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Posted by on January 27, 2007, 10:14 am
> dissident wrote:
> > I am a novice in home repair and yet I am buying my first home which is
> > conditional upon home inspection, during which I plan to find out about
> > the problem which is haunting me. This house is 6 years old and was
> > rented out so, of course, the tenants didn't bother to take care of theOr,
the renters might have called the owner a dozen times about the
> problem. I was a renter, many years ago, and had a puddle on my dresser
> one morning. I called the landlord, because the water came from
> upstairs apartment. "I told them to keep a bucket under the sink."
> Landlord knew their sink had no trap, and he could well afford to repair
> it.
>
> > house. What I see is a stain from water leak on the ceiling of the
> > living room, which seems to follow the outline of the shower stall inI
painted the condo upstairs from mine several years ago when owner was
> ready to sell. Their master bath had aluminum/glass door that had no
> caulking around it, which let water run outside, rust out the corner
> bead on the wall and rot the wallboard behind the tile. Same straight
> like of cracked and peeling paint on our ceiling right below it.
>
> > the bathroom right upstairs. It is about 4-5 inches long, straight line
> > kind of, and is on only one side. Then there is another stain about a
> > couple of feet away near the smoke detector. This is more kind of
> > circular stain ..... there is the upstairs hallway here and the
> > upstairs is carpeted..... I can also feel that that section of the
> > carpet is kind of raised as if someone spilled a whole lot of water
> > there....surrounding is ok.Could be particle board beneath the carpet that
got wet, expanded.
>
> > So now my question to you is that do you (experts and experienced
> > people out there) think this may be something major ??? I know that the
> > home inspector probably will find this out...but I still want to know
> > about the experience people have had. Can a big jug of water if spilled
> > can show stain on downstairs ceiling like in this 2nd stain I am
> > talking about?? Any advice on what to look for and what to ask on the
> > day of home inspection??
>
> > Thanks for the help!!There could be a plumbing leak, a roof leak, or just
careless use of the
> shower. If you can get into the attic, check it out. Roof (or other
> exterior leaks) can travel a good distance, running down rafters, pipes,
> wires or ducts to the "lowest" spot and puddle there. If the shower
> plumbing has an access panel, look in there as well. Probably a 50:50
> chance a home inspector will find the origin of the problem.
The other thing to be concerned about here is possible mold. It
sounds like this has been there for a long time, in which case you
could have a mold problem. And you won't know that till you open up
the ceiling and take a look. Even if it;s there, the extent of it is
the real issue. For example, if it's a drain leak, then it's likely
to be more localized than if the leak is where the wall tile meets a
tub. In that case, the wet/problem area could be much larger and
involve removing and replacing tile walls. And at that point it gets
to the point that while you're at it, you might very likely want to
redo the whole bath. But if you're getting a $5K credit, that should
go a long way towards fixing a lot of it.
I'd ask the seller if they are OK with having an inspection hole cut
in the ceiling by the home inspector. They might just say yes, and
you have nothing to loose by asking.
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