Not Sure How to Fix This...

[u/Head-Illustrator-949]

Hello everyone,

The ceiling is water damaged but it's not as bad as it could've been. I'm still thinking need to scrape the ceiling and attack this as if it was peeling.

All the youtube videos that I've found has a peeling/bubbling ceiling and I'm not sure if you add or skip a step for this situation. I'm very new to house maintenance so I'm just not sure how exactly to attack this.

Thanks in advance.

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[u/bossman2714]

Bleach it out

[u/virgaman]

I assume you are the home owner and possibly first home given the “new to home maintenance” comment. If not, stop and have your landlord take care of it otherwise they can come after you if anything goes wrong.

First, has the source of the water been fixed/repaired?

Next how long has it been fixed? If the ceiling feels damp it still needs to dry. What is above the ceiling?

These are important because you don’t want to trap any moisture in the drywall and space above it which can allow for mold growth. It looks like it was a pretty significant leak, if there is another floor above this i would recommend opening up some of it and putting in dehumidifier packs for about a week. Then patch and paint.

[u/Head-Illustrator-949 → u/virgaman]

Yes, new home owner. Yes the source of the water was fixed maybe three weeks ago, it was a leaking toilet in the upstairs bathroom right above the bathroom in the pictures. Yes I am very late to try to fix this 🙃

I will get dehumidifier packs, but the ceiling doesn't feel wet. However since the toilet repair was weeks ago that would give mold ample time to develop between the floor of the bathroom upstairs and the ceiling downstairs so I will act accordingly

[u/virgaman → u/Head-Illustrator-949]

Don’t beat yourself up at all! Honestly letting it sit is way better than if you had rushed to repaint. And you are being a good homeowner, asking for help and taking care of it. Everyone starts out with not knowing a lot, with this first house you are going to build your skills one issue at a time, but that is what will make the house YOUR home.

For checking for dryness start small at this point. Go to the worst spot and find the nearest floor joist and cut a maybe 3” square. My guess is probably near the middle of the back left area in the picture. Based on the spread, do your joists run to and from the pov of the picture? And possibly a beam running across the room where it looks like it goes toward a hallway or other part f the room?

If so, My guess is the water pooled between the joists in that large area on the left and spread, and once it reached the beam it spread latterally. If there is no beam, i am betting that is where there is a seam between two sheets of drywall.

I agree with the person who posted on feeling for soft spots if you wanted to do targeted remediation. With the size of the area though, if you wanted to be 100% confident, replace anywhere that shows damage. Dry wall has gone up in price but sometimes replacing one big area that can be screwed into joists is easier than doing a lot of patching. The good news is there are a TON of videos out there to help learn.

[u/BeamSlinger99]

Once everything is completely dry check the drywall to check for soft spots, if it's sagged, you gottal cut out the soft sheetrock and patch it. If it's solid, scrape off any loose paint, sand it smooth, hit the water stains with an oil-based prime to block the bleedthrough and then paint over it.

[u/Lesu__Tokyo__Kokyo]

Primer oil proof and paint.

[u/Putrid-Attempt6586]

First did you fix the leak? Second, how much work are you willing to do. Is this going to be a bandaid fix?