Mystery wet patch on dining room ceiling

[EcclefechanTart]

Today I discovered a big wet patch in the middle of my dining room ceiling. Above the dining room is my bedroom. I located the corresponding place on my bedroom floor and pulled up a floorboard - to find a bunch of wires for the electric wall socket, a load of dust, and nothing else. It's not wet at all in the bedroom and the wet patch is nowhere near pipes, or an external wall.

It's a mystery. Any one have any explanations?!

Also make pencil marks around the outline on the ceiling. It's really hard to tell if it's getting bigger. i was convinced ours was getting bigger after it was fixed, but it wasn't.

I don't think it's been overboarded. Actually, how would I tell? The ceiling has obviously been wallpapered before being painted, which makes me think it wasn't smooth underneath so probably not overboarded.

Hang on, poke a skewer through my ceiling?!

Have you seen the japanese film 'Dark Water'? I think there was an american remake. May be worth watching before you go to bed tonight.

Oh god. No. Is it a horror film? Am I going to regret asking? Did it involve someone who poked a skewer through her ceiling?

I think PJ might be on to something OP - and yes, a skewer will make a small hole water can escape through without making a real mess of your ceiling. If water does trickle out then the source must be sandwiched between the current ceiling and the original one, if that's what you have.

Right, the skewer is in (I only had bamboo - it was harder work getting a bamboo skewer through lath and plaster than you might expect). No water has come out at all, and I can see the skewer poking merrily out under the floorboards upstairs.

I'm pretty certain it isn't overboarded now. The ceiling is distinctly soggy to touch but obviously not wet enough to drip. Now what?

cat?

I don't have a cat. (I could borrow one if it would help?)

Ooh - the plot thickens. Is it actually water/moisture? Although Lord knows what else it could be! Definitely draw a line around it to see if it spreads/grows. What's the floor covering in the room above? Is someone playing tricks on you??

And take the skewer out and stick a container under the hole in your dining room - the skewer is plugging the hole, which isn't the idea. Inspect the container under the hole after someone's used the bathroom, when it rains after it's been dry, once the heating has come on after it's been off and vice versa: try to identify when it gets wet. And ask your kids if they've been up to no good squirting water at the ceiling.

I have a bucket under the hole and am checking regularly. If it's not water, it's certainly something else wet! It feels distinctly wet to the touch. I think it's wetter now than it was in August.

I have marked the edges of the damp patch - but if it's spreading then it's not moving much. But it looks as though there is now a larger wet stain over a smaller older wet stain, so I think this is a long term problem.

There is no floor covering over that spot in the bedroom upstairs - just wooden boards.

We had a ceiling leak in downstairs bathroom but we presumed it was from upstairs bathroom directly above but nothing there was leaking unfortunate there is no way of knowing from above what it is unless you see something obvious - the only way of finding out for sure is to take off the effected area of ceiling - (sorry!) ours was central heating pipe and a condensation pipe that were both leaking but they were both running (as are all the downstairs pipes)along the underneath of the joists so you wouldn't see them from above.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread. Did you ever get to the bottom of this? I'm having a similar problem. Wet patch on ceiling in dining room. There was a leaking chimney breast above around where the patch is which we had completely removed ober a year ago but the patch has returned. Like yourself there are no water pipes near the patch.

have you done the skewer yet?

and looked under the floorboards?

After the chimney breast was removed we decorated that bedroom and I pulled up floorboards all around where the patch in dining room is and it was home dry all over. Haven't tried a skewer yet.