When I replaced the flooring many years ago, I put in a drain. It was a drain that was not plumbed. It was basically a hole in the floor with a floor drain cover under the laundry tub cabinet. It was designed to have any overflow of the washer or laundry tub to go into the unfinished basement and not into the dinette that had wooden floors. The drain never worked well as we had overflows, and the water managed to go into the dinette. Nonetheless, I know these are not acceptable by building code and I covered it up with the new flooring.
After I removed the laundry tub cabinet from the room, I found black mold all around the baseboards. This laundry tub must have been leaking for years. (After I put back the cabinet, I found out why the tub was leaking.) The drain certainly did not work here mainly because the leak was small and unnoticeable. The water just settled under the baseboards to assist in the mold growing process.
When we bought the house, the 220-volt electrical box was installed for the dryer. And fortunately, we had an electric dryer, but the location of the outlet interfered with the dryer vent, so I moved it. Not a big deal. However, several years ago, we bought my daughter’s washer and dryer, and the dryer was gas. Not a big deal, I installed a gas line. In fact, the gas line in the basement was set up for another gas hookup, so I just needed to run some gas line to the laundry room and install a shutoff valve. Now these two items would be a problem removing the baseboards.
I removed the baseboards and heating vents around the room. Except, I had an issue getting the baseboard off behind the 220-volt electrical outlet box and the gas shutoff. I unscrewed the gas shutoff valve base from the floor and then, I removed the cover from the electric box and unscrewed the box from the baseboard. Suddenly, I thought, is the circuit breaker off on this outlet? Why wouldn’t it be? We haven’t needed it for years since we got the gas dryer. I decided to head downstairs and check the breaker box. Oh no! The breaker was on, and the outlet was live. I was playing around 220 volts and could have been fried. Not one of my finest moments. After I shut off the breaker, I still had a problem getting the baseboard out, I opted to use my Milwaukee® oscillating tool and cut the baseboard between the gas shutoff and electrical box. Problem solved.
Now I needed to clean up the mold. With a spray bottle of bleach, I covered the walls and floor where the mold was. With a bunch of rags, I wiped down the wall and floor along with the baseboards. I then sprayed the area again and called it a day.