Cracks in wall along the studs in room with vaulted ceiling

Hello all,

I tried to search the forum for a similar crack issue, but it seems like every crack is a little unique. This is my first house 2nd year owned so my knowledge is pretty sparse to cracks/aging of homes. Here is the info:

Cracks showed up at beginning of winter. They are pretty straight so obviously the ends of sheets of drywall

I have no idea if they were taped. I couldn't determine, but in some cases, I would say no.

The "specialist" at homedepot said that an exterior grade drywall that would expand/contract with the season would fix it. Once I cleaned out the cracks, patched them and painted they were like new. Then once it warmed up, the "expanding patch" began to bulge. Once winter came back the following year, they began to crack again.

Key notes about the room:
1. Its above the furnace room in my basement.
2. I live in Michigan
3. The walls with cracks are opposing walls
4. The ceiling is vaulted (not sure if that would be a factor)

My first thoughts were to tape, but I don't want to tape and repaint if I am not at least "mostly confident" it would resolve the issue.

Thoughts?

Thank you in advance.

Welcome to the site.
Any crack repair in drywall should be taped but this looks like a bigger problem.
Do you know if the house was built with the vaulted ceiling or was this changed at some time?
Have you got access to the rest of the attic, I would like to see a photo of the trusses or rafters up there and a photo of where the attic meets the vault.

The one above the corner of the door is fairly common when they seam the drywall right at the edge of the door. You usually try to avoid doing this when laying out the drywall.

Given the cracks go floor to ceiling I'm guessing they hung the drywall vertically so once it cracked it was going to go all the way. Drywall is stronger when laid horizontally and you typically would stagger the joints between the upper and lower sheet. Laid this way the crack would have stopped at the midpoint in the wall. Drywall laid horizontally spans more studs so a bump into it won't flex the entire sheet the way a vertical sheet will.

How old is the place? What exactly is "exterior grade drywall"? I can't say I've heard of this magical material. When you retapped the joint did you use paper or fiberglass mesh tape? In looking at the pictures again it looks like your studs may be 24" on center. If that is the case they should have used 5/8" drywall for more strength. I wonder if that is what the guy at Home Depot was referring too?

Sparky617 said:

The one above the corner of the door is fairly common when they seam the drywall right at the edge of the door. You usually try to avoid doing this when laying out the drywall.

Click to expand...

We can hope this is just a drywall problem. But before we get into easy fixes, lets look at the framing and all the problem.
If this guy installed drywall without tape, why is it only cracking in these places.
Take not of where the cracks are. Center area of 2 walls supporting vaulted ceiling. We don't know if the vault was trusses or hand framed. If it is hand framed it would need collar ties or a ridge beam. If it has a ridge beam it needs support on both ends, so the end that is open to the next room will need a beam or a girder holding it up.
There is a photo of a crack in the ceiling and if that is in line with the rest of the cracks. some major flexing going on.

Sparky617 said:

How old is the place? What exactly is "exterior grade drywall"? I can't say I've heard of this magical material. I wonder if that is what the guy at Home Depot was referring too?

Click to expand...

Just to clarify a few things I think I confused with people:

1. I apologize, I mistyped. It was exterior spackeling, not drywall. It is supposed to expand and contract in the gap. To that note, I did not tape the joint after because I sort of thought it was done once already. I guess I don't really know if it was or not.

2. The house is built in 1978. I am 100% certain it was built this way as it is the same as the rest of the neighborhood.

2.5 My guess is the drywall is not original. I pulled off a switch cover and noticed that there is a second layer of drywall over the existing wall (its about 1/4" thick). If you look in the pictures, you will see a green wall and then a ~6" of wall above it that is white. The white wall is the original layer. The green wall is on top of it (the second layer of dry wall). There is actually trim going around the top that "finishes" the 2nd layer.

3. I attached more photos to help clarify. I think the one that is leading me to this 2nd layer of drywall is the one which shows the crack in the wall ending at the upper molding. If you look at the photo, the crack does not translate up into the white portion of the wall. To me that suggests some sort of issue with how that 2nd layer was attached to the original layer.

4. The ceiling doesn't have collar ties. I didn't take a photo of it yet, but the photo I attached shows how it looks.

Thanks!

If you just applied more spackling in the crack without tape it would just crack again as it did. I would use mesh tape and redo the joint with compound. Caulking would expand and contract more than compound.

I am thinking it is just a drywall problem, but the second layer does leave a question, WHY? Fix it with tape and if it happens again, get excited and find out why.

One has to wonder why some owner along the way covered the existing with another layer. Damaged drywall from removing wall paper? It had paneling and pulling it off damaged the paper?

I like the idea of properly repairing it and hoping for the best.

If some DIY did the second layer of drywall I'd be checking to see if those seams are even sitting over the middle of a stud.
If not it's going to keep cracking.

I'm not convinced that the top layer is drywall. the seams look too square and the crack is way too straight. Where's the tapered edge? If it was filled with compound, how did it break so perfectly clean?
may be fiberboard, masonite, painted paneling. etc.

slownsteady said:

I'm not convinced that the top layer is drywall. the seams look too square and the crack is way too straight. Where's the tapered edge? If it was filled with compound, how did it break so perfectly clean?
may be fiberboard, masonite, painted paneling. etc.

Click to expand...

I'm not surprised the crack is straight. The edge of drywall is straight. Yes it has a taper and the very edge is rounded over but the edge itself is straight. The crack is going to follow the edge of the drywall if there is any kind of movement. If the cracks were caused by major settlement they might not follow the edges of the drywall. I see no evidence in his photos of major settlement damage in the house.

I suspect given the description by the OP on his several posts that this was caused by expansion and contraction with the seasons and the likely lack of drywall tape on the seams. Installing the drywall vertically didn't help as it allowed the crack to follow the seam floor to ceiling. The other challenge in installing drywall vertically is you framing has to be 100% spot on 16 or 24 inches on center for the seams to hit a stud. Since this is a second coat of drywall I'd bet at least some of the edges aren't on a stud. They may have glued it to the existing and not worried about nails or screws but going vertically each 4' wide piece is only spanning 3 or 4 studs, so the entire piece of drywall can flex pretty easily.

If they have two layers and don't land on studs there are laminating screws.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Grabber-10-x-1-1-2-in-Laminating-Screw-5-lb-per-Box-23315/203111661

Neal,
The description at the HD link provided makes it sound like these are typical drywall screws.

"Grabber's drywall screws are used to attach drywall or sheetrock to wooden studs. The sharp point pierces drywall and the sharp bugle head tapers down to prevent the tearing of drywalls paper cover. The spaced threads make driving through the material and wood simple. Comes in various lengths and finishes offering some corrosion protection."

The one pictured does look different that the typical drywall screw. Is it designed to just screw into drywall without hitting the wood stud behind pulling the two pieces of drywall together? I hadn't seen these before, but then again installing double layers of drywall isn't something I typically do.

Sparky617 said:

Neal,
The description at the HD link provided makes it sound like these are typical drywall screws.

"Grabber's drywall screws are used to attach drywall or sheetrock to wooden studs. The sharp point pierces drywall and the sharp bugle head tapers down to prevent the tearing of drywalls paper cover. The spaced threads make driving through the material and wood simple. Comes in various lengths and finishes offering some corrosion protection."

The one pictured does look different that the typical drywall screw. Is it designed to just screw into drywall without hitting the wood stud behind pulling the two pieces of drywall together? I hadn't seen these before, but then again installing double layers of drywall isn't something I typically do.

Click to expand...

I have used them to double drywall a peice of wall, they worked fine, I tryed them to add a decritive design to the ceiling, not so good.

slownsteady said:

I'm not convinced that the top layer is drywall. the seams look too square and the crack is way too straight. Where's the tapered edge? If it was filled with compound, how did it break so perfectly clean?
may be fiberboard, masonite, painted paneling. etc.

Click to expand...

So I got off this project for a little bit, but thought I should let you know the final results. Its good and bad.

Good news, no structural issue....it was wood paneling stapled to the drywall.

Bad news...I have a crap ton of paneling to tear down and repair the surface.