Help fixing a leak in laundry ceiling
 

For a few years now, whenever we have a heavy rain with a lot of wind, we get water leaking from our laundry room ceiling. In January I had Batterbee Roofing (the original roofer) over to have a look and while it wasn't obvious what might have caused it, they found and fixed a few areas around various vent pipes above the general vicinity of the laundry room that might have been responsible if they weren't 100% tightly sealed. Flash forward to earlier this week when we had very heavy, windy thunderstorms overnight. In the morning we had water on the laundry room floor again. So, it seems we didn't find the real cause back in January.

I climbed up in the attic space over the garage with a strong flashlight this morning to have a look. While I didn't see anything obvious like a puddle or water stains, I did see a duct of some sort that is sitting right over the laundry room ceiling. I am not sure, but I think it might be the vent for the water heater in the garage (although we don't actually have a water heater there, we have one of those on-demand Rinnai heaters in a different location). Anyway the duct in question travels a very long way from the point of origin all the way across the attic space and up towards the roof. The first picture attached shows that. The duct was apparently so long that it had to be split into two pieces and those two pieces are joined together and taped up right above the laundry room ceiling. The second picture attached shows that.

My theory is that when there is a heavy windy rainstorm, water enters the duct at the top and flows down the duct to this junction and sits there (because its a low point) and leaks through onto the ceiling below.

So anyway, my question is, who would I get to fix this? Before I found this I put a call into Batterbee to have them come back to have another look, but if this is the explanation, I don't think a roofer is what I need. Thoughts? Many thanks.
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bc

My first call would be to Mike Scott Plumbing 352-748-9111. Based on your post, this doesn't appear to be a job you relish taking on yourself. If in fact this vent stack was for a hot water heater, a plumber should be able to verify this, and suggest a fix or a remedy.

That being said, since the duct looks flexible, it appears to be for your dryer vent.

In the past, back in MA, I needed a vent for a stove hood. A roofer put in the vent on the roof but the person who installed the hood put in the duct work.

One time I had and electrician who put in a bath room vent and did all the work, vent in eave and duct, himself.

But in general my guess is that the roofer wouldn't put in the duct work. But when you talk to the roofer tell them what you have found... it's probably something they have seen before and what you will have to do to get it fixed. The vent on the roof should have something on to prevent rain from being blown in though.

But if water is collecting in the duct then just sealing it up would not fix the problem. It the duct was fully sealed it would eventually just fill up with water. If that duct was being used that could be a bigger problem than just a leak. Even if the duct wasn't being used a duct full of water would eventually cause an issue.

If you are using a tankless HW Heater why was the vent for your old HW Heater left behind? I would check to make sure this line is truly abandoned. If it is abandoned I would think any handy person should be able to remedy the situation.

++ Random thought: Is flexible duct work approved for HW Heater venting?

My guess is that water is getting in the duck through the roof vent. I had this problem and we changed the angle of the vents exhaust on the roof and that worked.

If the vent is not use let it drain into a dish pan at the point it leaks until you figure out the answer.

That looks like dryer vent duct. IMHO, if you can and are comfortable going on the roof, then look very carefully to see if the vent is allowing the rain in, if so you may need a new exterior vent. If this goes straight up, I would guess a cap came off sometime in the past.
Hope this helps.

This duct goes way up towards the back of the house and terminates a foot or so short of the area where the 3 round vent covers (if thats what you call them) are on the roof. The end of it is just hanging there in the air, not attached to anything. I'm no expert, but I really don't think that's how a dryer vent would work ...
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bc

No idea, we're not the original owners and the tankless hot water heater was here when we bought the house. I am guessing the duct is for the hot water heater because that's approximately where the other end of the duct appears to be headed. The dryer is just about right underneath where the two sections of duct are joined which is in the other direction from where the duct appears to be heading. That, plus my suspicion that a dryer vent duct wouldn't be left just hanging in space a foot below a roof vent ...
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bc

If your theory is correct, then it sounds like you need a roofer to fix a leak in the roof vent above the end of the duct at the other end of the house. The roofer you hired was at the wrong end of the house.

Run your dryer. Go up in the attic after a little while. You should feel additional heat, and the movement of the air through the vent. And you're right...a dryer vent shouldn't end in the attic, but you have no idea what the previous owner did.

As a picture is worth 1,000 words, in particular, the first attached picture is of the dryer vent. The duct I am talking about comes nowhere near this area. It hangs a foot or so below the circular vents in the second picture.
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bc

... and just for completeness, here's a view of the end of the duct that used to vent the hot water heater. It is interesting to note there's light coming through it. That would tend to support my suspicion that this is the leaking duct in question as it goes all the way up towards those circular vents and there is a lot of light up there.

So it appears that this is a roof issue after all and the previous repairs were in the wrong area. Is that the general consensus?
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bc

Yes. If your theory is correct, you need to get a roofer to fix a leak in one of those 4 roof vents. The duct has nothing to do with the problem. You could just remove the duct entirely, but you will still have a roof leak. The water would just show up somewhere else.

Exactly. And those "circular vents" are roof vents (your roof does not have a ridge vent system).

The vent in the ceiling where you see light shining through needs to be capped. It's a potential fire hazard. That is an easy fix.

I agree that if I removed the duct, the water would show up elsewhere, but I wouldn't go so far as saying the duct has nothing to do with the problem. I think it is whats ferrying the water to my laundry room ceiling. But that's the engineer in me being picayune, please forgive me for that ;-)
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bc