On Tuesday, October 13, 1998 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, Homer wrote:
The toilet on my first floor bathroom began to overflow slowly (too much
paper resulted in a clog) while we were out for a few hours. My garage is on
the basement level, as my home is built on a hill and made this possible.
When I got home, the water was coming into the garage from above (the first
floor bathroom). Naturally, some of the dry wall on the ceiling of the
garage was damaged. This remained relatively small, as it appears that due
to the fact that the leak was a relatively slow one the water "made a path"
down into the garage below as opposed to gushing out and soaking everything
(VERY good thing...I think). My question is........besides the dry wall
damage, does water damage occur to the wood joists for example? When people
speak of water damage due to a pipe bursting or other cause, does the damage
occur to other portions of the home, aside from personal belongings, etc? Do
I need to rip down some dry wall and take a look further?

I did cut out one section of the dry wall (or is it sheet rock?) and finally
discovered what the slight discoloration on the ceiling was coming from.
Apparently, the cap on the large rigid PVC pipe that presumably is my toilet
plumbing wasn't tighten. Actually, it was quite loose. So I assume what was
happening is that small amount of waste from the toilet was leaking out the
end cap and staining the ceiling. So I tightened the thing. Is this correct,
or is there any reason I'm unaware of the this end cap on the PVC pipe I saw
should NOT be FULLY tightened?

Thanks in advance to all!

“does water damage occur to the wood joists for example?”

Yes but that takes a lot more than a few hours; more like few weeks. You may get mold growth however and if you’re unlucky enough to be susceptible to some types of mold that may grow it can even kill you. Despite what some people may say I think very few people are susceptible enough to make them seriously ill. You may want to spray those areas with bleach just in case though; for this you may need to “rip down some dry wall”; just don’t breathe in the bleach fumes; good luck.

“So I tightened the thing. Is this correct”?

Yes it is correct but you might want to remove it, put some Teflon tape or pipe dope on the threads and then screw it back in just in case to make sure it doesn’t leak again.

On Tue, 12 Jun 2012 22:01:10 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

The toilet on my first floor bathroom began to overflow slowly (too much
paper resulted in a clog) while we were out for a few hours. My garage is on
the basement level, as my home is built on a hill and made this possible.
When I got home, the water was coming into the garage from above (the first
floor bathroom). Naturally, some of the dry wall on the ceiling of the
garage was damaged. This remained relatively small, as it appears that due
to the fact that the leak was a relatively slow one the water "made a path"
down into the garage below as opposed to gushing out and soaking everything
(VERY good thing...I think). My question is........besides the dry wall
damage, does water damage occur to the wood joists for example? When people
speak of water damage due to a pipe bursting or other cause, does the damage
occur to other portions of the home, aside from personal belongings, etc? Do
I need to rip down some dry wall and take a look further?

If you have real wood joists, just let them dry. If you have laminated
joists, or worse yet, particle board joists (made from glue and
sawdust), you could have a complete collapse of that part of the house.

Why is there drywall on a garage ceiling? It's a flippin garage, not
the living room. I never understood drywall (sheetrock) being used in a
garage. There should be studs and joists exposed to put in all kinds of
nails to hang tools and stuff. That's a REAL garage. What you have is
a drive in living room.


I did cut out one section of the dry wall (or is it sheet rock?) and finally
discovered what the slight discoloration on the ceiling was coming from.
Apparently, the cap on the large rigid PVC pipe that presumably is my toilet
plumbing wasn't tighten. Actually, it was quite loose. So I assume what was
happening is that small amount of waste from the toilet was leaking out the
end cap and staining the ceiling. So I tightened the thing. Is this correct,
or is there any reason I'm unaware of the this end cap on the PVC pipe I saw
should NOT be FULLY tightened?

Thanks in advance to all!

I'd cut out that soggy section of ceiling and let everything dry. Then
screw a piece of 3/8 or 1/2 inch plywood over the hole, (or both holes)
so you have easy access to the pipes in the future. Yea, paint it white
like the rest of the ceiling, and then only your mother-in-law will
complain....

Put teflon tape on those threads, then tighten that cap securely.

A window fan will help dry stuff up in that ceiling.

On Jun 13, 2:56*am, wrote:
On Tue, 12 Jun 2012 22:01:10 -0700 (PDT), wrote:
The toilet on my first floor bathroom began to overflow slowly (too much
paper resulted in a clog) while we were out for a few hours. My garage is on
the basement level, as my home is built on a hill and made this possible.
When I got home, the water was coming into the garage from above (the first
floor bathroom). Naturally, some of the dry wall on the ceiling of the
garage was damaged. This remained relatively small, as it appears that due
to the fact that the leak was a relatively slow one the water "made a path"
down into the garage below as opposed to gushing out and soaking everything
(VERY good thing...I think). My question is........besides the dry wall
damage, does water damage occur to the wood joists for example? When people
speak of water damage due to a pipe bursting or other cause, does the damage
occur to other portions of the home, aside from personal belongings, etc? Do
I need to rip down some dry wall and take a look further?

If you have real wood joists, just let them dry. *If you have laminated
joists, or worse yet, particle board joists (made from glue and
sawdust), you could have a complete collapse of that part of the house.

Why is there drywall on a garage ceiling? *It's a flippin garage, not
the living room. *I never understood drywall (sheetrock) being used in a
garage. *There should be studs and joists exposed to put in all kinds of
nails to hang tools and stuff. *That's a REAL garage. *What you have is
a drive in living room.



I did cut out one section of the dry wall (or is it sheet rock?) and finally
discovered what the slight discoloration on the ceiling was coming from.
Apparently, the cap on the large rigid PVC pipe that presumably is my toilet
plumbing wasn't tighten. Actually, it was quite loose. So I assume what was
happening is that small amount of waste from the toilet was leaking out the
end cap and staining the ceiling. So I tightened the thing. Is this correct,
or is there any reason I'm unaware of the this end cap on the PVC pipe I saw
should NOT be FULLY tightened?

Thanks in advance to all!

I'd cut out that soggy section of ceiling and let everything dry. *Then
screw a piece of 3/8 or 1/2 inch plywood over the hole, (or both holes)
so you have easy access to the pipes in the future. *Yea, paint it white
like the rest of the ceiling, and then only your mother-in-law will
complain....

Put teflon tape on those threads, then tighten that cap securely.

A window fan will help dry stuff up in that ceiling.

these vdays building codes require drywall cielings to slow fire
spread if yoour vehicle catches on fire. vehicle fires are ess likely
to burn down your home.

at the home i grew up in the garage cieling was steel lathe covered
with cement