Repairing/refinishing a leaked-on ceiling

The folks that installed my air handler in the attic neglected to cement one elbow-pipe joint in the condensate drain, and it leaked some water that eventually found its way over our dining room.

The Behr latex undercoat and finish-coat paint loosened up from the ceiling, and I've got a small (~5" diameter) spot that sags down from the gypsum board above. The inside surface looks fine. Is there a way to inject some adhesive or something into the void and cement this sag back to the gyp board? I'd hate to strip and refinish a large area just to fix this this small spot.

You want to glue the peeling paint back on? It'll never come out good. It's probably stretched too. I would cut out the bubble/sag and then use some drywall compound to level it out to the existing paint. Sand, prime, sand, paint. You might need to reroll the whole ceiling to make it blend in though.

Jason

If drywall gets soaked, it often loses its strength and can sag or swell. You might end up cutting that piece out and then repainting. Doubt you'd get good results trying to reattach what's there., but you might get by with scraping it off and refinishing as described. You may need to use some stain blocking primer like Kilz or similar.

If the leak was bad cut out the drywall to the joists. Sister up the joists and put in a new piece of drywall. Mud, tape, primer paint. Done.

If the leak was relatively minor do what Jason suggested.

Tom

It was a minor leak. My Drywall God will be out here to look at a job in a couple of weeks, so I'll leave it up to him. Fortunately, it's in the same area he'll be working in, so it wouldn't be too bad to fix "right". The big problem will be matching the texturing, but that's why I pay him the big bucks . It's one of the few trades I hire out, and it's a pleasure to write the check to this guy.