Your washing machine is built with a float mechanism inside of it that works much like the float inside your vehicle’s fuel tank gauge. Sometimes these floats are electronic gauges and some or actual floats that you cannot see inside the machine; think of a buoy in the water. A washing machine float tells your washing machine when it is full and the water flow needs to stop, in order to prevent an overflow. Sometimes these floats are defective, or eventually fail due to time. When a washing machine float fails, it will cause a washing machine overflow. The washing machine no longer can detect the level of water therefore it keeps filling, waiting for the float to tell it to turn off the water flow. When a washing machine overflows, this water can cause damage to the flooring, walls, baseboards and other things that might be in the vicinity of the overflow.