Water from bathroom ceiling fan

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this issue for me as I don't know much about houses :(


This is for a brand new 2 story townhouse that was finished being built on January 24, 2011

We have 2 bathrooms on the upper level and in one of the bathrooms water drips from the ceiling fan.

Now I know it's sometimes normal for small amounts of water to drip due to humidity and condensation, especially in the winter months.

But here is the kicker, on 2 different occasions, once after a shower and once when nobody was home, as much as a Pepsi can full of water has dripped from the fan. It CANNOT be normal for that much water to drip.....right???

The water has now caused a watermark in the ceiling right beside the fan.


Photo below shows the ceiling right after a major drip

[IMG]http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...y/IMG_0542.jpg[/IMG]

This photo shows the yellow stain after it has dried. You may have to look really closely at the picture to find it

[IMG]http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...y/IMG_0541.jpg[/IMG]

I have talked to the builder and they say the watermark is normal and it will just dry. Well no crap it will just dry but it is now stained and if I am not mistaken that means there could be mold and damage in the ceiling/attic.....???

Just wanted some opinions and what course of action to take before I go to the New Home Warranty.

Thanks!!!


EDIT: One more thing....what causes a showerhead to constantly squeal when turned on?? We have 3 bathrooms and one the showerhead in the same bathroom mentioned above squeals loudly!!!

There is another thread about this on here...it happens to almost everybody when the weather is really cold....(including me)...the moist air is freezing on the vent on the roof, when it gets warm (the sun) thaws the ice and it leaks back down the vent pipe

^ This.

Or it could be what I had. I have a central humidification system and I usually turn it up in the summer and down in the winter. I had forgotten to turn it down one winter and condensation was collecting in the attic on the inside of the roof and eventually dropping on the ceiling.

Turned down the humidity and it was gone

that is really odd though that this would happen, wrath's description sounds dead on but I still find it weird that this should happen. We had ceiling fans installed about 10 years ago on all our washrooms and have never had this issue. Possibly a poor design?

Quote:

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Originally posted by J-hop
that is really odd though that this would happen. We had ceiling fans installed about 10 years ago on all our washrooms and have never had this issue. Possibly a poor design?

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No.

Quote:

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Originally posted by soiledunderwear


No.

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explain...

obviously there is something different about the way our systems were designed, this should not happen.

This does not happen at my house. in either bathroom.

Found the Thread

http://forums.beyond.ca/st/325384/ba...n-fan-leaking/

Do a google search....lots on there about it too...

I understand that this happens once in a while but to the point where it leaves a watermark on the ceiling??? Isn't that a little too much water??

Couldn't this cause mold or any type of damage in the future??

We do have a central humidification system as well and will turn it down

Quote:

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Originally posted by J-hop
that is really odd though that this would happen, wrath's description sounds dead on but I still find it weird that this should happen. We had ceiling fans installed about 10 years ago on all our washrooms and have never had this issue. Possibly a poor design?

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It also could be that the vent pipe in the attic is not insulated properly. (I doubt our in our town house is)

The vent by code must be insulated a certain distance from the roof....so there might be ice forming in the pipe as well...

Quote:

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Originally posted by Wrath
Found the Thread

http://forums.beyond.ca/st/325384/ba...n-fan-leaking/

Do a google search....lots on there about it too...

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yea I totally agree with your explanation, but the point is that ceiling fans venting like this are of a very poor design. I just looked at mine and the vent for the fan is not directly above the fan it is a fair bit to the side of vertical, thus it doesn't leave a straight vertical path for the water to drip back down into the fan thus we don't have this issue.

edit: and You are probably right about the insulation, I haven't looked in our attic but I have a feeling it is insulated the whole way up

Also...a Mod should move this to Home & Garden

This shouldn't be happening at all. There should be no water coming back in through the ceiling fan. None.

Quote:

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Originally posted by soccernut
^ This.

Or it could be what I had. I have a central humidification system and I usually turn it up in the summer and down in the winter. I had forgotten to turn it down one winter and condensation was collecting in the attic on the inside of the roof and eventually dropping on the ceiling.

Turned down the humidity and it was gone

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This shouldn't be happening either. Means that you don't have a proper vapor barrier. There shouldn't be anything venting into your attic at all. No condensation or anything like that.

Quote:

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Originally posted by codetrap
This shouldn't be happening at all. There should be no water coming back in through the ceiling fan. None.

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No it shouldn't happen.....but it IS quite common.

If you vent connection is bad in your attic...thats all it takes.

I'd guess its a bad connection

This will sound a bit crazy but on the exit tube of your fan there is a little flapper valve-check to make sure that opens and closes properly. It is placed where the fixture meets the "plumbing"-sorry can't think of any other way to describe the pipe going out.

Another common problem is that if the exhaust pipe isn't exactly straight ie curves/dips/is too long etc it can collect water (condensation) the cold air coming back from the roof vent will turn it back to liquid and bamo puddle on your floor.


** This is not normal and you should not let the builder tell you this**

You shouldn't ever have condensation in your exhaust duct or have water dripping into the bathroom, that's a problem. Tell your builder to get a clue and get that fixed.

I would guess that the pipe itself isn't properly insulated or the region where the vent exhausts to outside is inadequate, allowing vapours to hang out up top and condense.

Either way, it might be common but it's a problem that needs to be corrected.

I posted this in the other thread instead of here by accident...

"There is actually a very simple solution for this. Basically the duct should be wrapped in insulation. New homes they don't do this a lot so you end up with condensation etc dripping on the floor.

It's way to cold to go up in your attic and wrap your duct now so for the time being just pull down firmly on the fan cover, it will drop about an inch. THen squeeze the clips with your fingers and remove it. Put a towel on the floor under the fan because it will drip directly on the floor. nothing bad will happen, but it will prevent the cover from holding water and letting it seep into the ceiling drywall.

All the parts inside are metal so if they are a little wet nothing its ok, you just don't want the ceiling to get wet or it will stain and look like crap.

When it gets warmer out grab some foil backed insulation from home depot, lowes, totem etc and wrap/tape it around the duct so it doesn't happen again."

how do i know this? because I had the same problem in our master bath suite the first winter in our new house. I insulated it and its been fine since.

I had this last year in my house, its not normal because in the house I had before this did not happen in the 5 years we were there.

We had the builder fix it, something along the lines the vent was upside down and was open to the snow side and would of course let water back down when the temps became warmer.

It hasn't done it since.

The only time I've ever seen this was a contractor that wasn't exactly bright and put all the vapor barrier and insulation on the ceiling of the attic instead of the floor so that the home owners could use the attic for storage. So all kinds of moisture collected in the attic, couldn't get out, froze and then dripped down when it melted.

Some ideas to think about.

I just moved into my new place (brand new as well) in November, and when we did our final walk through the site super explained that to avoid that problem turn on the fan for an hour anytime you have a shower. If you do not have a timer switch for your fans in bathrooms with a tub or shower go to home depot and pick one up for $10 - $20 and this will prevent the problem from happening in the future once you take care of the moisture that has accumulated in your attic already.

The cause of the problem is the humidity and moisture in your home rises and collects in the attic (primarily from having a shower or bath), and by turning on the fan for an hour it forces this moisture outside instead of letting it collect.

Hope this helps.

^ Your attic should never have moisture in it. It's supposed to be a well ventilated, DRY cavity.

The attic space, in most modern homes, is protected from moisture inside the home by a vapour barrier that sits behind the ceiling drywall. You never want moisture in the attic, otherwise it will actually 'rain' inside of the space as the warm moist air meets the cold roof trusses & sheathing and drips all over the place.

You want to ventilate the inside of the house using the exhaust fans whenever you cook/boil water, take a shower, steam clean rugs, etc. Excessive moisture = promotes mold growth, among other issues like buckling hardwood floors, cracking paint, rotting window sills, etc.

The home's soffit system & roof vent caps are what allow air movement in the attic. The bathroom/kitchen fans have nothing to do with it.