Shower caulking leak, living room plaster ceiling in Glen Ellyn, IL

A crack in the caulking around a shower was enough to send water into the plaster ceiling of the living room below it in this Glen Ellyn home. Dylan, the project manager, graded it Category 2 water. The scope he left for the crew was written around two things the owners cared about: the hardwood floor and the plaster ceilings.

Before any demolition, the crew laid cloth runners over the hardwood and covered them with plastic to protect the finish. They built a zippered containment around the work area, wore protective gear and put the room under negative air pressure, which draws air into the containment so plaster dust stays inside it. The crown molding came off carefully, and the ceiling beams were left in place.

Then the wet plaster ceiling came down, and with it the blown-in insulation above it. Where mold showed on the subfloor above, the crew sprayed and wiped it. A second spot was reached through an access panel in a closet. The space behind that panel was too tight to work in, so the plan called for a long tool with a hooked end to drag out as much insulation as possible before the cavity was sprayed with antimicrobial. The plastic over the floor was cleaned before the drying set went in.

The containment stayed up while the room dried, with one dehumidifier, five air movers and an air scrubber running inside it. Pickup was booked for the third day, but some spots were still reading high, so the equipment stayed and pickup moved two days later. The owners also asked us to handle the rebuild of the ceiling.

A shower joint that has cracked or pulled away is worth re-caulking as soon as it is noticed, because the water it lets through often shows up first in the ceiling underneath.