# Help! Chinese Water Torture.... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 18, 2009, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-chinese-water-torture/489843 "2009-03-18T03:51:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ashenRiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/65b543/32.png) [@ashenRiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashenRiot)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2009, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-chinese-water-torture/489843/1 "2009-03-18T03:51:59Z")
in my living room. drip… drip… drip… have I done all I can for now? I have a flat roofed addition on the back of my house. It drizzled today, for the first time in months, for about 2 hours. I was so happy that I wouldn’t have to water the plants that I think I might have done a little dance. Apparently I pissed off the gods though, because about 2 hours after that I noticed it was raining inside my living room!! :smack: I quickly figured out that it was the fan and shut it off, which consists of pushing a button on the remote, no wall switch. I unplugged everything that shares that circuit and put a bucket under the fan. It’s continued with a steady drip every 3-4 seconds. There are no water stains anywhere on the ceiling, including around the fan. If you didn’t see/hear the drip, you wouldn’t even know there was a problem. From looking at google maps, I know there is a dip in the section of roof over the fan so I suspect (fingers crossed, please please please…) that the leak is right there and the ceiling will be fine. Can I get that lucky? I have called the roofers who re-did my pitched roof after Hurricane Wilma (I think) in '06, and left them a voicemail and will call again tomorrow morning. They only painted the flat roof in '06 and I think they came by to inspect it, the pitched roof, not necessarily the flat roof, last year as a courtesy since I’m under warranty for 5 years. Is there anything else I can or should do right now? I’d rather not have to go trudging outside in the dark to shut off the breaker but I will if enough Dopers think it’s necessary. I don’t have a ladder and I’m sure there’s nothing I can do on the roof except make it worse. Tomorrow morning, I will shut off the breaker and take apart the fan’s light fixture cover thingy to get the water out of there. I can’t think of anything else to do besides stress… what did I miss? Mods, if this is in the wrong forum, please accept my apology and redirect… thanks… ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2009, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-chinese-water-torture/489843/2 "2009-03-18T20:45:49Z")
How’s it going? Do you have a tarp you could put over that section of roof in case you are right that that’s where the leak is?