Watching the drips for three days

The slow drip started on a Tuesday

It began in the corner of the ceiling in the spare room. At first, I thought it was just condensation because the humidity was so high last week. I wiped it off with a towel, but by the next morning, there was a small, dark circle growing on the wallpaper. It wasn’t dripping fast, just a slow, rhythmic annoyance. My neighbor upstairs is an older guy who rarely answers the door, so I just stood there for a few minutes staring at his door, wondering if I should knock again. I didn’t. Instead, I called the management office to see if they had any records of the building’s last major waterproofing work. They told me the building is over fifteen years old and doesn’t really have a ‘building management company’ per se, just a part-time janitor who handles trash.

Trying to figure out the source

I ended up climbing up to the roof to look at the floor. The EIFS (drivit) finish on the outside looks a bit cracked in places, and there were some spots where the sealant around the windows looked like dry, crumbling rubber. I have no idea how much it costs to fix this properly. I saw a flyer for a local repair service in Cheonan that mentioned doing exterior silicone work, but I was worried about calling them and getting quoted some massive price for something that might just be a small crack. It’s funny how you suddenly become an expert on building materials when you’re afraid your ceiling is going to cave in. I spent three hours watching YouTube videos about roof waterproofing methods, but none of them seemed to cover what to do when you’re not the one who owns the roof.

The cost of doing nothing

I asked a friend who knows about building maintenance, and he said if I don’t catch the leak now, the wall will start to mold, and then it becomes a huge nightmare. He mentioned that if it is a problem with the building structure itself, splitting the cost with the building association is the standard way to handle it, but we don’t even have a functioning association. Everything feels so informal. The idea of getting into a legal dispute over a leaking ceiling makes me tired just thinking about it. I’d rather just pay for a quick patch job myself if it doesn’t cost more than a few hundred dollars, but I don’t even know if that’s possible. I’ve reached out to a repair guy who works in the area, but he said he’s booked for the next four days.

Waiting for a call back

Right now, I have a plastic bucket sitting under the drip. It’s been three days, and the bucket is barely a quarter full. It’s such a small amount of water, yet it’s enough to keep me awake at night wondering what’s happening inside the wall. Is it the exterior silicone? Is it the pipes? I really don’t know. I’ve stopped looking at the ceiling every five minutes, but the sound of the drip hitting the plastic is starting to get under my skin. I keep checking my phone to see if the repair guy messaged me back, but nothing yet. It’s a strange feeling, being responsible for a space that I feel completely powerless to fix.