Condensation Problem

mcnameec

I wonder it anyone can give me some advice on the following problem that I have.
I purchased a new Timber Frame house 1 year ago. Last week I notice some wet patches on the ceiling in one of the bedrooms (about 1 foot back from the front of the house). When I went up to the attic and looked under the insulation there was water between the plaster board and the inside of plastic sheet the covers it. The outside of this plastic sheet is dry and so is the insulation.

preytec

just a year old? i'd be on to the builder about that. you may be homebond covered for ten years. however i wouldn't be sure if it's condensation as it may well be a leak in a pipe or water coming in from a opening in a vent or anywhere, the water could travel before it showed itself there, it maybe coming on the top of the plastic and going down in a overlap and just popping out there. get the builder and get him to see whats going on. i probably wouldn't say to him that it's condensation as builders try to blame you the home owner for that. tbh it's them trying to push the blame onto you. but you shouldn't have a condensation problem with a new home anyway.
1 foot from the the front of the house? it could be the wind pushing in water so you'll only get it now and again. a friend of mine had something like that and it was so hard for him to get it fixed coz he couldn't show it unless the wind was just right. so the builder was saying that there was no problem.

Max Moment

As Preytec has already said your first port of call would be the Builder. He should investigate and resolve it.

I too had quite a similar problem to yours and it too took me an age to identify the source. Had the same problem with the Builder as the leak would only appear as Preytec said when the wind was just right. I eventually had to get Homebond involved but they were completely useless. Therefore, I found it best to keep on at the builder until it was solved.

I had to track the leak myself and found it was originating at the Chimney flashing. But it then ran along the breather membrane and dropped through a tiny hole in the breather membrane and on to the insulation. What I found very helpful was to lay some newspaper on top of the insulation in the areas I thought the leak was originating from and check on wet days. This showed up the leak for me.

It is worth noting that the eventhough I found the source of the leak through the breather membrane, the stains on the ceiling appeared a bit away. Water will find the path of least resitance (in this case the joints between the plasterboard sheets). This is where the stain appeared and may explain why the insulation was dry when you lifted it?

Just on the plastic sheet you describe, it sounds like a vapour barrier. Might be way off here, but I'm not sure if a vapour barrier should be placed in this location?