Chesterton: if your ceiling looks like the top photo, it is holding water right now. ⚠️
A brown ring, a sagging panel or a bubble in the paint means water is sitting on top of that ceiling. It got there from a roof leak, an ice dam, a pipe or a bathroom above, and it will not dry out on its own. Wet drywall gets heavy, and a ceiling that sags can come down.
What to do if you spot it:
1. Move furniture and electronics out from under it.
2. Put a bucket down. Do not poke at a large sag yourself.
3. If the water is near a light fixture, turn that circuit off at the breaker.
4. If it is a plumbing leak, shut off the water.
5. Call a water damage restoration company before you call a painter.
The bottom photo shows what we do next on a recent job: open the ceiling where the meter says it is wet, find where the water is coming from, pull out the wet insulation and dry the framing. Then the ceiling can be closed up and finished, and the stain does not come back.
Painting over a water stain without drying what is above it is the most common mistake we see. The stain returns, and by then there is usually mold in the insulation.
Chesterton and the Duneland area get hit hard by lake effect snow and storms coming off Lake Michigan. Snow load, ice dams and wind-driven rain all find their way through a roof, and the first sign is almost always on a ceiling.
BlueRed Restoration provides ceiling leak and water damage restoration in Chesterton, IN (46304) and nearby Porter, Burns Harbor.
