OT: First real rains in years, time to check your ceilings and walls.

[no_such_reality]

Oh joy, I love the rain I really do.

Sadly, I noticed that my six year old roof may have a water leak. The paint has peeled in the corner of the kitchen ceiling and the underlying plaster while not wet or dripping feels cooler than other parts.

My joyful task for the day is adventuring into the attic crawl spaces across almost the entire length of the one story house to access the kitchen attic area. Did I mention we have a low pitch roof so the area the potential leak is at is were there will be lucky to have a foot of clearance between the roof and ceiling joists?

It’s possible that it just peeled for shifting since a lot of the paint is latex over old oil base, but I really doubt it.

On the bright side, my roofer is still in business…

[ucodegen]

At least it is not sunny and 80 degrees outside, which would make the attic unbearable. The other nice thing is that these days you can get a decent really bright LED flashlight for not much money. They are much better than the old really hot ‘trouble lights’ that one you have to use in the past.

[Balboa]

We have had bowls and tarps on our kitchen floor for 5 weeks now. Roof guy says it’s not a roofing problem, that it was an issue with the (pre-existing) passive solar pool heating system. So we had a different company reinstall the system a month ago. It rained that night and we had water on the floor in the morning. SO spent a good chunk of this morning on the roof with a garden hose while I waited inside for the dripping to start — so we have gone so far as to *pay* for the water that is possibly ruining our roof.

We’ve lived here 7 months — there’s no way the previous owners did not have this problem. There’s no way this roof didn’t leak in that amazing July 2015 storm, considering it leaked on us for the first time in September in much less rain. The trick is, the ceiling is planked, not plastered or drywalled — so it’s very easy to just wipe the dirty water off the painted planks and no one is the wiser.

I miss renting.

[no_such_reality]

So my investigation was not optimal. I was overly optimistic. On the amount of space in that section of the attic. Not to mention the number of nails sticking through from the roofers.

The wet spot is in the corner next to the converted kitchen 70s style box fluorescent light. That means I have the width of a kitch cabinet between it and the wall in the attic and the raised section.

Complaining aside. I wasnt able to get really close and didn’t see obvious water running of signs of. Saw what appeared to be prior water on some of the old insulation. Didn’t see any wet staining on the wood but didn’t get the best view due to being several feet away, craning my neck and peering thru LCD light in the dust

That said the water damage appeared centered around the waste drain vent pipe for the kitchen sink. No signs of water coming from the roof so I’m wondering if it’s possible for the pipe to be leaking on the bends from back flow? It’s a pipe to provide air/gas venting, if excessive rain/water is getting in how problematic is that?

I checked the pipe outside and the flashing looks good but noticed the pipe doesn’t have any kind of cap and it’s right next to the solar panels on the downslope side and below the edge of the panel. And by checked I mean looked at from the ladder several feet away and I’m not climbing unto the wet roof in the rain to thoroughly investigate. That’ll be a job for Tuesday.

Could the water be running off the solar panel into the vent pipe and then leaking at the joints? It’s one of those older looking cone shaped vents that then has a straight pipe up out of it. How is the black PVC vent pipe connected to the flashing and external pipe normally?

(edited for phone typos).

[no_such_reality]

After googling my early afternoon away, my most likely culprit is a leaking flange for the waste stack. When the weather clears, I’ll need to carefully check the flange seals.

[Coronita]

Lol. I walked into my master bedroom and near the window my carpet is all wet. Like soaked…. Great, add one more thing to “fix”….

[Hobie]

Sounds like either a missing or leaking storm collar if water is travelling down the vent pipe. Doubt the actual vent is leaking.

The do make a sealant that you can apply in the rain. Wear gloves as it is goopy

[an]

[quote=flu]Lol. I walked into my master bedroom and near the window my carpet is all wet. Like soaked…. Great, add one more thing to “fix”….[/quote]
My kid’s bedroom experienced the same thing. I thought I had it fixed the last time to rain this much. But don’t have any opportunity to test my fix. Turns out I fixed 1/2 of the problem. Time to try and fix the other 1/2 and wait for the next crazy rain.

[Coronita]

Hobie and AN, yeah thanks for the ideas… I think when it starts raining later today, I’m going to observe where the water is coming from….

I was concerned it was the roof, but the ceiling is dry with no stain. Then I was concerned I have a water line break, but I seriously doubt a water line runs there, and it was a water line, the carpet would remain soaked. I temporarily pulled up the carpet and am just running space heater near it to let it dry.

Oh, and I have money betting that after tonight’s wind.. My fence will finally fall down. I’ve been putting that off too…lol…

[Coronita]

I don’t mind the rain actually. It’s kinda of fun to do donuts in my company’s parking lot. The trick to getting security off your back is to let him drive your car and do some doughnuts himself, lol.

And I’m glad we didn’t get rained on this morning during the Carmel Valley 5K.

[Hobie]

Actually flu, I was responding to NSR. No idea about your leak 🙂

[Coronita]

[quote=Hobie]Actually flu, I was responding to NSR. No idea about your leak :)[/quote]

Well then, thanks for not helping me on this one…. 🙂 Just kidding……..

[no_such_reality]

[quote=Hobie]Actually flu, I was responding to NSR. No idea about your leak :)[/quote]

Yea Hobie, what is it? The flex seal stuff? I need a bandaid to stop it long enough until the weather clears.

It’s getting much worse, the ceiling is dripping and I went back again with the rain now and found the real leak. One of the nails in the flashing right next to the pipe is the conduit. Water running right down it and dripping on the ceiling. Way back under the corner.

I figure I need to seal over the head of the nail outside as the bandaid.

Henry’s rubberized roof repair. Found it

[moneymaker]

flu, maybe the window was left open, sometimes the simplest solution is the right one. My Jetta has a sun roof that is known to open all by itself, only after a recall to fix said issue no less.

[no_such_reality]

Okay, maybe I’m a touch cray-cray. Already went to Home Depot, pick up a gallon of Henry’s Wet Patch Rubberized Roof Repair/

Came home, rain had lightened but not stopped, wind was lighter than earlier and did a mad dash up to the roof where I lathered and feathered my patch over the nail and the edges of the flange as the edges seemed loose and water squirted out when I pressed.

I’ll check the attic tomorrow, I’m done with the attic today. Figure I had stop the leak as when I saw it during the heavier rain it was like a trickle/drip from a faucet and with rain heavy project through tonight and tomorrow, I figured I’d have enough water to collapse the ceiling.

[Author]

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