Ceiling Cracks

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Soparklion

Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2008
Messages
8
Reaction score
0
I just purchased a home that was built in the 1940s. There are multiple areas with cracks in the ceiling that seem to indicate that it was finished with drywall boards ~16 x 48" and the joints were not taped. No plaster covering either, simply jointed with drywall compound without tape.

I'm considering covering it all with 3/8" drywall, but I really don't want to remove the crown molding...
I despise popcorn ceilings.
If I do drywall it all, can I use liquid nails to hold the new drywall in place? Then I wouldn't have to cover nail holes...

All thoughts appreciated.
 
I’m not a fan of 3/8 drywall for skinning over like that. You will still have all the seems to tape, so screw holes won’t add any significant amount of work. Liquid nails would hold it maybe but you are going to have to hold the sheet up there until it sets up and that’s going to be a long process. I just put half inch up to cover about 650 sq ft of ceiling and it’s a big job. In two rooms I went right over the existing plaster and found all the joists to attach the sheets to. In the one room the ceiling had many bad places and was all out of flat so I shimmed and striped it down to be flat. Attaching all the strips into joists.

Without knowing what condition yours is without seeing a photo. I would suggest the simplest and most cost effective would be to mesh tape all those seems and then skim the whole ceiling.
 
Glue might hold the drywall up, but you would be hoping the back paper is going to hold to the center. Doubtful at best. Not sure how you would finish to the molding and what that would look like.
 
I would definitely not go with only glue - it would be very difficult to hold in place while setting and also would probably give way with time. Cover with 1/2" "sag-resistant" drywall made for ceilings, screwed in place with long-enough screws, using extra screws. Screw depressions are not hard to fill, just skim over, and repeat with more coats a few times after the mud dries - and many of the screws are covered in the taping process. You can rent a lift or construct a T-brace to hold up the sheet while fastening (with help). For help on taping and finishing, see http://www.drywallinfo.com/
 
Last edited:
OP,
In similar situations I've used 36" wide self-adhesive fiber glass matting on whole rooms. It's just like the tape but wide. Naturally, there is a lot of spackling involved but it does give an excellent result. Another possibility is to install a paintable wall covering on the ceiling. Brewster Anagypt RD5000 looks promising.
FWIW
YMMV
 
Back
Top