What is the likely cause of ceiling stain?

[zelie]

 

Not sure who is the best person to contact… plumber, plasterer or ac technician.

this is the ground floor. Above is a bedroom. Ducted air conditioning. There is no door from this bedroom through to the ensuite. Built in 2020.

any input appreciated 🙂

[JacobZ]

Hi @zelie,

Thank you for your question and welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community, it is fantastic to have you with us.

It's hard to say for sure, but the size of the stain makes me suspect it is water dripping from your ducted air conditioner as opposed to a leaking pipe or leak from a bathroom. If it was a leaking pipe or leak from a bathroom, I would expect the stain to be much larger.

Has this only happened recently? Are you using your air conditioning more since the weather has started to heat up?

Did you have access to the building plans or a manhole that can be used to access the ceiling cavity?

Like I have said, I suspect the issue is due to the ducted air conditioning, but this is only an educated guess. Confirming what runs over this area would be a great place to start and would certainly narrow down who would be best to contact. 

Once the source of the drip is fixed, you could contact a plasterer to assist with reinstating the ceiling.

If you needed to find tradies for this work, I'd suggest using a service such as HiPages, Airtasker or True Local to find someone who operates in your area.

Allow me to tag some of our helpful members to see if they have any thoughts, @CSParnell, @TedBear, @R4addZ.

Let me know what you think and if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Jacob

[R4addZ]

Hi @zelie 

This could be a bigger job than it looks. The problem with water leaks is that where it shows up may be nowhere near where the leak is as the water can run along surfaces till it reaches the lowest point of whatever it is running along. it then drips onto the plaster and leaves a stain. I can't clearly see the stain in the picture (the bright lights in the room wash out the contrast in the picture). If it is where I think it is (about half way between the two lights) then I doubt it will be immediately above if the aircon is to blame but it is possible that water pipes may run above there.

My advice would be to get your insurers involved as the water could have been wetting the timber above there for some time and there will be the risk of rot and mould.