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My house is 110 years old with plaster and lathe walls. The chimney sits in interior walls. Four years ago, the ceiling cracked and fell down in about a 12 inch diameter circle near the chimney. The surrounding ceiling and wall (the wall that is the chimney) is appears to sweat. It never gets soaking wet and actually runs down the wall though it will occassionally bead up. When the moisture does bead up, it has almost a sticky consistency. This only happens after it rains. Between rains, it dries up. We have spent thousands with roofing contractors who want to keep replacing the same shingles and flashing. We have had the chimney repointed. We have been told the liner in the chimney is fine, and the chimney is capped. The problem continues. We have removed the drywall from the attic around the chimney, but do not see any dampness on the roof or chimney. The roof boards and the chimney in the attic continue to be dry. We removed a considerable portion of the ceiling plaster to ensure that we removed anything that was damp, and then left the exposed ceiling open for almost two months so that the ceiling could dry out. We are frustrated to no end and don't know what to do. We thought the problem was resolved with the last roofer, and have spent hours replastering the ceiling, only to find damp spots again.
Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated. Also, does any one have any suggestions on the type of person to call? Roofers have gotten us nowhere. We frustrated and at our wits end with this problem.
I believe you need to find out weather your moisture is coming from inside the chimney, from flue gases condensing too quickly and coming out of the brick itself, or if water is coming in from around the step flashing or cricket, if you have one.
Have you tried running water on the roof above the chimney to see if any water is coming in? Step flashing can look ok at first glance, but it needs to be installed correctly to work right. It needs to be embedded into the mortar, and between each shingle.
When you say your liner is ok, what type of liner do you have? What is the chimney for.......wood or just flue gasses from water heaters/furnaces?
My bet is that your chimney exterior is brick. Seal the brick with a waterproofing compound and verify that the flashing around the base of the chimney is sound.
You've spent thousands of dollars on this. What do I get?
We have done the water test on the roof and the attic and chimney in the attic is bone dry. The flashing was redone two times, and the roofers we've have out since have said they won't touch the flashing because it is fine and done correctly. After the chimney was repointed last year, the exterior was sealed.
I'm not sure what kind of liner we have in the chimney. The chimney is only used for the water heater and furnace. We do not have an operable fireplace.
Get a little infrared thermometer and measure the ceiling and wall temps around the chimney, and compare temps to the other walls in the room. If you get a rise in humidity in rains, and the area around the chimney is colder than the dewpoint, it could actually be condensation. You've done the basics at this point.
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