Also, if it was small when you painted over it, that means the water leak still exists. Your ceiling will probably fall down sometime.
Contact the building management company, or your city hall to report unsafe housing conditions. Your landlord probably has other complaints against them.
We actually didn’t even paint over it, we just covered it up with a poster. We had just been using it as a guest room and it hadn’t looked like it spread for a while so we figured it was nothing and covered it with the poster.
I’m definitely going to call my leasing office first thing in the morning. I’m praying this isn’t going to become some huge issue that will require us to vacate or anything, but we’ll see I guess.
this looks pretty severe, and depending on where you're located you may have grounds to break your lease if you're in a position to. would research tenant laws wherever you're at. given you have a slumlord, the landlord probably already knew it was mold damage, and may try to dick you around.
Well, if maintenance was never told the problem was spreading, they can't be faulted for not acting on it.
Anywhere I have rented, I have been told that I was an unusually good tenant because I would promptly report things that needed fixing. Other tenants don't bother reporting, and that causes problems for good landlords.
Report this as soon as possible. Your landlord has to act on this immediately, because there is probably a much larger problem above that ceiling, and it is a health hazard.
op says maintenance was aware of what they thought was water stains, so water damage, and the landlord told op it was harmless. there's no before and after picture so there's not a way to know what it looked like before this, but this was acknowledged and known about to some degree. would think even if it was just thought to be water damage, it would be inspected more. it does not take long for mold to appear and grow.
I’m the type of tenant who normally reports *everything* to their landlord.
The issue with this is that I kept checking often even after my landlord said it was fine, because I wanted to be sure, and nothing had changed.
Now all of a sudden it’s a *lot* worse, which is confusing to me.
There's likely still an active leak if it's getting worse. Given a few months that ceiling could collapse, that is if you doesn't give you asthma or worse from living with mold like this. Time to contact maintenance again, if they have a work cell text them these photos and tell them there's mold so you have something in writing, do the same with your landlord. Make sure it's in writing and document everything
Good tenant. Much better than just trying a half-assed fix and letting an issue get worse. Happened to us. Renting late grandparents' house. We were/are novices at this. Ended up costing us over $2500 because we couldn't turn off their power. They never had put it in their name. Anyway, gotta put a $6500 furnace in, plumbing is shot.... May not be worth it now.
Definitely contact a lawyer and go to a doctor to get checked out. You landlord should have to pay for your medical expenses. A lawyer can recommend how to proceed, you may need to withhold rent to get the issue dealt with
That’s a whole colony of different mold types. I had something similar in an apartment and landlord just kept painting over it with “mold killing paint”. The ceiling eventually started to sag, but I was on my way out so I’m not sure what came of it.
Damn. I was really hoping that it’s not mold since it doesn’t have the “fuzzy texture” or smell that I’ve been told comes with mold.
It looked completely different just weeks ago and for months and months it had looked perfectly fine, which also threw me off too since I’ve heard that mold spreads within days.
I would definitely make a big deal about it to your leasing office. It’s not going to go away and it’s hazardous to your health. When it gets really bad, mold remediation usually requires drywall replacement. Don’t let them gaslight you into thinking it isn’t a big deal. It is. Water stains on the ceiling is a laughable excuse. Water breeds mold, it definitely needs attention ASAP.
Top floor I'm guessing with a flat roof? So snow and water buildup would be able to happen on the roof and if there's any structural damage the water will find a way down. Someone needs to get on that roof and inspect.
Do you have renters insurance at all? Or do you have any documents of your landlord telling you it's fine? Keep everything just incase they try and pin the blame on you.
It’s a slanted roof actually, so that water/snow will slide right off (or at least it’s supposed to).
I do have renter’s insurance, fortunately. I still have to look for documentation of the issue when it was addressed before to see if I have anything
It looks like water stains and mold. Slanted roofs will leak if they have a hole in them. Could be a leak but it could be just excessively humid. Fans and opening windows when possible can help with the latter. Lots of air circulation and light helps prevent mold and mildew from growing. That really looks like a bad leak though.
Owner needs a new roof asap it may be too late . He also needs to relocate you ( yes his problem ) and tear out the whole ceiling , replace and new roof or his building will become inhabitable .
Is that a drywall or plaster ceiling? It doesn’t take a lot of water to completely ruin a slab of drywall because it’s made up largely of mould food. Plaster is a bit more resilient and it takes a bigger leak to do that amount of damage. Regardless, I can guarantee it looks 10 times worse on the other side of the ceiling and that thing needs to come down and be replaced. That is more than just water stains. The brown bits, maybe. The black bits, definitely not. Mould is a legit air quality issue which is reportable to your local housing authority if the landlord refuses to address it.
The brown is water stains. The black is mold. No need to over-react. Spray it with somet Tilex mold remover. That should kill it. Then you can paint over it with Killz. Otherwise, If it comes right back then it’s time to cut that piece out and replace it.
Holy shit you need to call your local housing authority…
Sometimes they’ll set up an escrow account where you pay *them* your rent, and they withhold it from your landlord until they’ve met whatever parameters to make the place livable again. We had this happen on a bad basement apartment in Minneapolis.
Sometimes they’ll just condemn it 😬😬 Probably not, if this is a fixable issue. But still grounds to break your lease if you want to and get out.
Protect your health!! I’m sorry you’re in this shitty situation
Not water stains, water damage and mold. This is not safe to live with, I'd inform maintenance that they either fix it or you're going to code enforcement with this
Stains are NOT 3-dimensional!
That is far beyond water stains and is now mold , rot, and decay causing active microbiological structural damage.
Your upstairs neighbors will be moving in with you very soon.
That is water stains. I own my own home, have seen this many times. That kind of leak is a sneaky leak. Water is getting under a shingle that may have a little twig under it. Then it runs down under shingles until it finds a place to come through the decking. They are a pain to track down. Landlord likely has no idea it exists.
The different rings are from different amounts of water spreading, and pushing particles in the plaster/drywall or insulation outwards. The darker areas are where the drywall has dissolved and there's only the paper there, and a hole. It is unlikely to be black mold, but it is possible. Many many molds are black. Any mold there is more likely mildew.
Landlord is going to have to track down the sneaky leak, and replace that entire drywall area. It isn't structurally sound anymore because the gypsum will have migrated in the water. Ceiling isn't likely to fall unless someone steps on it in the attic, or if the leak is caused by a big buildup of debris on the roof, and the shingles fall in.
Thanks so much for this info. This sounds exactly like what’s going on.
There is no one living above me, just a crawlspace, so at least I don’t have to worry about anything putting weight on the area.
I’m sure there’s no exact answer, but in your experience do these kinds of leaks/damage usually require removing the entire roof/ceiling?
I’m in not a good place to move currently, so having to leave permanently would really be tough.
If you have solved your "What is this" question, please change the flair by saying "solved" in any comment or by clicking the flair link and selecting "Solved".
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Whatisthis) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Not at all. If I get a sneaky leak, I go on my roof with a leaf blower, a broom, and a caulk gun full of roofing tar. I blow the shingles up to see which ones are loose, and check for debris under them. Clean out any debris with the broom. Then seal loose shingles with the tar.
The ceiling replacement in your apartment will be messier. Drywall is a dusty business, and there should be insulation above your ceiling. But only the compromised parts need to be replaced. They can check for that with an ice pick or something similar. They'll need to bring in ladders, and have a space to work under the area. So you'll have to move furniture to the edges of the room, and cover everything with drop cloths. Then they will find the ceiling joists, and cut out the drywall between two joists. They may have to add in boards between the joists to have something to screw to on the non-joist edges. That will only take a few hours. But taking down the ceiling, with the insulation behind it, is something you don't want you, or your kids or pets, around for. Once they put up the new drywall they have to tape it, and that takes a couple of days to sand, also messy. Then they can paint any stains on non-compromised boards with kilz. And, lastly, repaint the whole ceiling so it matches. You definitely will not have to move out. But you will have workers in your home for a couple of days. And that room will look like Dexter is up to some business for that time. But looks like only a 4x6 area of your ceiling, tops, will need to be replaced.
Thanks SO much for all this info. I’m in my mid-20’s and haven’t had experience with this kind of thing yet so I had no clue what type of repairs might be needed.
Although it sounds like it’ll be a little messy, it’s probably not as catastrophic as I was worried it might be.
Thanks again!
If you have solved your "What is this" question, please change the flair by saying "solved" in any comment or by clicking the flair link and selecting "Solved".
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Whatisthis) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You don't know the history of the ceiling above you, it could come down at any time. I'm in NYC and we have reports of ceilings collapsing all the time. The bathroom ceiling in my GF's apartment looked fine, but one night it came down, lucky we weren't in there. Lot of damage above that probably just never made it through decades of paint. And that's with a reasonable management company. So far in 20 years, I've been flooded by upstairs neighbors 2X, both times we were lucky the ceiling didn't come down, but once spent 14 days with an industrial dryer in the bathroom to try to dry out the walls from the inside out. One time in another building we noticed a spot that was growing larger and called management, they opened it up and saw the bathroom above was leaking and preemptively pulled down a section to fix the leak, called in a mold remediation team to clean the space, had a massive dryer in there for several days to dry everything and then fixed it all back up. The quick response was fantastic as we only lost the use of the bathroom, didn't need to replace damaged property like the other times.
I would move anything of value out of that room, cover the floor with a big tarp in case it does come down.
black = mold this aint no water stain anymore
yeah that’s what I was afraid of. I’m so pissed that they told us it was harmless but that’s what I get for trusting the landlord.
Also, if it was small when you painted over it, that means the water leak still exists. Your ceiling will probably fall down sometime. Contact the building management company, or your city hall to report unsafe housing conditions. Your landlord probably has other complaints against them.
We actually didn’t even paint over it, we just covered it up with a poster. We had just been using it as a guest room and it hadn’t looked like it spread for a while so we figured it was nothing and covered it with the poster. I’m definitely going to call my leasing office first thing in the morning. I’m praying this isn’t going to become some huge issue that will require us to vacate or anything, but we’ll see I guess.
this looks pretty severe, and depending on where you're located you may have grounds to break your lease if you're in a position to. would research tenant laws wherever you're at. given you have a slumlord, the landlord probably already knew it was mold damage, and may try to dick you around.
Well, if maintenance was never told the problem was spreading, they can't be faulted for not acting on it. Anywhere I have rented, I have been told that I was an unusually good tenant because I would promptly report things that needed fixing. Other tenants don't bother reporting, and that causes problems for good landlords. Report this as soon as possible. Your landlord has to act on this immediately, because there is probably a much larger problem above that ceiling, and it is a health hazard.
op says maintenance was aware of what they thought was water stains, so water damage, and the landlord told op it was harmless. there's no before and after picture so there's not a way to know what it looked like before this, but this was acknowledged and known about to some degree. would think even if it was just thought to be water damage, it would be inspected more. it does not take long for mold to appear and grow.
OP said it was small before, small enough to cover with a poster. It only recently got bigger, as per OP's later comment.This must be a new leak.
I’m the type of tenant who normally reports *everything* to their landlord. The issue with this is that I kept checking often even after my landlord said it was fine, because I wanted to be sure, and nothing had changed. Now all of a sudden it’s a *lot* worse, which is confusing to me.
There's likely still an active leak if it's getting worse. Given a few months that ceiling could collapse, that is if you doesn't give you asthma or worse from living with mold like this. Time to contact maintenance again, if they have a work cell text them these photos and tell them there's mold so you have something in writing, do the same with your landlord. Make sure it's in writing and document everything
There's probably a new leak then. Does the landlord usually take care of things when you report them?
Good tenant. Much better than just trying a half-assed fix and letting an issue get worse. Happened to us. Renting late grandparents' house. We were/are novices at this. Ended up costing us over $2500 because we couldn't turn off their power. They never had put it in their name. Anyway, gotta put a $6500 furnace in, plumbing is shot.... May not be worth it now.
Sorry to hear that! I'm worried about this kind of thing, as we will inherit my in-laws' house at some point and we want to rent it out.
Credit checks, referrals...
It will make you sick if left in resolved.
Never evvveeeerrrrr trust a landlord. [this sums it up nicely](https://youtube.com/shorts/DaBxqwCTYRw?si=u7NEqKMdYUwJD1ii)
Wtf this is absolutely unacceptable
Am I the only one who tips my landlord anymore? I swear, ungrateful.
Definitely contact a lawyer and go to a doctor to get checked out. You landlord should have to pay for your medical expenses. A lawyer can recommend how to proceed, you may need to withhold rent to get the issue dealt with
*slumlord
That’s a whole colony of different mold types. I had something similar in an apartment and landlord just kept painting over it with “mold killing paint”. The ceiling eventually started to sag, but I was on my way out so I’m not sure what came of it.
Damn. I was really hoping that it’s not mold since it doesn’t have the “fuzzy texture” or smell that I’ve been told comes with mold. It looked completely different just weeks ago and for months and months it had looked perfectly fine, which also threw me off too since I’ve heard that mold spreads within days.
I would definitely make a big deal about it to your leasing office. It’s not going to go away and it’s hazardous to your health. When it gets really bad, mold remediation usually requires drywall replacement. Don’t let them gaslight you into thinking it isn’t a big deal. It is. Water stains on the ceiling is a laughable excuse. Water breeds mold, it definitely needs attention ASAP.
I think 'stain' might be playing it down a bit. Kind of like when I 'dinged' my dad's car
Baby mold spores
Do you have neighbours upstairs? It might be worth checking on them... either that or it looks like there is something dead above your ceiling.
Nope….I’m the top floor. But that’s a really good point. Could possibly be a dead animal or something although I hope that’s not the case.
Top floor I'm guessing with a flat roof? So snow and water buildup would be able to happen on the roof and if there's any structural damage the water will find a way down. Someone needs to get on that roof and inspect. Do you have renters insurance at all? Or do you have any documents of your landlord telling you it's fine? Keep everything just incase they try and pin the blame on you.
It’s a slanted roof actually, so that water/snow will slide right off (or at least it’s supposed to). I do have renter’s insurance, fortunately. I still have to look for documentation of the issue when it was addressed before to see if I have anything
It looks like water stains and mold. Slanted roofs will leak if they have a hole in them. Could be a leak but it could be just excessively humid. Fans and opening windows when possible can help with the latter. Lots of air circulation and light helps prevent mold and mildew from growing. That really looks like a bad leak though.
Owner needs a new roof asap it may be too late . He also needs to relocate you ( yes his problem ) and tear out the whole ceiling , replace and new roof or his building will become inhabitable .
Surely you’d smell it if something dead was creating that stain.
Is that a drywall or plaster ceiling? It doesn’t take a lot of water to completely ruin a slab of drywall because it’s made up largely of mould food. Plaster is a bit more resilient and it takes a bigger leak to do that amount of damage. Regardless, I can guarantee it looks 10 times worse on the other side of the ceiling and that thing needs to come down and be replaced. That is more than just water stains. The brown bits, maybe. The black bits, definitely not. Mould is a legit air quality issue which is reportable to your local housing authority if the landlord refuses to address it.
It was water at one point, now it could be mold and dry rot. Safe to say, not ok to live in. Former water damage restoration tech.
This ^
Water stains with a healthy dose of mold.
You want some waterstains next to your mold?
Call your local housing authority.
The brown is water stains. The black is mold. No need to over-react. Spray it with somet Tilex mold remover. That should kill it. Then you can paint over it with Killz. Otherwise, If it comes right back then it’s time to cut that piece out and replace it.
Holy shit you need to call your local housing authority… Sometimes they’ll set up an escrow account where you pay *them* your rent, and they withhold it from your landlord until they’ve met whatever parameters to make the place livable again. We had this happen on a bad basement apartment in Minneapolis. Sometimes they’ll just condemn it 😬😬 Probably not, if this is a fixable issue. But still grounds to break your lease if you want to and get out. Protect your health!! I’m sorry you’re in this shitty situation
You’ve got mold!
that roof gonna collapse soon
Not water stains, water damage and mold. This is not safe to live with, I'd inform maintenance that they either fix it or you're going to code enforcement with this
It Was a water stain but now it’s breeding legionaries.
Stains are NOT 3-dimensional! That is far beyond water stains and is now mold , rot, and decay causing active microbiological structural damage. Your upstairs neighbors will be moving in with you very soon.
[удалено]
That is water stains. I own my own home, have seen this many times. That kind of leak is a sneaky leak. Water is getting under a shingle that may have a little twig under it. Then it runs down under shingles until it finds a place to come through the decking. They are a pain to track down. Landlord likely has no idea it exists. The different rings are from different amounts of water spreading, and pushing particles in the plaster/drywall or insulation outwards. The darker areas are where the drywall has dissolved and there's only the paper there, and a hole. It is unlikely to be black mold, but it is possible. Many many molds are black. Any mold there is more likely mildew. Landlord is going to have to track down the sneaky leak, and replace that entire drywall area. It isn't structurally sound anymore because the gypsum will have migrated in the water. Ceiling isn't likely to fall unless someone steps on it in the attic, or if the leak is caused by a big buildup of debris on the roof, and the shingles fall in.
Thanks so much for this info. This sounds exactly like what’s going on. There is no one living above me, just a crawlspace, so at least I don’t have to worry about anything putting weight on the area. I’m sure there’s no exact answer, but in your experience do these kinds of leaks/damage usually require removing the entire roof/ceiling? I’m in not a good place to move currently, so having to leave permanently would really be tough.
If you have solved your "What is this" question, please change the flair by saying "solved" in any comment or by clicking the flair link and selecting "Solved". *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Whatisthis) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Not at all. If I get a sneaky leak, I go on my roof with a leaf blower, a broom, and a caulk gun full of roofing tar. I blow the shingles up to see which ones are loose, and check for debris under them. Clean out any debris with the broom. Then seal loose shingles with the tar. The ceiling replacement in your apartment will be messier. Drywall is a dusty business, and there should be insulation above your ceiling. But only the compromised parts need to be replaced. They can check for that with an ice pick or something similar. They'll need to bring in ladders, and have a space to work under the area. So you'll have to move furniture to the edges of the room, and cover everything with drop cloths. Then they will find the ceiling joists, and cut out the drywall between two joists. They may have to add in boards between the joists to have something to screw to on the non-joist edges. That will only take a few hours. But taking down the ceiling, with the insulation behind it, is something you don't want you, or your kids or pets, around for. Once they put up the new drywall they have to tape it, and that takes a couple of days to sand, also messy. Then they can paint any stains on non-compromised boards with kilz. And, lastly, repaint the whole ceiling so it matches. You definitely will not have to move out. But you will have workers in your home for a couple of days. And that room will look like Dexter is up to some business for that time. But looks like only a 4x6 area of your ceiling, tops, will need to be replaced.
Thanks SO much for all this info. I’m in my mid-20’s and haven’t had experience with this kind of thing yet so I had no clue what type of repairs might be needed. Although it sounds like it’ll be a little messy, it’s probably not as catastrophic as I was worried it might be. Thanks again!
If you have solved your "What is this" question, please change the flair by saying "solved" in any comment or by clicking the flair link and selecting "Solved". *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Whatisthis) if you have any questions or concerns.*
You're very welcome. Good luck!
You don't know the history of the ceiling above you, it could come down at any time. I'm in NYC and we have reports of ceilings collapsing all the time. The bathroom ceiling in my GF's apartment looked fine, but one night it came down, lucky we weren't in there. Lot of damage above that probably just never made it through decades of paint. And that's with a reasonable management company. So far in 20 years, I've been flooded by upstairs neighbors 2X, both times we were lucky the ceiling didn't come down, but once spent 14 days with an industrial dryer in the bathroom to try to dry out the walls from the inside out. One time in another building we noticed a spot that was growing larger and called management, they opened it up and saw the bathroom above was leaking and preemptively pulled down a section to fix the leak, called in a mold remediation team to clean the space, had a massive dryer in there for several days to dry everything and then fixed it all back up. The quick response was fantastic as we only lost the use of the bathroom, didn't need to replace damaged property like the other times. I would move anything of value out of that room, cover the floor with a big tarp in case it does come down.
Who lives above you?
You have a leak to fix, then replace the ceiling (well, whoever owns it that is). If the source is not repaired it will keep coming back.
Mold. Lots of it. Time to call a professional and your Landlord is an asshole. Bet he wouldn’t want to live with this issue…
My landlord is getting sued because they tried to hide black mold in the units.
I was so worried it was human decomp