Brown patch on living room ceiling

[tej]

Hi

In my semi detached house i have for about a year got a brown patch on the ceiling which is getting worse

There are no pipes there as it is happening on the ceiling part which is part of the outside wall as the house next door sits a bit back so part of our living room has a outside wall i.e. the cold wall

Im not sure what it could be.I know there is a wardrobe above it which has an issue of mould due to no air going into the cupboard and is part of the outside wall.

The wall is fine but just the ceiling.

Not sure what it could be?

Any suggestions?

 

[Alastairreid]

Possibly ingress from the external wall.

Better posting a pic.

 

[tej]

Cheers will do hopefully that will help

 

[JohnD]

you really ought to take the upstairs floor up and have a look.

If there is a disused water pipe, or a radiator pipe, leaking, you can send me £1.

 

[tej]

Definitely no pipes

 

[Stevos]

If it's not water based, perhaps it's some previous coating / treatment / spillage seeping into / through the ceiling paint.

I seem to recall once seeing some kind of bitumen / tar type product causing delayed stains which got worse as it migrated.

 

[JohnD]

Definitely no pipes

What did you find when you looked under the upstairs floor?

 

[tony1851]

A brown patch on a ceiling usually indicates water from somewhere, particularly if it's getting bigger.

 

[conny]

If there is definitely no sign of water or damp ingress you may assume it is old stuff of something bleeding through. Painting over it may, just may, hide it for a while but it will bleed through again eventually. I have painted over water stains, (and knots resin in wood), with aluminium silver paint. Cover an area larger than the original stain and this will prevent bleed through. Finish off with two good coats of a quality emulsion.

 

[tej]

Hi guys i have attached a picture of the mark. It seems to be caused by the wardrobe upstairs which does not get ventilated properly hence it gets a bit dampy in there. I think it is coming down due to that.

But how can i resolve the issue of getting the wardrobe ventilated so i can prevent this from happening?