White / black dust falling from ceiling

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lucid77

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My porch has some kind of white slick paneling on the ceiling. It is textured and done in 6 or so ajoining panels.

There’s is a significant amount of material (dust) both white and black in color, falling from the ceiling and collecting on everything.

Anyone know what this is? It seems to be the worst where these panels meet.

IMG_0004.jpg
 
Looks like that is Thrifty White Panel Board or something similar. It is a hardboard with an acrylic coating. It doesn’t look like it is coming from the surface so something is going on behind it. looks like some black mold or something at the strip at the left and my guess Like @oldognewtrick I think is also thinking is where the porch roof joins the house that flashing may be failing above letting in some moisture or something. An outside picture from above may help but might be hard to take without a ladder.


I don’t see fasteners holding the panels up maybe glued???


If it were mine I would remove that trim to the left and see what’s up under that as a start.
 
I was thinking about removing the trim, but since I couldn’t see the panels secured any other way, I was unsure if they would come down with it..
 
Ok here’s what I found. Tons of leaves!! Underneath several places where it appears the flashing is coming up, also looks like someone tried to seal a few leaks around a couple of seams with black sealant. A puncture from a falling limb, also. Can this all be sealed up somehow without totally redoing this entire job?

Leaves
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Puncture
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Gaps
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Sealant
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@oldognewtrick is a roofing professional and others here. I will let them answer the repair questions.


Of course you have to start with the roofing and then address what has taken place inside the ceiling. I wouldn’t personally not at least do some inspection into the ceiling from below. I doubt the trim is the only thing holding up the ceiling panels.
 
Hate to be the bearer of bad tidings...but, time for a new flat roof. It appears to be a modifies bitumen roll roof that's been coated with elastomeric coating. The seams appear to have fractured and trying to get it clean enough to even patch will be a waste of time and throwing good money after bad in my opinion.
 
Consider putting a rubber roof over that. You would put down panels of Homasote and then glue the rubber roof to that. Fastest fix and a long lasting one too, and no seams to leak.
 
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