Yet another homeowner question...


Vyrolan

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Since we have such a knowledgeable group on this forum that I trust, I'll ask this here...

So we must have some kind of leak or problem at our house which has resulted in water dripping out of a ceiling outlet in the garage. I mentioned this in since it impacted my current woodworking project...but what in the heck do I do about the problem itself? It's not dripping anymore but I have no idea what caused it or if it will happen again. There's no sign of water damage in the drywall on the ceiling and I didn't see a lot of moisture when I removed the outlet cover. It was surprisingly dry to me considering how much water had pooled on the floor. A couple of other holes in the drywall less than an inch a way looked slightly moist, but another a few inches away was totally dry. I mean where do I even start? I don't even know who to call to look at it. =( Open to suggestions.

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Just a wild guess but from experience. I had a receptical in the bedroom that would pop at night but we couldn't tell where the poping sound came from. The next day I investigated and found that a water pipe going to the shower had a small leak and was dripping on the wires going to the receptical and causing the noise. Wonder if you have a leak in your roof that is following a wire to your light?

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How's the insulation in the garage? Is it heated 24/7? I ask cause when it got really, really cold here last winter the main duct to our furnace got condensation on it and it stained the drywall around the trim of the filter opening. I wonder if your getting condensation and it's freezing at night and dripping when it warms up a little?

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U will prob have to cut a hole in the ceiling drywall to find out what's going on. Mark out a large hole, draw with a meter stick, and cut it out. You can replace the square later when you are done looking.

In my experience, you can't really do anything until you see the problem area. Open it up and take a look.

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Coop that was my worst fear because I could conceivably see a leak from either of two bathrooms or the laundry running to this spot. =(

Eizzle, there's a room above that part of the garage so it's insulated pretty well. It doesn't get insanely cold. No duct between levels there either (first floor fed from below, second floor from upper attic).

New info: I went and checked out that side of the house outside (walking through snow almost to my waist = fun). The lower level roof section over the front of the garage wraps around to that side and at the end right near the side overhead door there were tons of icicles. And going straight up every single piece of siding had icicles. And the corner of the upper level roof straight up had big icicles. You could tell water had been running down along there a lot. It may be getting in right along there and then running inside the garage ceiling to a low spot. =(

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Maybe it could be ice dams I dunno. Our roof has a decent pitch so not much snow builds up. We have good soffit vents but I honestly have no clue how that attic is done since its inaccessible. I was going to go out and look again and use a long extension pole to try to clear some of the snow, but the pole is frozen collapsed and its too damn cold to be stomping around in over 2 feet of snow. =(

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If you're getting ice damming up there and snow melts off your roof quicker than your neighbors than maybe your attic is building up condensation. 

Make sure your ventilation up there isn't blocked, not just your soffits.  If your roof doesn't have a ridge vent maybe your gable end ventilation is blocked or even non existent.  You may have a mold situation up there so get a pro to check it out. 

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Move south !

 

You'd get no argument from my Texan wife. =p

 

 

If you're getting ice damming up there and snow melts off your roof quicker than your neighbors than maybe your attic is building up condensation. 

Make sure your ventilation up there isn't blocked, not just your soffits.  If your roof doesn't have a ridge vent maybe your gable end ventilation is blocked or even non existent.  You may have a mold situation up there so get a pro to check it out. 

 

I actually have no idea how or even if that inaccessible attic space is ventilated, but it's also not just attic space above where the water was dripping.  There are bedrooms from the second floor above the back half of the garage where the dripping was happening.   I did a quick diagram of the layout of the garage (looking down from above).

post-16091-0-26966300-1422976171_thumb.p

 

 

...so get a pro to check it out. 

 

Which kind of pro should we even try to call?  A roofer or what?   

 

My wife is going to check it throughout the day today as she does various things (run the laundry, drain the baby's bath, take a shower, etc) to see if it seems dripping after any of those activities (which would seem to indicate it's a pipe somewhere).   Overcast today and cold so probably not as much snow melt having water run off if it's something like ice dam problems.

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Yes, a roofer.  I'm not in the home building business, I'm just an exceptionally huge fan of Mike Holmes; I've tried to learn everything I could from him.  :D

 

You should have a vapor barrier between floors if there's a bedroom above a garage (depending on your codes some allow a certain floor thickness to replace a vapor barrier).  It's probably code to have access to that attic area...it wouldn't be difficult to cut an access panel for entry and inspection. 

 

It's difficult to advise without inspection but you definitely need it checked out.  Especially if you've never been up there it's important to have someone look at to make sure it's done right.  There's no pride in the house building business anymore and no one gets permits anymore when they work on their own houses. 

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In my experience, a bad wax ring on a toilet or insufficient caulk around a bath tub are two common culprits. I have owned 5 houses/condos and in every one a wax ring failed. They don't last forever. Your toilet might be nowhere near your garage but water will always take the path of least resistance.

V - You mentioned there's a room above the garage.  Is it a bathroom?  If so, we can troubleshoot from there.

 

Remember as well, water doesn't always drip straight down.  Any water dripping onto a wooden beam/joist with a slight angle to it will travel all the way to the lower end of that beam.

 

Edit: Is there an exterior gable vent in that attic space?  South facing perhaps?

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I was thinking if there's a vapor barrier then water (condensate) could migrate down from anywhere onto the vapor barrier.  

The only way it would escape would be a hole in the vapor barrier like his ceiling outlet.   

 

I had a very small leak on my basement floor once that looked like was coming from a drain pipe in our utility room.  It took a long time to nail down but it finally occurred to me that the drops on the floor only appeared when it rained.  So I opened up a wall in a closet above and the next time it rained I checked the vent stack in the roof.  Sure enough the vent stack was wet.  I had a roofer out to check the vent stack and the rubber seal was brittle from the harsh elements.  So what I ended up doing was replacing all the vent stacks with lead ones.  The way they used to be installed.

 

So all those homeowners with PVC vent stacks on their homes keep an eye on them.  

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V - You mentioned there's a room above the garage.  Is it a bathroom?  If so, we can troubleshoot from there.

 

Remember as well, water doesn't always drip straight down.  Any water dripping onto a wooden beam/joist with a slight angle to it will travel all the way to the lower end of that beam.

 

Edit: Is there an exterior gable vent in that attic space?  South facing perhaps?

 

It's a bedroom mostly but the back corner of the garage has a bathroom at least partially over it.   There is indeed a gable vent along the front of the house.  It is clear of debris/snow/ice.

 

I think it's related to the snow, ice dams, whatever.   The snow was definitely massively built up on the West edge of the garage roof.  It looked basically exactly like the diagrams for ice dams.  I used a long pole with a plastic scraper-like attachment to remove as much of the snow from up there as I could, but there's still multiple inches across that whole side.   My wife says it is still dripping today. =(   Annotated the Google Street View pic of the house to give an idea of the layout/situation.

 

7uQOFRb.jpg

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Unless I missed it, did you cut a hole in the ceiling and look in per Pug's recommendation?

 

No, I haven't had the courage/time to do it...super busy at work and dealing with the blizzard and little girl's birthday party this weekend.

 

Additional info:  We've never had this leak before this blizzard (including previous decent-sized snow).  It doesn't seem to be related to anything inside (we see nothing after running the showers for a long time or spam flushing the toilets or doing multiple loads of laundry back to back).    It only drips during the day the past few days while it's been warm enough (especially with the sun) to melt snow on the roof.

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