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Mysterious brown stain on my [Ceiling]
CroakerBC
TorontoRegistered User regular
TorontoRegistered User regular
This evening, the wife and I observed an interesting light brown stain on our living room ceiling (2 story house, living room on the ground floor).
It seems linear, and stretches from an outside wall inward by about a foot, all in a straight line. There appears to be very minimal, if any, expansion outside this area. Directly above this line (as far as we can tell) is our bathtub.
This suggests two possibilities to me:
1. We have a slow water leak from a pipe between the tub and the drains. The stain itself appears perfectly dry, though, so maybe not - it also seems like a very regular mark, for a water flow issue.
2. Some sort of condensation/insulation issue with a pipe - possibly with the recent cold weather, cool air is condensing against a pipe, then slowly dripping onto the ceiling below, bringing associated muck which is what's causing the staining.
Annoyingly, I'm not sure if my diagnosis is correct, or if there could be some other cause of this. We've got a plumber booked in for next Monday in any event, and I know that (after excess) our insurance will cover it if any serious work needs doing, but I'd rather do a simple fix and avoid a rise in premiums if I can.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? (I realise pictures would be useful here, see if I can do that at some point)
It seems linear, and stretches from an outside wall inward by about a foot, all in a straight line. There appears to be very minimal, if any, expansion outside this area. Directly above this line (as far as we can tell) is our bathtub.
This suggests two possibilities to me:
1. We have a slow water leak from a pipe between the tub and the drains. The stain itself appears perfectly dry, though, so maybe not - it also seems like a very regular mark, for a water flow issue.
2. Some sort of condensation/insulation issue with a pipe - possibly with the recent cold weather, cool air is condensing against a pipe, then slowly dripping onto the ceiling below, bringing associated muck which is what's causing the staining.
Annoyingly, I'm not sure if my diagnosis is correct, or if there could be some other cause of this. We've got a plumber booked in for next Monday in any event, and I know that (after excess) our insurance will cover it if any serious work needs doing, but I'd rather do a simple fix and avoid a rise in premiums if I can.
Does this sound familiar to anyone? (I realise pictures would be useful here, see if I can do that at some point)
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Seems like it should be a leak. If your handy enough you want want to poke up into the ceiling to see if you can see any dripping or water that might not be felt on the ceiling. Generally it will try to find it's way "down." I wouldn't rule out other things yet.
I suspect these threads may be related.
It says something that I wish this were the case...that could be wiped off.
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You can almost guarantee that it's a leak, and if it's along an outside wall where there's also plumbing, there's no way to know whether it's related to plumbing or the structure itself. Rely on the plumber. The only way you can handle it yourself is if the leak is from the exterior of the house and it's a simple seam you can throw some gunk into. If it's related to pipes, the plumber can fix it. If it's relate to the roof, a roofer can fix it. If it's a minor issue that doesn't seem to easily fit into a major job, a general contractor can fix it.
Also, as someone who had a house with a couple water issues, I sympathize. It sucks.
The first thing you do is really simple. You get one of those moisture tester things that home inspectors use, either borrowed or bought, and you see if the space more damp than somewhere on the other side of the room. Even if it's not being dripped on in that exact moment, if something has been dripping on it in the last week it'll show as abnormal. After that you call in a professional to put on a mask and safely look behind there without potentially spraying mold spores all over your house (if it's a leak that's been there a really long time). From there there's a myriad of things you can do, which essentially are "stop it getting wet" and "replace that piece of drywall and paint."
If it's NOT reading as more damp than it should be, you keep an eye on that sucker for the next year and test it occasionally to see if it's getting damp again.
I wouldn't dick around. I would use a small drywall saw, picture here:
homedepot.com/p/t/100654908?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=drywall+saw&storeId=10051&N=5yc1v&R=100654908
and gut the ceiling. It's a leak. Smear it with gunk? Nonsense. Go see what the leak is. The plumber might be able to diagnose without removing the drywall. I prefer to gut, seek and fix myself, for 1/25 of the price. It's also nice to check the quality of your floor joists while you're peeking up there. Inspect for rotting and such.
If there's black mold, well, you found it. Plug the hole and re-assess the situation, calmly.
Cheers guys - appreciated, as always. I will try and chuck some pictures up at some point, but this involves using a non-crappy camera. In the interim, a damp sensor does seem to be a good way forward. I didn't even know those existed (showing my renting experience, I expect). Our usual plumber is going to pop round Sunday/Monday and assess for us, and see what the situation is.
Tempted as I am to go poke at the ceiling with a saw (and I sort of am tempted), I'm aware that if my usual plumber can't access the piping without destroying the bathroom, I have good enough home insurance coverage that I can call the insurers, and get them to track the leak, rip up the floor, find the leak, fix the leak, refit the floor and refit the bathroom.
I only haven't done this yet because it'll inevitably raise my premiums, so it's cheaper to get my usual guy in first, in case there's something obviously wrong that doesn't require much property damage (pull up some boarding around the bath, check for obvious leaks, etc). If I start trying to poke around myself, I suspect the insurance people will be...displeased, and unwilling to pay for any work, on the basis that I hacked a hole in the ceiling all by myself...
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Ceilings sucks because they're usually textured and you have to redo the entire ceiling to get it not look bad, if it's just paint, that's the bee's knees for fixing. Personally I'd eat that cost to open it up and have a look, your plumber will probably love you. Way better to pay that $50 than the $1000+ over the course of your policy. Who knows, it might just be shitty insulation on a pipe that's causing condensate to form (Your #2).
Looks like it runs from there to the connection from the bath taps to the main piping - so assuming those patches are damp (which seems likely, as the rest is both dry and not dark), then the source appears to be either the connection from the bath or flooding in from outside, via the crap sealing job done initially.
As this means it's NOT a pipe leak, sighs of relief, though also frustration that I don't have the right tools for these damn screws, and some abuse for whoever fitted them.
With that in mind, will get plumber in Monday to confirm and reseal, and monitor in the meantime to confirm diagnosis.
Annoyingly, could probbaly rip the screws and reseal myself, but there appears to be an actual hole between the wall and the panel in one space, and I don't know how I'd fill that...not with standard sealant.
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Thanks!
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