My bathroom is leaking!! I have a fan in my bathroom and I turn it on when I shower but my walls and celing are always damp. Will this harm my bathroom? Also there are a few ripples in my celing/paint already right above my shower, should I be concerned? Also, also, haha, there is a spot that already got filled with water and became a bubble, I popped the bubble and found a soft spot on the drywall I dryed it up and repainted over it. Should I have done more? And lastly, I was wondering how to help my bathroom become less damp and humid. Is there anything I can do to fix this, a better fan, better ventilation, any sort of vapour barrier I can put up and still paint on? If you could please answer all my questions or at leat try that would be great, Thank you guys!!

If the bathroom is on the second floor and the attic/roof above it I would check to see if there is enough insulation in that ceiling along with a vapor barrier. If the insul is poor then that alone will cause big problems when you shower. Cold ceiling warm shower.

I would take out the drywall ceiling and use a green/blue board drywall to start fresh. The make moisture barrier paint and if you can't find that then just use bonzes/ kills for a paint primer.

Now that you have a ceiling that's been checked for insul and good drywall lets get to the exhaust fan. You may need a bigger one and also vent it to the outside and not in the attic if at all possible.

Once you get that much water behind the latex paint the drywall is more than likely shot. That much moisture is very indicative to poor insulation more than exhaust fan. Or all the above and real long showers

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Im not a very handy women, I'm also super broke, do I have to get a contracter do do any or all of that, would it cost a lot? Is there anything I can do myself that's easy?

It all depends on how willing you are to learn and work and get some friends to help.
You could just try and dry the shower and use kills/binz and repaint but from what I see that will not work long or maybe not at all.

If you are physically able bodied then you can do this repair.

Beside me there are other people here that are more than willing to walk you through this.

Drywall/paint insulation here is not super expansive.

So lets get you started, the ceiling above the bathroom, is that on the last floor and only the attic above that?


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Yea it's a one floor house, with a basement its on the main floor and the attack is above I'm going to go into my attic to see if my insilation is wet or if thres a hole in my celing because I found this...

Actually never mind my attic is caulked shut and I can't get up there any way I'm to short haha

Hi O_trouble

From the pic it appears that u have a leak in roof. That is too much damage for condensation. U will have to get into attic to make locating the leak easier. Once in attic u should be able to follow the water line back close to its source. If your location is Canada,it could be an ice dam on roof. Or it could be coming down damaged flashing around vent pipe.

These are a few things that could be causing your problem.

Get back to us and let us know how u made out

Good luck
Chuck

Well I'm getting a friend to come look at it because I can't get into my attic but at this point I'm assuming its from the attic, so I'm going to have to fix the hole, get rid of wet insulation and patch the hole in the bathroom right? Is there any of that I can do myself for low cost? I might have to take out a loan just to get it fixed!

I don't do much construction myself because there are so many tall, strong men who can do it better than us girls. Seriously, they can. But I think I hear a problem I can help with...

You can do a drywall patch yourself. It would be better to replace all of the bathroom drywall with "greenboard" and paint it with "kills" for the primer, but if there is a leak in your roof, you must get that fixed first.

Find out if the roof is leaking, the flashing is damaged, the insulation needs replacing first. Pay to get that squared away. That is worth taking out a loan.

Find out if the bathroom vent is going outside. It needs to be venting outside, not into your attic. Fix that if needed. This may end up as part of the roof repair.

You can put a patch on the drywall that is damaged the worst yourself, then paint over it. It won't be perfect but you will be able to live with the cost. Don't let any of it scare you. Take it one step at a time.

Humm OK , phew! I'll wait till my friend comes because he may know some contractors I can hire to fix it all and put in the green bord/ kills stuff. What exactly is the green board stuff and that kills stuff and where can I get it?

Green board is a drywall that is moisture resistance and all bath/tub alcoves needs to have it. When I build a bathroom I use it also in all walls and ceilings
O troubles I will be right back I posting quick to go over your options here
I am a builder/contractor/new and renovations
Just on a side note do you own or rent?
The good news if you do have a roof leak it leaks in the tub.
Did you have Ice hanging from the gutters thhis winter?


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I own. Yea its going into the tub but its gross and I'm afraid to shower I don't want to get the moisture in the attic and mess anything up :S

At this point it won't matter much to shower. Just stuff the hole with newspaper. The damage is already there.
Just take a shorter shower if you are concerned. You can't hurt what you will eventually tear out

The day you want to get into the repair get some pictures above the ceiling and post them
Again how far away are the gutters from the bathroom. A picture of the roof from the out side would be great. I want to see if there is a change in a roof and if there is a roof valley near this bathroom for all to see here. Pics here greatly help all that see for approaches to solve and correct the problem


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Umm if I get up there I can take pictures, and you might not see much with the snow on the roof haha! But yea I can get them for you as soon as I can get into my attic... grrr lol!

21boat is right, take the shower, the damage is done. This time of the year you may have some difficulty getting a roofing bid but it's a good idea to line up at least 3 bidders, it doesn't sound like you'd like to try your hand at roofing, right? Cut that caulking with a tar papper knife or similar tool. You must be able to get up there eventually.

We all will keep an eye for the pics, Thanks!

When you do get into the attic, don't put your foot through the ceiling. Anywhere you see insulation is a place to fall through. If there is no ply or planking to stand or lay on you HAVE to use only the rafters to support yourself.


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