Water damage inside - Oh No

[mas3372 14]

Yup,

A customer called last week and told me that his cieling had water spots and the water dripped thru onto a peice of furntiure and also had some damage. He claims it came in thru the soffit vents. I went to check it out and the water damage in the house is directly in line with soffit vent. I am always so carefull when applying chems and rinsing the soffits, I use no more than a fine mist. But apparently I got a little crazy with the water this time.

the cieling isn't bad. Two areas about the size of slice of bread. the piece of furniture needs to be sanded on top and a new top coat applied. Both things I can do myself.

I plan on doing it myself. The furniture is no problem for me. I can do this and make it look fine. The cieling is what worries me. I know plaster dries out fine and will be structually sound therefore only needing paint. I am hoping he has some exisiting paint left over so I can just match it rather than paint his whole cieling.

I know this sound like a simple fix, but it is my first. Does anyone ahve any advise for me on this. How to handle it, what to do, paperwork involved, etc.

Thanks, Mike

[RCBill 14]

You'll need to seal the stain with shellac; Bin or Kilz. Make sure you use alcohol based sealer. I think your biggest problem will be to match the new paint to the old. Feather out the paint edges. The worst that'll happen is that you'll need to paint the entire ceiling.

[Paul Kassander 26]

I was just typing the same thing and it wouldn't let me post. Definately pre seal the stain, and you more than likely will have to paint the entire ceiling unless it has been painted recently. Thats really a stinker, Good luck.

[grizzley 14]

On the ceiling, I don't know what the coating is, but you can use a mix of house hold bleach and water to remove water stains. It only takes a fine mist, just enough to get it wet. Once dry, it will be gone.

[Celeste 341]

Well that sounds like a neat trick - does it only work on painted surfaces? I've got water stains on my ceiling here & there...much rather mist than paint!

Celeste

[grizzley 14]

No, not just painted surfaces. I have done it on textured ceilings (popcorn ceilings) and walls. I tried it once on a piece of that dropped ceiling and it didn't work. It only lightened the stain but it was SOAKED with water for MONTHS.

[mas3372 14]

Thanks for the advise.

The furniture I am not worried about as I have quite a bit of experience with wood working. It has a lacquer finish so I will need to fill the grain and reapply the lacquer.

I was thinking about bleach white for the cieling stains to see if that will work, but I will try the bleach trick. I am hoping he has the paint laying around that he used to do the ceilig with so I can touch it up and feather it out.

I am goint to go over tomorrow and see what I can do.

[RCBill 14]

Well Griz, gotta give that a try.

[mas3372 14]

The cieling is platered drywall with white paint over it.