My bathroom flooded last night, and I soaked up the water immediately, but my ceiling downstairs began to drip

Question

It began dripping near the heating vents and a few lights in the ceiling. I turned off the power and unfastened the vent and lights to allow the water to somehow drain. It's now the morning after, what else should I do?

Answer 1

You really need to get the areas in the ceiling dried out. If not, you have a good chance of mold growing.

Answer 2

If there are any stains on your ceiling from the water that dripped through the floor, a sponge with some bleach should take care of them. (Don't scrub too hard and ruin the paint.) Keep the fixtures ventilated for a bit longer to dry them out, and point a fan or two at them to speed the drying. You should not have any problems once it is dry, although a ceiling fan light might need longer to dry and it wouldn't hurt to spray some WD-40 or a similar water displacing lubricant in the coils if one got wet.
Consider putting in a better sealed floor in the bathroom, and also check your overflow drains on your tub and sink to prevent accidents...and if your toilet backs up easily use one flush for the waste and the second flush for the rest of the toilet paper.

Answer 3

I had the same problem when my kids bailed water out of our tub onto the floor with a small bucket...dont ask me why my wife gave the kids a bucket to play with in the tub.

I drilled about a dozen small holes in the cieling in the downstairs bathroom where the water was dripping from. I drilled the holes about every 5-7 inches to let the water drip out. I put towels on the floor to keep the water from running elsewhere.

I left the holes there for about a week with a bright halogen light below it. Not close enough to burn the cieling, just close enough to warm it and aid in drying.

After the cieling was dry to my satisfaction, I filled the holes with spackle, sanded, primed and painted the cieling.

I was fortunate that my house is plastered and not drywalled. Drywall would tend to be more diffiuclt to dry and more prone to mold development.

Answer 4

Unless you are real handy in home repairs the best thing to do is to call a good plumber and find out what caused the leak. Chances are you'll need a good repairman to take care of all your damage. Make the wet area is well ventilated and dry so mold can't grow.

Answer 5

what you should concentrate on is fixing the problem,that caused the flooding,then air out the wet areas you will be okay as long a the are dries out.

Answer 6

your screwed