Washing Machine and Laundry Room Mold: Prevention Checklist
The laundry room is a small space that handles a lot of water and a lot of warm, damp air. In South Florida it is often a closet in a hallway, a corner of the garage or a stacked unit in a condo with a louvered door and no window. Those conditions make it one of the easier rooms to grow mold in, and also one of the easier rooms to protect, because most of the prevention is routine. The checklist below is organized by how often each task needs doing.
A washing machine never fully dries on its own. Water stays in the door gasket folds, the detergent drawer, the drain pump and the outer tub. Detergent and fabric softener residue coat those surfaces, and that film feeds mold and bacteria. Front-loaders are the most affected because their door seals tightly, but top-loaders develop the same buildup under the agitator and around the rim of the tub. Cold-water washing and too much detergent make it worse.
After every load
- Remove wet laundry promptly. Clothes left in the drum for hours start to smell and add moisture to the machine.
- Leave the door or lid open so the drum can air out. With small children or pets in the home, use the door latch position designed for ventilation if your model has one.
- On a front-loader, wipe the rubber gasket, including inside the fold at the bottom where water and lint collect.
- Pull the detergent drawer open slightly to let it dry.
- Use the amount of detergent the manufacturer recommends, and high-efficiency detergent in high-efficiency machines. More soap does not mean cleaner clothes, only more residue.
Once a month
- Run the machine's cleaning cycle, or an empty hot cycle, with a washer cleaner or the product your manual specifies.
- Remove the detergent drawer and scrub it and the cavity it slides into.
- Clean the drain pump filter if your machine has an accessible one. Have a shallow tray and towel ready, since water will come out.
- Look at the floor around and behind the machine with a flashlight for drips, stains or rust.
- Wipe lint and dust from the walls and shelves. Lint is organic material and holds moisture.
Twice a year
- Supply hoses. Inspect both hoses for bulges, cracks, corrosion at the fittings and dampness. Rubber hoses age, so replace any that look worn. Braided stainless steel hoses are a sturdier choice.
- Drain hose and standpipe. Make sure the drain hose is secured in the standpipe and not kinked. A hose that pops out during the spin cycle empties the whole tub onto the floor.
- Drain pan. If the washer sits in a pan, confirm the pan is not cracked and its drain line is clear. If it is on an upper floor or in a condo with no pan, consider adding one along with a leak alarm.
- Shutoff valves. Turn them off and on to confirm they work. Shut them off when you leave for an extended trip.
The dryer matters too
A dryer removes water from clothes and has to send it somewhere. If the vent is clogged, disconnected or too long, that moisture ends up in the room and the wall.
- Clean the lint screen with every load.
- Check that the duct behind the dryer is connected at both ends and not crushed.
- Confirm the vent goes all the way outdoors, not into the attic, garage or a wall cavity, and that the exterior flap opens freely.
- Have the full length of the duct cleaned periodically. Clothes taking longer than usual to dry is the standard sign of a restricted vent.
Controlling the room itself
Keep indoor relative humidity roughly between 30 and 50 percent and below 60 percent. In a laundry closet, that means letting conditioned air in: keep the doors open while machines run and for a while afterward. If the room has an exhaust fan, use it. In a garage laundry area, which is usually outside the air-conditioned part of the home, a dehumidifier can make a noticeable difference during rainy season.
Signs that prevention is no longer enough
- A musty smell in the room that remains after you have cleaned the machine.
- Stains, bubbling paint or soft spots on the wall behind or beside the washer.
- Swollen baseboards or flooring that lifts near the machines.
- Visible growth on the wall around the water supply box or the dryer vent connection.
Mold on the gasket is a cleaning task. Mold in the wall or floor means water has been escaping, and that calls for finding the leak and removing the affected material properly.
If you have found damage behind the machines
Stop using the washer until the leak is identified, and dry the area as quickly as you can. For damage in the walls, floor or cabinets, request an on-site remediation estimate at drymiami.com or call (954) 778-7999. The visit is $79, credited in full toward the job if you hire DryMiami.
Mold problem at home?
We come out, find the moisture source and give you a written remediation estimate. The visit is $79, credited in full toward your job if you hire us.
