Water issue, no visible leak

Bought a house a couple months ago and had it professionally painted. In this one spot they had a wallpaper border, but they couldn't really continue it around because of the cathedral ceiling. In any event, my wife noticed when the painters removed the wallpaper border that there was a portion of drywall that needed to be patched. The painters did that, and painted it nicely.

Super heavy rain last night with nasty winds (anyone know where my trashcan is? ), and noticed that same spot looked damp. Now we know why the wallpaper border was there!


(It's hard to see a bit since I took it this morning not last night during the rain, but you can see some imperfection along where the wall meets the ceiling)

The fascia boards outside were freshly painted and caulked, so I don't think it's coming through there. The leak is just over the window closest in the picture:



I wonder if it's something to do with the gutters, and maybe how they're attached to the roof, or if there's a hole there somewhere?



The roof appears to be fine (ie no missing shingles, etc.) and the water appears to be getting through right along the top of the gutter line, though the wall is farther back where the fascia is.

Any suggestions?


I also have another leak (no pics) that I think is occuring along/around my chimney -- there was a slight water run but I think I know why. Just need to get up there and try to seal it. Guess I'll be getting that 24' extension ladder on the way home tonite.

 

One other note: The roof you can see in the picture goes up and then there's a bedroom. The two windows of the bedroom right there also have some water infiltration at the sills on the inside. In browsing this forum it seems that water may be getting in somewhere other than the fascia area and running down a beam in the roof, resulting in water at the ceiling/wall joint (don't have a picture of the outside so you can see what I'm talking about, but I do have one at home that I can attach tonite).

Guess I'll poke around on that roof for a spot that might be causing the leak, like around the skylight (that isn't leaking at all that I can tell) on the outside. In the pictures below you can see the area (and the wallpaper border) There's nothing directly above, but back where that ceiling meets the rest of the house (it's a bump out) there is a bedroom above. The ceiling fan you can see in the first pic is mounted to a flat ceiling, to give you an idea.



(the leak appears just above the right-most part of the right-hand window, where the wall meets the ceiling -- I wonder if that's 16" from the wall?)

 

OK, here are the other pictures. The leak is on the inside wall, above the window that is at the left of the picture (not the door).



There was also a noticeable (though not as bad) leak that appeared to originate from the chimney (just above and to the left of the door in the pic above) -- a slight stream was noticed seeping through the wall at the corner of that. I'm wondering if the same leak isn't running down the roof line from the chimney.

The bedroom windows you can see in the picture are also the ones mentioned in an earlier post -- there was water on the inside sills.

Gutters are clear, shingles in good shape, etc.



I'll check the roof/chimney this weekend to see if maybe it's coming through that way during the heavy storm -- but any other insight or things to look for would be helpful.

Thank you!

 

I'd suspect that the chimney leak is the source of your problem- either in the bottom corner next to those upstairs windows, or where the chimney penetrates the roof above those upstairs windows. Slight possibility it could be the chimney cap, not pictured. Water is getting on top of the drywall and running downhill. I'm just surprised that there isn't a joint 4' up from that exterior window wall where the leak would show up first. Maybe they ran the sheets the long way.

No easy way to diagnose that problem without taking off a lot of siding and looking for water damage. Fortunately, vinyl siding is fairly easy to remove and reinstall.

 

I was thinking along those same lines, though I'm not sure I want to start pulling siding. Luckily the chimney siding isn't that big, so I can at least un-pop a few to look under. The chimney cap is a possibility as I had a fair amount of water in my fireplace too

 

Get yourself a vinyl siding unlock tool. Here's the one I use:



Unlocking vinyl siding is easy, just insert the tool underneath the siding (start from the end) and slide it under the siding. Pull down and toward you while you slide the tool along (left to right or vice versa). Unlock the piece ABOVE the one you want to remove. You can then remove the nails holding the piece you would like to remove and push down on it until it unlocks. Sometimes it's easier to just unhook the siding from the nails and leave the nails in place so that you can rehook the siding later.

Vinyl siding allows water to get behind it, so you might have wind blown rain running down the housewrap. So you'd want to look for step flashings or roof flashings that are on TOP of the housewrap, where water could run behind them. All flashings where the bottoms of your chimney walls meet the roof line should be behind the housewrap.

If there is no housewrap, it should be very obvious where water is getting behind the siding.

 

Just a side thought... you mentioned the wall paper border being there for a reason (to conceal the damage). I wonder if you'd have any legal recourse when a leak like that is not declared, and instead is intentionally hidden.

 

First thing I would do is carefully lift a shingle above that gutter to see what sort of underlayment is present, how it's installed, and if there is a drip edge installed.

If you see something like this, that could be your problem right there:



- Missing drip edge and improperly installed underlayment allow water to back up under shingles and enter soffit - Paragon Home Inspections Chicago/Evanston

 

Not on an "as-is" foreclosure.
Did a few things and we had a heavy rain, but not as heavy as last time with the nasty wind we had. No leaks. Sealed the windows and around a bathroom vent that was near the skylight (closer in line to where the leak was).
Will have to check the shingles like Michael Thomas suggested.

Thanks all