Exploded ceiling

May 08, 2025 Last reply: 1 year ago 5 Replies
N

So...



I hauled down my big piece of wheeled luggage from on top of the wardrobe for the first time in about three years[1] and directly above it a piece of the ceiling, in the corner made by the front and side walls, is falling away.



Suspecting water damage but seeing no tell-tale water marks on the luggage I went up into the crawl space immediately above the damage. No sign of water damage there. The loft boards are intact, the joists are dry and the insulation between the joists appears dry and untouched. Nothing's been touched up there since I last stowed my luggage there so the plaster could have fallen away at any time within the past three years or so and for all I know may have happened gradually or all at once. I think this is an old lath-and-plaster ceiling probably with a skim coat over the top. Could the skim just have decided to separate at that point?



I can't really move the wardrobe to take a proper look until I get back home again[2] but in the meantime I've laid plastic sheet in that area of the roof space so that if any water drips from anywhere I ought to find it.



Any thoughts about what may have been going on?



Thanks,



Nick [1]I've been flying handluggage only for a while but this time I can't. [2]Just in case Burglar Bill is reading this, I'm leaving my two very large and hungry XL Bully dogs wandering free on the premises while I'm gone.[3][4] [3]Just in case the RSPCA are reading this, only joking at [2] above! [4] Just in case the Police Dangerous Dogs Unit are reading this, the most dangerous animals on my property at the moment seem to be the passing cats who s*it on my grass.


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B

In message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Nick Odell snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.ca writes

I had something like that when I moved in here 30 years ago. .A plaster and lath ceiling in the downstairs back porch .

The ceiling looked like old water damage and it was not obvious where it came from . We had an extremely heavy shower one day and what was happening was the gutter was overflowing into the roof space and down the inside wall to the downstairs ceiling . The gutter was actually sloping the wrong way , away from the down pipe . It happened very infrequently but enough to damage the plaster over time.

I was having some chimney rendering work done and I asked the roofer to realign the gutter. He was most amused when I went up the scaffolding with a kettle of water to see if it now flowed the right way. It seemed to the roofer that someone had done a bodged repair in the distant past that misaligned the slope.

I tore the ceiling down - fortunately it was only about a couple of metre square, but it was a terribly messy and dusty job. I put in plaster board with a skim of plaster ( it took me a long time to get it smooth))

My advice is to check the gutters .

You can get robotic guard dogs that wont incur the wrath of the RSPCA

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Brian

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N

Good point about the gutters. I'll check next time it is raining.

I live on a hill in a Victorian terrace where each house is about 70cm lower down the hill than the previous one and we share one surface water drain per two houses. I have the drain and my neighbour's gutter drains into my gutter through a short downpipe so there can be quite a volume of water up there. True, the patch on the ceiling is on that side.

However: the water appears to run pretty freely into my downpipe while my neighbour's gutter is regularly getting blocked. To the extent that water often cascades from there onto the pavement below. But I haven't noticed any damp problems on that side of the house either.

Nick

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In message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, Nick Odell snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.ca writes

My house is 1907 and on a hill. The ceiling affected is about 10ft horizontal from where gutter overflowed, so it wasn't taking a direct route.

Brian

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In message <vvkg12$2mlqg$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, Davey snipped-for-privacy@example.invalid writes

Only the Border Collie variant

Brian

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