Olalla: There's a Water Stain on My Ceiling and Nothing Is Above It

Why this happens in Olalla

Start with a supply line leaking in a wall or joist bay. Copper pinholed at a nail plate or a hanger, a cracked polybutylene fitting, a galvanized thread rusted through. Around Burley and Olalla Bay the housing dates from 1970s-to-2000s farms and acreage homes, which makes this the likeliest answer to water stain on ceiling.

Then a drain or overflow leak. Only when a fixture upstairs is used. We've seen it near Olalla Bay more than once, usually on well lines with no drawings.

Don't overlook roof, flashing or window. Appears with rain and dries between storms. On Olalla properties from 1970s-to-2000s farms and acreage homes it comes up more than you'd think.

Before you call

Olalla has almost no utility meters, so the locate starts at the well's pressure tank and the first job is proving the loss is in the buried line and not at the pump, check valve or tank.

First steps for water stain on ceiling near Fragaria: do the meter test with every fixture closed. Note whether the stain grows with rain, with fixture use, or constantly. Don't cut the ceiling at the stain; the leak is usually elsewhere. Then call; the rest is a locate through hardpan on Banner Road, not guesswork.

What happens next

When it's the buried line, the fix in Olalla is interior water leak detection: we mark, thermal and moisture through outwash that drains and hides leaks at the marked spot on waterfront on Colvos Passage, and isolate hot and cold. Thermal imaging camera and the mini excavator ride on the first trip so it's finished the same visit.

Al's Grocery, Fragaria, the Olalla Bridge: near any of them, water stain on ceiling gets the same crew and the same equipment. About forty minutes down Highway 16, day or night, with the mini excavator on the trailer for wooded acreage on Banner Road.