About 5 years ago I noticed the paint chipping on the ceiling around the chimney that vent my furnace and water heater so I hired a guy to replace the flashing around the chimney.
Since then I've noticed further damage and paint peeling in the same area, so I went up in the attic and monitored the roof during 2 rain storms. I observed no water leaks and the chimney, sheathing, and tar paper around the chimney were bone dry.
I also looked for leaks along any of the sheathing and observed no leaks.
I'm very stumped as to what is happening.
Some background information on the house:
-Built 1930
-No insulation around the brick chimney
-Chimney liner is original as far as I know
-Area below the damaged ceiling is a stove with no range hood
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Best Answer
As much as you may want to avoid it, the best way to find the source of the water leak is to open up the ceiling and trace the path back to the source. Water can run a long way across ceilings, joists, roofs, etc. So if the non-destructive investigations didn't reveal anything, it's time to do some investigative demolition. You'll also want to leave it open until you see the leak happen again and then wait until the fix it tested before closing it back up. The only positive in this is that you really should remove and replace the moldy parts of the wall anyway, so this is positive motivation to fix it right.