Ceiling Water Damage Repair in Boston, MA
The brown ring on the dining room ceiling was the size of a dinner plate last week. This morning it is the size of the table, the paint has bubbled, and there is a low spot in the plaster that was not there before. The upstairs tenant says their bathroom floor is fine. Call us now and tell us what you see. An independent local provider who repairs water-damaged ceilings in Boston and the inner-ring cities takes it from there.
What the crew does first
The crew finds the source before touching the ceiling. On a stacked Boston house that is usually a bathroom above: a tub overflow lip, a toilet seal, a shower pan, or a supply line in the wall behind the sink. On a top floor it is the roof, an ice dam at the eave, or a radiator pipe in the attic. A moisture meter and a thermal camera trace the wet area on the ceiling back to where it starts.
Then they open a small inspection hole where the readings are highest, look at the joists and the underside of the floor above, and decide how much plaster comes down. Sagging plaster that has let go of the lath is removed while it is still wet. The joist bay is dried from below, and from above if the floor upstairs has to come up anyway. Rebuild comes after the readings are done.
What to do in the next hour
Stay out from under the sag. Wet plaster on wood lath is heavy, and a section can let go without warning. Move furniture out of the way and put a bucket or a tarp under the drip. If water is running, shut it off at the fixture above or at the main in the basement.
Do not poke a hole in the bulge to drain it unless the crew tells you to. Do not paint over the stain. Photograph the ceiling and the floor above, and knock on the upstairs door. In a condo or a rental, notify the association or the landlord in writing today, because who pays depends on where the water came from. Then call.
What is usually saved and what is not
Plaster that is stained but still firm and attached to the lath often dries in place and gets a stain-blocking primer and paint. Joists and subfloor above dry in place almost always. Original medallions and cornices in a Back Bay or South End ceiling can often be dried and kept, and the crew should know before the first cut.
Plaster that has gone soft, bubbled, or separated from the lath comes down. Wet blown-in insulation above a top-floor ceiling comes out. Water-stained drywall in a newer ceiling can sometimes dry, but a sagging sheet is replaced. Once the source is fixed and the cavity is dry, the rebuild is plaster or drywall, skim coat, and paint. If the leak was a supply line, see burst pipe water damage for what happens on the floor above.
Suffolk County notes: plaster, radiators, and ice dams
Ceilings in Boston houses are plaster over wood lath, and in a triple-decker or a rowhouse every ceiling is somebody else's floor. A slow toilet seal on the third floor stains the second-floor ceiling for months before anyone connects the two. Old cast-iron tubs sit on floors that were never waterproofed, and the plaster below shows it first.
Heating adds a Boston-specific source. Steam and hot-water radiators are fed by pipes that run through the ceiling cavity, and a failed air vent, a loose union, or a pipe that froze in a cold outside wall can put a whole system's worth of water into the plaster. Then the roof: in the winter of 2015, ice dams on flat and low-slope roofs across the city backed meltwater up under the shingles and through top-floor ceilings for weeks. After the roofer stops the leak, structural drying of the joist bay and the insulation is what keeps the new ceiling from staining again.
Many policies cover sudden damage from a burst pipe or an ice dam. A leak that dripped for months is often treated as maintenance. In a condo, the master policy usually handles the structure and the unit policy the finishes, but the documents decide. Ask the crew to record where the water came from and what the readings showed.
Calling about ceiling water damage repair
Say what is above the stain, whether the ceiling is sagging, whether water is still dripping, and whether the unit above is yours. Mention plaster, original trim or medallions, and whether the leak might be a radiator or the roof. Call (857) 524-9927 now and tell us what you see.
