Ceiling leak

[Melissa]

We have discovered a new leak in our living room ceiling. Water is not dripping, but the ceiling material is wet with fresh water. We are under rain bands from Dennis right now. The roof is new, and we have

3 turbine vents and soffits which run completely across the perimeter of the house. They are all clear, as they were just replaced. Hubby went up in the attic to look to see if it was water blowing in through the turbines, but said everything seems dry from above the insulation. He brushed against the a/c ducts and said they are soaked on the bottom, they are wrapped in a foamy foil insulation, we believe they are round inside the insulation if that matters. The a/c ducts into each room are not dripping (though some have in the past), but he believes the wetness may be a low spot in the ducts in the attic between one duct and another. He went outside to check the a/c drain, it shut off automatically while out there and a lot of water poured out of the drain all at once. The a/c system is about 1 year old, the ducts are as old as the house, so 27 years. We've frequently had problems with the duct in the master bedroom dripping, but we thought that was caused by steam coming from the bathroom condensing on the duct when the air is running. The outside air is very humid, and has been for 2 days due to Dennis. We keep the a/c at about 74. We live in central FL. Sorry if this is too much info, don't know what is important. Any guesses as to what we should do? Is the a/c set to low for this humidity? A/C ducts need replacing? Something else? Thanks!

Melissa

[roger61611]

Wow, that's odd, I thought *I* had every bad thing possible happen. Questions, just so your post doesn't roll off - does this happen when it han't been raining ? Is it really hot in your attic ?

Here's a post from someone with a similar problem but you state you have the insulation:

Another about dealing with uninsulated, again though it sounds like yours are wrapped so I dunno what you got going on.

Hope the hurrican is kind to you and everyone else, it smoked part of Cuba.

[Melissa]

[e-mail] wrote:

Yep, this is hurricane #5 impacting our home to some extent in less than

1 year. It is quite hot in the attic, but we live in central FL, so that's normal. It's not any hotter now that it would have been at any point in the 4 years we've lived here. The amount of ventilation in the attic is the same as it has always been, though the soffits are clear now, where they were slightly blocked by loose fiberglass insulation that had drifted in the past. There are dry stains on the living room ceiling from past leaks, but the roof was in really bad shape until we replaced it about 2 months ago, we feel fairly confident those leaks were related to the roof. This is the first new leak we've seen since then. We did have a problem with a large water spot in our closet when Ivan looped back over us last year, which is the only storm we didn't lose power with, so the only one with a/c running through the duration. I don't know if the closet water leak is coincidence or not. We have thunderstorms and heavy rain nearly every day, so I don't see how it would matter, but maybe it does. The closet is where the a/c enters the house. The air line that runs to the a/c goes under a built in bench in the closet. The air that comes from the a/c runs over the return and up through the wall in the closet. This is how it looks to me anyway. All of the duct vents? have water stains around them, again we thought it was a humidity type thing, where someone left a door or window open, while running the a/c, and the condensation built up. I guess we are wrong, but don't know what the next step is. Is there a problem with the a/c, a problem with the ducts, completely something else and the ducts are just where the problem shows up? I just don't know if we need to contact an a/c person or an insulation person, or someone else. I don't want to be told our ducts all need replacing if it's a case of us needing more attic insulation for instance. Or vice versa.

I wonder after checking the links you sent, if it's a matter of the insulation around the ducts going bad? Is that even possible? I don't do ladders, but hubby said it looked like the tape that holds the insulation together had failed at a couple of points. He said the tape looked like it wasn't sticky anymore and just sort of fell away in a couple of places. I wonder if the temp we keep the a/c at, with the heat in the attic, is causing enough condensation at the weak/loose points of the duct insulation that it could cause a build up of water to a high enough degree that it would wet the ceiling enough that we could see it? I'm thinking I need to check into getting the duct insulation replaced...

Thanks for the well wishes, we are out of Dennis for the most part, just the tail of the bands still coming up to us. Sending prayers that most fled inland from the panhandle and that their homes hold fast. They will surely be in for another long clean up and repair time after this one. And thanks for your help Roger!

Melissa