This is the hallway located in the middle of my house. The hot water heater is under the house. The roof doesnt appear to be leaking. The attic is directly above this area and doesnt appear to be wet. No other rooms have water marks. Pipe burst? Where is this water coming from? Im scared to wash clothes, take a shower, run the A/C, etc... Not good. The water mark does a 360 around the hallway area. Urrrg.


Oh: the room on the left is the bathroom and the room on the right is my bedroom.

Looks like a leaky roof problem to me.Check your attic when it is raining.

It could be a condensation thing.
But you have to have other info to determine it.

Weather/winter
Attic insulation and venting.
Is this the ONLY place in the house this happens?
Nothing in other rooms?
How long has it been like this and did you 'just notice' it?
When was hall last painted? painted by you?
Does bathroom have an exhaust fan?
Recent heavy rain AND winds that disturbed shingles?
How old is the roofing/shingles?

First bet is like Bark said, leaky roof.

You'll have to go in the attic when it rains and wait.
Watch.
And hope it rains hard and long enough to satisfy either way the answer of a leaky roof.


The leaky might be a flashing around a vent or chimney.
Or a vent might be missing a rain deflector or cap.







Just giving you a possible list to look at.
Everyone hates to figure it's THIS!
Spend money to fix it.
And it turns out to be something else.
Especially if the "something else" costs too, or worse, wouldn't cost at all to correct.

Weather/winter : IS HASNT RAINED IN ABOUT 5 DAYS
Attic insulation and venting.
Is this the ONLY place in the house this happens? YES
Nothing in other rooms? NOTHING
How long has it been like this and did you 'just notice' it? I NOTICED IT SAT MORNING
When was hall last painted? painted by you? PAINTED TWO YEARS AGO BY SOMEONE ELSE
Does bathroom have an exhaust fan? NO
Recent heavy rain AND winds that disturbed shingles? DOESNT LOOK THAT WAY FROM THE GROUND
How old is the roofing/shingles? ABOUT 6 YRS OLD



Thanks. At least Ill know what to tell whoever I call tomorrow.

sorry if my answers look like Im yelly. I just wanted them to stand out. Im sure you got that though.

I think it's the tears of your ghost. He's been crying only in that room.

I agree. Keep a close eye, Lea, if that ghost goes from sad to angry, you may have a big problem.

Maybe it doesn't approve of the new color of the giant wall outside!

Could be condensation from showers that collected in the hall afterward.
Hot wet air from bathroom hangs near cealing and condenses on the cool walls.

You just noticed it yesterday. Could it have been there for awhile without notice?

Cold winter weather and not enough insulation in attic letting warm air from house escape into attic and that can form condensation in attic where warm air enters it.
ie; Tops of walls for hall.
(add bathroom condensation)

But it could be a leaky roof.
A vent or pipe that exits the roof above the hall.

ceiling


Not cealing.

Im going to hope its the condensation thing because I already know I need more insulation in the attic. Thanks Spacetrucker! Fingers crossed.

I dont think its the ghost upset about the choice of wall color. It shows up here a weird bluish-green but once I finished the painting it actually has turned out quite nice.

I guess we shall find out.

The watermark looks like a once happening.
You might have to pull the ceiling moldings.
Look at the nails holding it, when you do, and see if any are more rusty than others. Could be an indicator of a more than one time happening.

But it does look like once and maybe recent.
Might rule out winter if there is still some dampness to the stain. The molding might still be damp too.
A fair amount too, judging the distance from the ceiling.



Anyway, hopes to you for an easy fix.
Although you might need some Kilz for the watermark and another paint job.
Maybe you can get by with just doing some wallpaper border!

Umm there will be no wallpaper boarder but Im not against painting. Im getting a little sick of this blue.

I walk through this hallway a million times a day and just noticed it Sat morning. Im fairly certain that the water mark is recent. My bed is on the opposite wall so I go to sleep and wake up looking at that ceiling. That is what made me think its a pipe because it hasnt rained in a few days. Now, the condensation explanation makes sense and its been hot hot hot here. The A/C has been going to work overtime.

It is odd though. No rain in several days and a water stain appears on one side of walls in a hall that is central in the house.

Maybe that hydroponic pot farm in the attic sprang a leak?

Kidding......................


The A/C running in the hot, hot SHOULD be circulating the air and pulling the humidity out of it doing so.

Unless you were having an extended hot shower with the door to the bath left open.
Might explain the one-timeyness of the stain.
And the A/C on for several days would keep the house cool enough that the bath steam concentrates in the hall area and the interior walls are cool from the A/C.


Though, with no bathroom exhaust fan...............
Do the walls in the bathroom have stains too?
Or is the bathroom painted with a gloss coat paint FOR bathrooms that resists humidity staining?

You got a good mystery going on there.


I'm going with the ghosts now.
Did you upset them by painting the porch wall green instead of cream?

I'm cornfused about this too. Not that I know anything about construction or roofing.

If the roof leaked, wouldn't there be a water stain on the ceiling too? Concentrated in one spot and gradually getting less wet the farther out you go?

What about your dryer vent. Where does it go?

You are basically right, Spacetrucker!! I just spoke to a friend of mine that lives down the street and apparently most of the houses on this street have the same problem. The hall is basically a closed space even though there are five doors that extend from that area. Since the attic is directly above, the heat pulls the moisture up and causes the wetmarks along the perimeter of the ceiling. I was told that a vent out of the attic should solve the problem. Hmmmm.

Sound plausible to you? If that is not it then Im going to have to paint the house again, I guess.

eta: Dryer vent is on the other side of the house.

Well, the venting of the attic is done to keep the roof cold in the winter. And the good insulating in the attic helps not only with heating bills but keeping the roof cold so as not to melt the snow which makes ice dams on the colder eaves/edge of the roof.
And venting in the attic helps the attic get rid of heat in the summer so the house doesn't hold heat when you want to cool it.

An exhaust fan in the bathroom will help pull out the heated moist air from showers. (they aren't just for pooey odors removal) And it can also be used to draw out the normally warmer air at the ceiling.
As far as the hall though, do all the rooms off of it have door frames? Because that would hinder the venting of the warmer air near the ceiling as there is no clear passage of air at ceiling level.
Then maybe the exhaust fan should go there just to prevent the wall condensation staining.
Or the simple use of a small fan to circulate the air in the hallway down from the ceiling. Instead of the expense, and mess, of installing a ceiling exhaust fan.

In my house the fan in the upstairs bathroom runs a lot. All night. The wife uses it for 'white noise' so she can sleep. And with it running in the winter, to increase the heating bill, pisses me off. Not to mention I have to maintainence it, clean out the dust and gunk, and replace it when it dies. Ha, ha, craps out.
And we have a 1/2 bath (toilet and sink only) downstairs that has a fan. (I guess JUST for pooey odors)

Some schools of thought have the bath fans hard vented. Aluminum vent pipe and roof vent.
My upstairs one was just venting into the attic until a few years ago when we added insulation. The building was having ice dams and has no gutters.
I attached a length of plactic flexible tube to the fan box and hooked the other end to one of the existing roof vents.
It works keeping the attic much cooler.
But with either, flex or pipe, the heated moist air pulled through it in winter makes condensation INSIDE the tube or pipe that will run back down into the fan box and drip through into the bathroom.

One of those cartoon moments.
Ya stick your finger in the dike to stop the leak.
And then the water shoots out your ear.