Bathroom ceilings cracking

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Tmanni

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We are having cracking in our bathroom ceilings. It is in multiple places, not just over the shower. Some has fallen off and seems to be thicker than just paint, plaster maybe? A few questions. 1, what is this? 2, what is causing it? And 3, how do we fix?

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Just a guess but it looks like someone did a skim coat of filler and did not get a good bond.
Maybe you have to much moisture, do you run the fan for a while after a bath or shower?
 
Bad bond or excessive moisture, or both. looks like a cement product, but the picture is a little blurry. What is your ceiling made of? Is there anything above it (of course there is, but what is it)?
 
I will grab a better pic when I am back home thid afternoon. We did just replace the fan. We have lived in the house for 2 years and bought it from an apparently not so great flipper. Though it passed inspection with only 1 small problem they fixed 😑
 
I have no idea what the ceiling is made of (obviously new to this ) but the attic is above the bathrom.

We have some ceiling issues and straight wall cracking elsewhere but the bathroom is the only spot we have this problem
 
From the 2nd of the 3 photos, the 2 grey spots are indications that this appears to be gypsum plaster over lath, and the age of the dwelling will be an indicator of the type of lath.

However, the repair was not properly prepared, and moisture inherent to bathrooms has left with a couple of alternatives.

Remove the loose material, install a ceiling fan, if there isn't one, prime with an oil based transitional primer and apply a finish coat of Dura-bond, prime again and paint.

Remove the loose material, install a ceiling fan, if there isn't one, locate and map the ceiling joists, apply a layer of 1/4" drywall, finish, prime and paint.
 
I'm thinking possible roof leak in combination with shower humidity.
Hope I'm wrong.
 
There is no evidence of water spots under where it is chipping off. Would I see these if there were a leak? Also no water spots noticable in the attic.

Is chipping off thencracking spots and repairing a realistic option? Can I assume there will not be further damage to the areas we do not fix?

Could the attic insultation be not allowing for full ventilation? I was reading that often it is too far in certain areas.
 
Tmanni said:
Is chipping off the cracking spots and repairing a realistic option? Can I assume there will not be further damage to the areas we do not fix?
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Were there a roof leak you would see the spots usually resembling toast, in color.

Since the repair was so poorly done, removing as much of that, that is loose, to a secure edge is the practical method, prior to priming and applying the patch material.

Tmanni said:
Could the attic insultation be not allowing for full ventilation? I was reading that often it is too far in certain areas.
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The ceiling and the painted surface are an effective barrier to moisture transition to a ventilated and insulated attic, so the attic insulation will have no effect.

However, the lack of an effective ventilated bathroom will leave the accumulated moisture clinging to the ceiling, causing the affect you are experiencing.
 
There is no evidence, so far, of a brown coloration. Only the grey where chipped.

I am attempting to do as much of this myself as possible, so they you all for your help and patience.

I will start by removing all of the chipping/ceacked areas and as much of the not yet affected areas as possible. I also noticed peeling paint last night so that will need to be removed also. This will be a several day project as I am pregnant, have a 2 yr old and my husband works long hours.

I will post pictures once I have completed this first step
 
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Thanks.

There is a learning curve to patching and because it is overhead, some upper body strength.
 
I understand. It may just move slowly :) we could afford to hire but we just dropped several thousand on the other issue so I would prefer to avoid that.
 
Tmanni said:
I understand. It may just move slowly :) we could afford to hire but we just dropped several thousand on the other issue so I would prefer to avoid that.
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The fan in the bathroom is the first thing you want to look at with a problem in the bathroom.

If you have a fan it may not be run often enough or long enough or it is not effective enough.

Noisy fans are often blamed for reasons not to run the fan and people often replace them with a nice quiet one with more cfms but the problem is often just the size of the duct work or the number of bend in that pipe.
 
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