Do you have an older home with galvanized steel or copper distribution pipes in an attic overhead?Have you had any ceiling or air-conditioning repairs done lately? Then you might want to check a couple of things. Make sure that you didn't end up with bare pipe exposed, either because the insulated wrap has deteriorated or been stripped off, or because it had been buried beneath blown-in or batt insulation that is no longer there. If you live where it freezes, bare pipes can mean burst pipes, and that can cause a major pain and cost big money. Galvanized pipe has a useful life of approximately 20 to 30 years. Internal corrosion or deterioration is not visible in piping and is difficult to detect. You can find a humorous treatment of a serious subject, along with some suggestions on what to do, in The Berkeley Daily Planet.
