Leaky ceiling?

[emc1976]

I have a cape house with a rear dormer. We have a small room in the rear back corner of the house (first floor) and recently noticed dark brown spots on the ceiling tiles (drop ceiling). One of them was wet/moist. After taking them down we saw water damage throughout the ceiling including mold. The damage seems to be old. However when we took down the tiles a few of them were a little soggy. The hard part about figuring this out, is that since it's on the first floor, only a little bit of the lower roof covers the room. After taking the tiles down...so far....even after the rain...we haven't seen an obvious active leak anywhere. All of the water damage seems to be old (previous owners said there used to be a roof leak). But then, why were some of the tiles damp? Any ideas? I haven't had a roofer go up there yet...just had a contractor eyeball the roof and he said it looked fine....just thought there'd be more obvious damage in the ceiling that is current.
thanks!!!

[pushkins]

If the tiles are wet/damp then without a doubt you still have an active leak some where up there.
Roof leaks can be tough to find. try looking higher than right above the problem tiles, more often than not water leaks travel down the rafters or roof sheathing before it drops off and onto the ceiling.
A good thing to do would be to have someone with a hose on the roof and someone inside the attic area looking for the leak. If you do this make sure the hose doesn't have a nozzle on it, (you want the greatest amount of flow) have the hose holder run the hose from side to side towards the top of the roof so the water cascades down towards the gutter.
A very common place for roofing leaks to develop is around dormers on either side.

[emc1976]

thank you for your reply. much appreciated my husband did point the hose onto the roof directly and quite a bit of water ran down, but still no visible leakage. maybe more water is needed...also the frustrating part about this is that it's on the 1st floor. i guess we'll just have to rip down the ceiling to get a better view. someone suggested to cauk around the windows, too...

[pushkins]

If your expecting rain soon, get yourself a piece of plastic and lay it up on the ceiling tiles, then after the rain (or during) check it to see where it is getting wet, you can then follow the clues. (the plastic isn't meant to stop the water damage, just help you detect it). It's also a good way to detect the leak via sound, a small droplet sound = water dropping a small distance, load sound= dropping further (obviously).

Your right, check the caulk around the windows even a small crack lets in water.

[emc1976]

thanks again. we actually took the tiles down and that's when we discovered all of the (old, we think) water damage. it has rained a few times but i haven't seen anything 'new' appear.
this all started when the drop ceiling/tiles were still on the ceiling and several of them had turned brown but were also damp...there were wood beams holding them up to the ceiling, one of which was slightly damp. however under the beams, all was fine...very strange and frustrating.

[Allison1888]

Make sure you use a water and bleach solution in any areas where there's been a lot of moisture -- can help against mold growth.

[sam999]

hello all,
This seems to be a good tip and thank you. My trouble is the repair in my ceiling is starting to show a bubble in it-----just some plaster the landlord put on. Does it mean it is still leaking, and needs more attention?