Befuddled

I have had a mysterious dripping of water lately from around my bathroom ceiling fan. The bathroom is on the second floor of my 2-story home, and there are no water pipes in the bathroom ceiling. The dripping is intermittent and it's very slow, one drop at a time. It does not seem to be related to wet weather. The water appears to be dripping from the ceiling just to the side of the fan.

Could this be caused by condensation of moisture in or around the fan duct? Some of us take long, hot showers and build up quite a bit of steam in the bathroom. There is a second bathroom on the other side of the wall and that one gets steamed up as well. Are the ceiling fans connected and is moisture moving through the fan duct from the second bathroom to cause the drip? It is starting to damage the ceiling around the fan with mold and paint peeling away. What is the problem here and what can I do to solve it?

Thanks for your help.

Befuddled

TileGuy

Investigate everything in the attic area. Ive found leaks that show is areas actually to have started 15 or more feet from the wet areas. It could be condensation I suppose, although Ive never come accross that in a ceiling vent before. I was a a Maintenance Tech for multiple resorts and can tell you from experience that leaks can be tough to find especially ones related to ceilings. Play detective for a little while and Im sure youll find it. Thats what I did

glennjanie

Dear Befuddled:
Yes, the condensation of the long showers are certainly the problem. The leaks probably show up more now that the weather is cold. Cold weather will also freeze the condensation temporarily which makes it leak for a longer time.
To remedy the problem, you will need to go to the attic and make sure all the joints of the exhaust duct are tight (possibly wrap the joints with aluminum tape) then insulate the duct with fiberglass. It would be best not to have a vapor barrier on the insulation but wrap it with paper and tape the long seams, just to hold the insulation in place.
Welcome to the Fourm and please post back and tell us how it works out.
Glenn

Big Red

I agree with all of the ubove replies. And here is another thing to check. Do these vents exist out the roof? If they do, and have no screen/raincap combination, then birds and hornets can make nests in them plugging them up. This would account for why the condensation cannot exist the house, and drips back down the pipe into the fan.

rww930

If you are talking about a vent fan, you'll need to look in the attic. The fan should have an exhaust hose on it; they are supposed to be directed to an outside (it will look like a dryer vent from the outside) wall. If it is, the cover on it could be off and if it is at an angle, I guess it's feasible that it's rolling back in...I have had that happen. If not, the hose is just laying in the attic collecting moisture and again, if it's angled down it could certainly drip.