. It is a two-minute swap for a braided stainless line with a metal nut, and it is the one we recommend doing in every bathroom in the house at once.

5. Water heater

Not a hose, but it belongs on the list. A tank water heater lasts ten to fifteen years and fails by rusting through the bottom. Check the date on the label. If it is past twelve years, put a pan under it with a drain, or better, replace it on your schedule instead of its own.

The twenty-minute version

Buy five braided stainless lines at the hardware store, shut the water off at each fixture, swap them, and turn the water back on. Then find the main shutoff for the house and make sure it turns. That is the whole job. If you want a leak sensor, the ones that sit on the floor under the washer and water heater and send an alert to your phone cost about thirty dollars each and have saved several of our clients a claim.