If you just used the shower in your upstairs bathroom and your guests downstairs are welcomed by droplets of water leaking on their heads, it’s time you check your bathroom floor for water leaks.
A leaking shower can indicate broken or loose pipes, a clogged drain line, damaged bathroom tiles, or a leaking drain gasket. A small shower leak may not be alarming at first, but if you don’t find the source of the leak and it’s left untreated, that tiny leak can cause extensive water damage over time.
Learn more about what’s causing your shower to leak through the ceiling and what to do to avoid disaster.
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Why Is Your Ceiling Leaking After a Shower?
There are many potential reasons your shower is leaking through the ceiling. The most common problems are broken pipes, loose O rings, damaged tiles, and abrasions in the drain line.
Guess what? Behind those problems are primary causes. It’s a domino effect. One problem causes another, which leads to you and your guests dealing with the sight of a large water stain from the ceiling leak.
Reason #1: Structural Damage in Your Home
Structural damage causes broken pipes and tiles. The original contractor may have cut costs or neglected to ensure the integrity of the home’s fundamentals.
Measurements that are slightly off can cause problems down the line. Tiles that don’t fit or weren’t laid correctly can crack and succumb to elements much faster. A leak that goes through its tiny abrasions can cause mold damage and deteriorate your home much quicker.
Reason #2: Mold or Mildew
We all know mold is terrible. Mold and mildew are dangerous, harmful, and hazardous to your health. Mold flowing through your main water line and attaching to different fixtures of your home can cause wood rot and other structural damage.
They can also expedite your home’s deterioration. In Florida’s warm climate, your home’s water supply pipe can be the perfect breeding ground for multiple mold colonies.
How Mold & Mildew Cause Leaks
The more damage mold causes, the easier for water-leaking to cause more significant damage to your plumbing systems and primarily enlarge the ceiling hole it caused. It won’t be long before your ceiling’s integrity gives way to the excessive moisture and crumbles into your living room.
The water stains you see around your ceiling shouldn’t be left unchecked. That’s how dangerous mold can be, and it can stem from minor shower leaks. Call a professional plumber immediately at the first signs of mold or decay.
Reason #3: A Clogged Shower Drain
It’s easy to fix a clogged shower drain line. Immediately attending to it can prevent mold growth and other problems that may make things worse.
How Clogged Shower Drains Cause Leaks in the Ceiling
Water leaking anywhere in your home may be due to clogging. A clog in your shower drain can cause water leaks from excessive water pressure buildup and burst through pipes.
Damaged pipes can cause water to leak inside the shower wall and drip down into the shower floor. The water can collect where the ceiling of the room below and the upstairs flooring meet, which is where your ceiling leak may be coming from.
You can repair this yourself, but extensive clogging requires a professional plumber’s snake. There’s an industrial-grade drain snake, paired with a professional’s knowledge, and it can efficiently rid you of your leaking problems.
Do-It-Yourself Shower Drain Solutions
It can be remedied by a little baking soda and vinegar solution you can make at home.
- Turn your shower faucet on.
- Turn it to a warm setting.
- Add half a cup of baking soda to your drain.
- Add one cup of vinegar to your drain.
- Cover your drain for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, take the cover off and let hot water run through the drain for at least one minute.
This DIY fix should clean out any minor buildup. However, it won’t clear out larger contaminants like hair and plastic particles.
DIY Shower Drain Snaking
You can prevent clogs by routinely snaking your drain. One preventative solution is adding a drain stitch to your drain gasket and pulling it out every week to dislodge anything that piles up.
However, it’s best to hire a licensed plumber who can help you when your leaking shower causes water damage to your bathroom that’s too much for you to handle on your own.
Shower Drain Snaking Tips
If the shower-leaking-through-ceiling problem isn’t convincing enough for you, a water leak anywhere in your home should indicate a drain clogging somewhere.
All water leak issues, including your shower-leaking-through-ceiling problem, may be resolved by a simple baking soda and vinegar washdown or a good snaking. However, remember to take it easy on your pipes.
Don’t just push and prod down there like you’re exploring the new world. You might end up causing abrasions and holes that weren’t there before, leading to a new water leak.
A shower leak is enough of a problem, so don’t cause more problems trying to remedy one issue. Remember these tips before you get into your kitchen sink drain.
- Use tools exclusively designed for snaking. They’re made with materials that are tough on blockages but gentler on PVC plastics that your pipes are most likely made of, or iron in older plumbing systems. They’re also blunt at the tip, which may prevent causing abrasions to your drain’s interior. They also come in softer or more flexible alternatives if you don’t have the dexterity to handle a stiffer one.
- Feel around gently; don’t take jabs at it. You’re working blindly, and the slower and softer you go, the fewer risks you pose to your shower drain and sink’s P trap.
- An additional step you can take is using magnets. Hold a strong magnet on top of your sink’s drain in case any metal or magnetic obstructions are small enough to fit. They might be light enough to get pulled out by the magnetic attraction. Pendants, earrings, and metal studs can fall into your shower tray and get sucked into the drain, so if you often forget to take jewelry off before you shower, try this. It might also be useful if you notice certain metal fixtures are missing around your bathroom. Don’t forget that a porcelain or ceramic bathroom tile is also magnetic. If you have a chipped bathroom tile with its broken piece missing, it may be down there.
- A preventative measure you can take is attaching a shower stopper with a chain attachment. Some have multipurpose chain attachments that prevent them from floating away and catch things like hair, floss, fabrics, and other gunk that sinks into your drain. It’s an inexpensive piece of equipment you can buy to prevent water damage.
When It’s Time To Call a Professional
A professional can locate the source of the leak if it’s from a damaged gasket, broken shower or faucet pipe, excessive moisture buildup, or loose grout lines.
Call Mac 5 Services
Call for Mac 5 services when a water leak isn’t going away, before your shower leak gets worse.
Report water damage and what you think is causing the problem to get a free estimate from us. We can fix all your leaks and repair all your drains.
Whether the leaking is from broken pipes that need repair or your ceiling is leaking day and night, we can help you resolve the issue promptly and effectively.
Call (321) 244-7500 today to learn more and get started.
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