Back to the bathroom
One of the distinguishing “features” installed by the previous owner was a wood-panelled ceiling.
Perhaps not quite to everyone’s taste… and definitely not to ours…!
Unsurprisingly, this wasn’t particularly well attached and soon parted company with a little persuasion to reveal that it had simply been put up underneath the original plasterboard ceiling, which to say the least was in a bit of a poor state.
Whoever fitted the panelling had also left just enough of a gap in the corners so that steam from baths/showers etc had been able to get through the panels, resulting in this lovely mess on the plasterboard.
We’ll deal with this in due course, but as the house has been empty for a while the boards have had enough time to completely dry out – suggesting that the problem was limited to trapped moisture from the bathroom below rather than anything more substantial in terms of leaks from above.