 | Charlie Traffas has been involved in marketing, media, publishing and insurance for more than 40 years. In addition to being a fully-licensed life, health, property and casualty agent, he is also President and Owner of Chart Marketing, Inc. (CMI). CMI operates and markets several different products and services that help B2B and B2C businesses throughout the country create customers...profitably. You may contact Charlie by phone at (316) 721-9200, by e-mail at ctraffas@chartmarketing.com, or you may visit at www.chartmarketing.com. |
Home Improvement
2009-12-01 09:50:00
Fixing ceiling water stains
Answer: Last question first…if you have a roof, chances are sooner or later you are going to have a leak. We live in Kansas. Those of us that have lived here a number of years know that seldom is there rain or snow without wind and it can and does blow from every direction. It may be two years or longer before it blows from the east when it storms, but sooner or later we will get wind and rain or snow from every direction at different intensity. That is why even the best roofing job sooner or later will leak. It may be ten years or more when the conditions are just right for it to leak again. When the roof leaks, you have a ceiling stain to remind you.
Another real culprit for ceiling stains is fireplace chimneys and the flashing used to water proof them. No two are alike, so in reality, it is up to the craftsmen installing them, and it is extremely easy for even an experienced craftsman to make a mistake or overlook the obvious, causing a leak that can occur occasionally, or at every rain. Actually the ones that leak with every rain are much easier to trace and fix than the sneaky, occasional ones.
All ceiling stains can be repaired…it’s just that when they are repaired they usually look like they have been repaired. Texture and color on ceilings is almost always impossible to match, so if the damaged area is larger than the size of a tennis ball, the only real way to fix it is to redo the whole ceiling. Trying to patch a size bigger than a tennis ball can take as much time, and cost just as much, as having a professional redo the whole ceiling.
Generally the hardest ceilings to patch are the acoustic sprayed (pop corn) and knockdown. Hand troweled and random textures are by far the easiest to match textures. . The next thing that must match for a successful repair is the color of the ceiling. Even using the exact same paint put on the same way will no longer match if it has been more than about thirty days. The reason it will no longer match is due to things like shower steam, candle smoke, cooking grease, ultra-violet light and other pollutants in the air.
No matter what they tell you in the lumber yard or paint store, many DIY home-owners have found the hard way that patching a ceiling is much more difficult than it appears. Ceilings are usually the most visible and the most delicate surfaces in your room. For the most part their repair should be left to a professional who can provide you with plenty of references.
