The Reappearing Crack

James Boyd

Someone in the family (oh no) has a ceiling crack in a hallway that comes back sometime after repair. Obvious movement or flexing at that point of the house.

Anyone have luck with the flexible patching materials / compounds?

James

linkster01

I have have always fixed these kind of reacuring cracks with some paintable silicone caulking. Works every time.

mdshunk

Where's the crack at, specifically? Some of these cracks at the top of a wall near the center of a home are due to seasonal truss uplift. Short of re-engineering the home, you will not "fix" the crack by any means. Some crown or cove mold is the one popular solution.

Mike Finley

Drywall is usually stronger than a seam, so you can fix something like this permanently by cutting out a big square and re-mudding. This comes back to when you are installing the sheetrock and thinking about where seams butting are a good idea and where they are not (such as not installing so you have a vertical seam at the corner of a door or window) Of course this now is becoming much more involved than just fixing a crack.

Big Dave

Just tell em not to look up.

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maj

That was my first thought.
You can fix it by getting in the attic and blocking the top plate to hold the ceiling sheetrock down.

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James Boyd

There's no way this is going to be easy for me. It's Murphy's law of doing work for relatives.

I'll try the paintable silicone, but hard to imagine getting it smooth. It's right across the hallway ceiling, maybe 40" wide.

I think it's a seasonal truss movement as stated.

Thanks for the thoughts.

James