Southwest is the hilliest part of Portland. Homes sit on steep grades through Hillsdale, Burlingame, Bridlemile, and the West Hills, down in ravines off Multnomah Village, and up against wooded slopes toward Garden Home. Living on a slope is hard on walls and ceilings because of where the water goes.
On a sloped lot, water gets in at the low corner of a basement, at the flashing on a hillside roof, or anywhere the ground drains toward the house instead of away from it. During Portland's wet season, the leaks we see on Southwest ceilings and walls come from the slope as often as from the plumbing. The stain often shows up a room or a floor away from where the water got in. A lot of our drywall repair in Southwest Portland starts as a water stain spreading across a ceiling, or a soft spot in the drywall of a daylight basement, which is a basement with at least one wall above ground. We come in after the leak is fixed and everything is dry. We cut out the wet drywall, hang new board, and finish it until the room looks like one surface again. If the leak is still active, we will tell you to get the roof or plumbing fixed first, because new drywall over a live leak means paying for the same repair twice.