The most common cause of damp patches on a ceiling is a problem in the room above the water stain. Water from broken heating pipes or plumbing seeps into the floor and leaks through the ceiling of the rooms situated below. If a room is located under a terrace and its insulation is leaky, water ingress and damp patches can also occur. Similarly, for top floor flats and leaky roofs.
Flooded ceiling – eliminate the cause
In each and every case, the first task is to eliminate the fault and the leak. Without this, in the long run, all attempts to improve the appearance of the ceiling will fail. Harmful mould will quickly grow in areas exposed to permanent damp and with poor air circulation. Application of specialist products will be required.
If it was a one-off water ingression and you are sure that the cause has been permanently eliminated, you can proceed to repair the water damage.
Flooded ceiling – drying
The first step is to wait until the ceiling is completely dry. This process may be accelerated by ensuring adequate air circulation, but it will still take several weeks.
Flooded ceiling – painting
Dirty, often reddish stains appear even after a minor flooding. This is caused by water seeping through coming into contact with the reinforcement. It is best to paint over such stains with a paint specially designed for this purpose, such as Śnieżka Streaks and Stains. Once water stains have been covered and the paint has dried, coat the ceiling with emulsion paint in accordance with the given room’s use. It is best to re-decorate the whole ceiling, as only painting a part of it will mean the freshly painted part will look different than the unpainted sections.
Flooded ceiling – repairs
If there was a lot of water and the leak went on for a while, the paint will blister and peel off, sometimes the plaster will also flake off the ceiling. In such circumstances, plaster and paint coats will have to be removed. Obviously, then the gaps will have to be filled in by plastering or skimming the exposed area. Here specialist paint for stains and streaks will not be needed, you can use a base coat and then apply a topcoat to the ceiling. In this case, it is also best to repaint the entire ceiling.
Flooding is an extremely unpleasant incident, especially if it happens when a house is empty for a while. Ignoring minor roof or terrace leaks can also have unpleasant consequences. Therefore, react as soon as water appears on a ceiling: find the cause of the leak and then quickly fix it. A one-off flooding, although stressful, should not be very troublesome.
