Water issues in game room ~ ceiling leak
Anyone familiar with my little game room will also be familiar with the constant battle I’ve had with water. Water from the window wells, water from the drive way, water from ice, water ruining carpet, etc. Well this time I have something new, a leak in the ceiling, yeah!
At first I thought this was just some fallout from the driveway issue, but when the dripping continues even when it is dry outside, you know there’s a problem. I had a constant drip coming from one of my fluorescent cloud fixtures in the game room, so I removed the fixture to see what was going on.
After removing the drywall that was obviously moldy and wet along with some additional chunks to allow me to look around better, I discovered the culprit. A section of one inch copper pipe that feeds the water tank has a joint right above the light fixture. It’s leaking and creating the pool on the back of the drywall. I’ll end up cutting a bigger hunk of drywall out in order to verify the problem, fix the leak and then patch the ceiling. Drywall on the ceiling is loads of fun. Here’s my vote for a drop ceiling…if I had more ceiling height we would have done it.
December 26th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Wow, that really sucks. My ceiling is dropped and even though it’s a PITA to move some of the tiles because it is pretty tight in spots (by choice seeing I wanted the ceiling height) I’m glad it’s dropped!
December 26th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Yes its a big pain. People often say that repairing that is “no big deal”, however, I have to move all my games out or cover them to protect from dust/debris. Cut a bigger hole, repair the leak, patch the ceiling, mud, tape, sand. Wipe down walls and ceiling and prep for new paint. Paint and then clean up the rest of the mess and move games back in. Not what I wanted to do over my break.
December 27th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Glad you found the problem, Chris. I am on my third house and after a few mini-disasters with plumbing in every house (especially when you have small kids), it’s all about accessibility. My daughter managed to clog to overflowing every toilet in every house we owned. She liked to see what she could flush and she was creative. Thank God she is older now and she has kicked her “addiction”. Some things will not flush but get stuck in the bend of the toilet and cause problems: I found a pencil, a toothbrush and after one party, a popsicle stick. I became very good at removing toilets and re-seating them.
Unfortunately our games end up in the most vulnerable space in a home – the basement. It all “flows down hill”. My last two basements have had dropped ceilings and they are a bear to install especially when you are making them tight to provide as much ceiling height as possible. But after a problem or two with a leak or I needed to run a tv cable and recently an intercom issue, it’s proven to be worth the extra effort. Also, if you re-arrange your room, you can easily add overhead lighting troughs where needed. Keep a bundle or two of extra ceiling tiles – once they get wet they stain and need to be replaced.
The last consideration is the main drain pipe. I have made sure that it is accessible as well – I drywalled around the main pipe in one room but left the front framed out and used short mini-blinds to cover the opening. If that pipe needs repair or if it needs to be rodded the pipe is accessible.
It’s not hard to fix the drywall but very messy. The overflowed toilet on the upper floor has damaged my kitchen ceiling twice. My advice is to buy extra ceiling paint and store it for emergencies. After two ceiling repairs, that paint has saved me having to paint the entire ceiling twice.
Bill
December 28th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
dude.. that sucks!!!!!! that area of the house is cursed i swear!
i vote you make the rec room the arcade and make the arcade the rec room
sooooooo glad i just painted my celing joists, pipes,wires,and ducts flat black… my cheapo thghtwad decision shoud(hopefully) save me form headaches like this.. sucks man, as what youve done is really a neat unique space…