I recently heard this question:
~If something needs fixing around the house, do you:
1. Fix it yourself?
2. Call a repair person ASAP?
3. Ignore it in hopes that it will go away?
Judging from the looks of our ceiling I would have to say the answer is 3! Let me give you a run-down of what happened to our lovely "popcorn" ceiling. :0)
1. A few months ago (well, more like 9!) our air conditioner, which is up in the attic, right above our livingroom, started leaking. (We do have a unit outside too.) We were not home at the time and originally these huge bare patches were brown spots. That blue thing you see is actually a light that I covered with tinfoil and tape. It really goes with the room. ;0) Phillip went up in the attic and discovered a hose had come undone. Just a fluke accident. Anyways....
2. We went back and forth on what to do about it, but we mostly ignored it.
3. Then, Phillip went out of town on a business trip back in April. I thought I would surprise him by touching up the brown spots with white paint. I moved all the furniture, got out the ladder, started to *gently* touch up the paint and the stained popcorn started to fall down. In large chunks. 4 hours before I was to pick Phillip up at the airport!
4. I scraped off most of the brown part. It came off very easily. Ran to Home Depot for spray bottles of popcorn paint. I was very excited. How hard could it be?
5. Evidently, a few dropcloths thrown about the room are not enough cover for the power in one of those cans! Next hour is spent cleaning up the paint that went flying everywhere.
6. I called a ceiling repair place at 6:30pm and someone actually answered!!! I was quoted $800.00 to have them scrap the ceiling and another $300.00 for them to paint it. Not with "popcorn" though, something they called an "orange peel."
7. I picked Phillip up at the airport and we continued to ignore the problem. Anytime someone came over we would explain we were in the middle of a home repair project. Boy, were we ever!
8. Fast foward to July. I was just about to call a repairman and have this problem taken care of. Not scrap the entire ceiling, just spray some paint up there. I can't tell you how sick I am of looking at this mess!! 2 days ago, we noticed a new wet spot. It is the cute little one in the picture. :0) Phillip went back up in the attic and the hose that had come loose before was just fine, in fact he couldn't find any leak at all. I ran all over the house trying to find the phone number for our home warranty company. Finally found it. They said someone would call us back right away. Soon, the leaking stopped, not sure why exactly.
9. Yesterday, someone calls at 9:00am. The earliest they can get out here is Thursday, between 9 and 2. Since the leaking had stopped I figured that would be ok. Then around noon, drips start to fall from the ceiling. Phillip rushes home and heads back up to the attic. This time he takes my cooking thermometer with him. 130+F degrees up there! LOL
10. It appears that the air conditioner is "sweating" out the bottom. We can't fit a tray underneath it. That would explain why the leaking starts in the afternoon and stops at night - it is much hotter up there in the afternoon. So, as of this yesterday, our air has been turned off.
We could have someone out here faster but our Home Warranty said we would have to pay overtime. We could also call a completely different company but we have had such wonderful luck with our warranty service. I at least want to see what they say.
We have all the ceiling fans turned on high and it isn't has bad as I thought it would be, although today might be worse. We may plan a little outing in the afternoon and come back when it cools down.
After it is repaired, we are going to scrap down the entire ceiling ourselves. Well, actually, Phillip's 3 brothers are going to help us but they don't know that yet. Surprise!!!
Then we will go ahead and pay somone to paint it. I just want a white ceiling again!
12 comments:
Kelli, I wonder if you could put some vent fans in your attic to let the heat escape. That might solve the problem for the future. I am so sorry you have had all this trouble. I hope it gets fixed and quick.
Ahh, the wonderful fun of home-ownership. ;0)
Hope it's fixed soon and you like it even better then before.
Kelli, I sent you an email about this! Revee
Sorry about your house problems. Isn't homeownership fun sometimes?! Just think how great it will look when you get it all redone (I won't say anything about the mess before you get there though!).
Sandra
Oh no, Kelli! How awful! Your descriptions were so good I started "fretting" about it as if it were my own ceiling! Good idea about going for an outing today. Try to stay cool as best you can. Sorry about all the trouble.
No fun Kelli! I have some experience with ceiling problems myself :).
Once you get the ceiling scraped, you can do the texture your self. They have a paint that has the texture stuff already in it that you can use to do it. That's what we did when a portion of our ceiling collapsed (our house is over 75 years old and has never been remodeled!).
There is at least one vent fan in the attic already, working full-time, but it was still 136.5 Fahrenheit when I checked it.
It's *possible* that we just need a fresh charge of whatever freon substitute they're using these days, and that the unit is working so hard it's "sweating" until that's done. I hope that's all it is.
oh not fun !
Kelli, I have been having the same problem. Sometime soon I will make a picture of my ceiling so you can see it. Mine leaked in the daytime and would stop at night. Does your air conditioner have a pipe for the condensed water to run outside? You know how a window air conditioner leaks water, I guess ALL of them leak, but it has to have somewhere to go. Our son ran a snake up into the pipe that comes to the outside.It poured the water. I think our pan had just run over since it didn't have anywhere else to go...it came down through the ceiling. Since he opened up the pipe, it hasn't leaked any more. Now to fix the brown spot on my white ceiling.
Hi Clara,
Yes, we have a pipe that runs along the ceiling and out to the back porch. It has been leaking into a sandbox pail. LOL We are back home after being gone all afternoon. It is just stifling in here. We are going to have to turn the air back down for a short while and get this place cooled down. I hope the repairman is here closer to 9 than 2!
Kelli
Oh, Kelli!!! I'm so sorry!! I'm praying that the repair man will come early and that the repair will be done quickly and all covered by the home warranty! Your poor husband!! There's absolutely nothing worse than crawling around an attic in the summer!!!! Drink lots of water!
Oh Kelli, Been there!! Before we moved in our house my son was trying to get the insulation in right in the attic, his foot went through the ceiling in our bathroom. That was 2 1/2 years ago, it was just fixed last month!! Then we got a wet spot from our A/C too in our hall. Happened twice. Danny fixed whatever was wrong with the a/c & last month the spot got fixed. So would that be number 3 for me too!!! LOL!!
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