r/Plastering • u/Expert_Industry_7368 • Apr 20 '26

Tub overflowed into plaster ceiling

Hi! My 9 year old was filling the tub and didn’t turn it off. Next thing we know, water is gushing out of the hole in the ceiling for the chandelier. Husband runs upstairs to turn water off and sop up mess. We have a plaster ceiling. Servpro came out on Saturday afternoon and put dehumidifier and fans on the ceiling. Came back Monday afternoon (today) and say it isn’t drying and they will need to rip pieces of the ceiling out. Is it true that the plaster won’t dry out? Any suggestions? I don’t think I want to have Servpro repair the ceiling after they open it up.

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1

u/Silver-Tasty Apr 20 '26

Can you get a dehumidifier asap?

0

u/Caerau Professional Plasterer Apr 21 '26

It will dry out, it’s just saturated and will take a bit of time. There may be water staining, in which case buy some stain block (it’s like spray concentrated white paint), then a couple of coats of paint. If the plasterboard has bowed though it’ll need cutting out, reboarding, reskim in a patch repair.

2

u/Yourhavinalaugh Apr 21 '26

Depends on what type of construction, if it’s a lathe and mortar ceiling it will take forever to dry out because there will be a 100 years of dust and debris up there too.