Water dripping from the ceiling: what to do first

A drip from the ceiling is coming through drywall that was never meant to hold water, and it has been up there longer than you think. In a Southwest Florida slab home there is no upstairs plumbing to blame unless you have a second story, so the usual suspects are in the attic: a supply line rerouted overhead during a repipe, the air handler and its drain pan, or the roof. The first hour is about stopping the water, keeping the ceiling up, and finding out which one it is.

Shut the water off first

You do not yet know whether it is plumbing, but if it is, every minute at house pressure is more water in the insulation. Close the main shutoff valve, usually on an outside wall near a hose bib, in the garage, or in a box at the front of the house. Then open a low faucet and an outside hose bib to drain the pressure.

If the drip slows within a few minutes and stops within half an hour, it was a supply line. If it keeps coming at the same rate with the water off, it is not a pressurized pipe; move on to the AC and the roof. If it only drips when someone uses a shower or a toilet upstairs, it is a drain or a seal, and the water can stay on as long as that bathroom stays unused.

Relieve the bulge before it lets go

Wet drywall sags, then holds water like a bag, then tears open all at once. Do not wait for that.

1. Put a bucket under the lowest point of the bulge, with a towel under the bucket.
2. Move furniture and rugs out from under it, along with anything electrical on the floor.
3. With a screwdriver or a nail, poke a small hole at the lowest point of the bulge and let the water run into the bucket. A controlled stream through a small hole beats a collapse. If there is a light fixture in the wet area, drain from a spot well away from it.
4. Leave the hole open; that section of ceiling is coming out for drying anyway.

Before you work under it: if water is dripping from or near a light fixture, a fan, or a smoke detector, or running down a wall to an outlet, switch off the breaker for that room from a dry spot. If you would have to stand in water to reach the panel, stay out and call the electric utility. Do not turn the light on to see better.

Where ceiling water comes from in a slab home

• Attic supply lines. Many homes here have been repiped through the attic, and CPVC from the 1980s and 90s runs there too. A fitting that has been baking at 130 degrees for twenty summers cracks, and the leak lands on the ceiling below.
• The air handler. Attic air handlers sit in a secondary drain pan. When the condensate line clogs with algae, which it does every summer here, the primary pan overflows into the secondary, and when that pan’s float switch fails or was never installed, onto the ceiling. In August this is the most common ceiling drip in a Florida home, and it is an AC company’s repair, not ours.
• The roof. Tile and shingle roofs leak at flashings, vent boots, and skylights, and in hurricane season a lifted tile or a cracked pipe boot shows up as a drip the next time it rains.
• An upstairs bathroom. In a two-story home, a failed shower pan, a toilet wax ring, a tub overflow gasket, or a supply line under a vanity puts water on the floor above. These leak only when the fixture is used.
• The water heater. Some homes have it in the attic. A tank at the end of its life up there drains onto the ceiling instead of a garage floor.

Plumbing, AC, or roof: how to tell

• Water off, drip stops: supply line. Plumber.
• Drips only when it rains or right after, clean water, a brown ring on the ceiling that grows with each storm: roof. Roofer.
• Drips in hot weather, water is clean and cool, stops when the AC is turned off at the thermostat, and there is water in the pan or at the drain line outside: air conditioning. AC company. Leave the system off while you sort it out; the drip is the pan overflowing.
• Drips when a shower or toilet upstairs is used, and not otherwise: drain, pan, or fixture seal. Plumber.
• Constant drip regardless of rain, AC, or use, and the water is warm: hot water supply line. Plumber.
• Constant drip with the water off, no rain, and the AC off: look from the attic hatch with a flashlight, without walking the joists. Sometimes it is a roof leak from a storm days ago still draining out of wet insulation.

Photos, insurance, and drying

Before anything is cleaned or cut, photograph the ceiling, the room below, the bulge, the water on the floor, and the source once it is found. Note the date and time. Then get air moving: the room open to the air conditioning, fans, a dehumidifier if you own one. Wet insulation above the drywall holds water for days, and in our humidity mold starts in a ceiling cavity within a couple of days. A ceiling that has been soaked usually comes out.

Sudden supply line leaks are usually covered under Florida homeowners policies; a roof leak, a long-term seep, and the failed part itself often are not. Call your insurer once the water is stopped, and keep every receipt.

Where DIY stops

Closing the main, draining the bulge, and cutting the breaker are yours. Walking attic joists over a wet ceiling, cutting into a ceiling near wiring, or opening a supply line to find the leak are not, and a Florida attic in summer is a heat problem for whoever is in it. If the water is off and the drip has stopped, you have done the urgent part. The rest is a diagnostic job: finding the exact fitting, testing the line, and repairing it, with the drywall opened once instead of three times.

Send us the photos, tell us what stopped the drip and what did not, and we can usually tell you from that whether you need a plumber, an AC company, or a roofer, and what to expect when the ceiling is opened.