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Dealing with a leak in a ceiling can be so simple. It can also be devastating. Here is what happened. Just to give you a heads up, this could have been a nightmare from hell if not handled properly. It is imperative that as a property manager you have qualified vendors to handle repairs. When you get some “Johnny come lately” who is not trained or educated, you have a nightmare waiting to happen.

Thanksgiving Day tenant calls and says water is pouring out of the ceiling in the kitchen. There is a bathroom above the kitchen so the natural assumption is that something in the bathroom is leaking. A plumber is called. Plumber goes to the house. Talks to the tenants. They state that they very seldom use the upstairs bath. When they did use the bathtub, they would soak in the tub. They never mentioned the use of the shower.

Plumber turns water on at sink and tub. No water appears in the kitchen ceiling. He flushes the toilet multiple times. No water appears in the kitchen ceiling. He does a pressure test on all the lines. Again nothing happens. Since there appears to be no problems with the plumbing we wonder if it may be from the vent in the roof. Now we send out a roofer to check for leaks in the roof.

A very reliable roofing company states that this roof is the worst roof job they have ever seen. They do the best they can and repair multiple places but state that this is a just a “band aid” and the roof needs replacing. At this point, we make an assumption. You should never assume anything. You know what they say about the word “assume”. It makes an “ass” out of “u” and “me”. We assume the problem is fixed. WRONG

3 weeks later we get a call that water is pouring out of the ceiling again. We again send the plumber. After talking to the tenants again, he finds that they have periodically been using the shower. The shower has a hand held shower head. What had been happening was they had been using the hand held shower head sometimes and it was spraying on to the spout on the tub. The spout was not sealed properly. The water would go behind the spout and leaking through the ceiling.

Here is where it gets really interesting. Plumber begins to remove as much insulation that is between the floors as he can. He can not get to all of the wet insulation. Now the untrained plumber or property manager would pull out as much insulation as they could and say all is fine.

The PROFESSIONAL plumber or property manager should call a company that can guarantee that there is no chance of mold. Wet insulation is a breeding ground for mold. This must be dried down in the proper way with knowledgeable trained people.

Thanks ServiceMaster. You are the best!!