It's tough to tell where the water is coming from by looking at the
ceiling. The straight line you see is where water is pooling at a
drywall joint. The circular stain follows the outline of the smoke
detector hole. I've seen exactly the stains you describe before. If
you can eyeball the ceiling for a while and figure out where the
drywall joints are, perhaps you can narrow the leak down to a 4x8 foot
proximity. Or the water could be following some other path before it
hits the drywall.

I had a house for a while that had a leak stain on the main floor
ceiling but there was no plumbing above it. If a shower had leaked,
the stain would have been far away. Looking back on it, I'm certain
now that the dryer vent that exited through the roof was leaking during
heavy rain. Water would run down the vent pipe, behind the dryer, and
onto the ceiling below. So you never know. Could be anything.

Talk it over with your inspector. Perhaps bring in a plumber. Run all
the appliances. Fill the sinks and bathtubs (all the way to the
overflow). Check the attic and crawlspaces. Etc.

It's a very common thing to happen so don't let it kill your deal
unless it looks like the sellers are trying to hide something.

-rev



On Jan 24, 6:37 pm, "dissident" wrote:
I am a novice in home repair and yet I am buying my first home which is
conditional upon home inspection, during which I plan to find out about
the problem which is haunting me. This house is 6 years old and was
rented out so, of course, the tenants didn't bother to take care of the
house. What I see is a stain from water leak on the ceiling of the
living room, which seems to follow the outline of the shower stall in
the bathroom right upstairs. It is about 4-5 inches long, straight line
kind of, and is on only one side. Then there is another stain about a
couple of feet away near the smoke detector. This is more kind of
circular stain ..... there is the upstairs hallway here and the
upstairs is carpeted..... I can also feel that that section of the
carpet is kind of raised as if someone spilled a whole lot of water
there....surrounding is ok.

So now my question to you is that do you (experts and experienced
people out there) think this may be something major ??? I know that the
home inspector probably will find this out...but I still want to know
about the experience people have had. Can a big jug of water if spilled
can show stain on downstairs ceiling like in this 2nd stain I am
talking about?? Any advice on what to look for and what to ask on the
day of home inspection??

Thanks for the help!!