Crack in Ceiling Along Perimeter Wall (Photos Attached)

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motlehh

motlehh

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Hi there,

My fiance and I are new homeowners, and we're still learning a lot. Just recently, I noticed a crack that's about 16 inches long running along one of our home's perimeter walls, near the corner of our dining room. Our roof is only a few years old, so I was at first doubtful that it's caused by a leak...but I'm not sure. We're planning on going up into the attic to check for moisture the next time it rains here in Indiana.

In the meantime, any input would be appreciated. Is it possible that this is just a settling crack? Our house was built in the early 80s. If we don't find any moisture in the attic, should we just try to patch the crack? I just want to get this taken care of before it turns into a more serious problem. I get so paranoid about every little imperfection we find in our home. :help:

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Since you're going into your attic to check it out, I assume this is a one story house or at least one story in the dinning room area. Do you have roof rafters and joists or roof trusses in this area? It looks like truss uplift to me or the drywall tape wasn't bedded very well into the mud for the tape coat.

http://www.carsondunlop.com/resources/articles/truss-uplift/
 
Thanks for the response! We live in a split-level home and yes, this is on the upper floor; sorry, I should have mentioned that in my original post.

I had actually read about truss lift last night and wondered if this might be the case here. To be honest, I have never been in our attic so I'm not sure whether we have trusses or rafters. I guess I'll have to check.

Edit: Now that I think about it, the ceiling crack runs parallel to one of our home's perimeter walls. Wouldn't the cracks be showing up closer to the center of our home if truss lift was the culprit?
 
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The tough part about fixing this is your textured ceiling. You may be better off applying a very thin bead of caulking in the crack. If you pulled the old tape off and retaped the corner joint getting the texture right will be very difficult.
 
You would not find up lift on an exterior wall. You want to move some insulation around and see of you can see from above, water, or broken truss or ceiling joist. Take a five foot straight edge up there and lay it across some ceiling joists to see if one is way higher or lower that the rest.
 
Will do. If there is an issue with sagging or cracking joists, what kind of professional should we call? Should we contact a structural engineer first and then find a contractor or carpenter to do the work?
 
Have to agree with Sparky on this one.
Got a really mess there.
Only quick easy way is to caulk with latex caulking and repaint.
Any textured ceiling is going to be a nightmare to repair.
If I was looking at houses to buy I would have walked in and walked right back out when I saw that texture on the ceiling.
Near imposable to clean or repair without a whole lot of extra work.
 
Haha...I have never been a fan of the textured ceiling, but I can live with them. I'm not overly concerned about the appearance of the crack; it's in a corner of the house where we don't spend much time and isn't super obvious. My only concern is making sure it's not a structural problem!
 
It does look strange, it will be interesting to see what you find up there. Even if it is dry up there look for old water stains.
I have seen a house with a roof leak and the vapour bearer held all the water until the drywall could not hold the weight and the ceiling and water all came down in one room.
 
Looks to me like a sloppy drywall job and the sheet came up short and they pushed some mud in the corner and taped it. Looks like the wall might have been painted blue at some point up in the crack. The texture job doesn’t look original to a 1980’s house to me. It looks like a DIY job by maybe a flipper or just the homeowner fixing it up to sell. I’m almost wondering if maybe you didn’t get a fresh layer of drywall up there. That could be confirmed by looking under a ceiling fixture fan or light or by probing up in the crack with a paperclip to see what’s behind and how far back it is.

That break line about a half inch from the wall is too straight to just have happened that’s the edge of a sheet I think and then the space over to the wall is lumpy like it was filled in.

A little caulking and maybe a little mud and some paint is the fix I think. If the corner isn’t taped the crack will come back most likely.
 
Unlikely that the crack was caused by a leak as any leak of sufficient volume to cause a crack will leave a stain. You can try pushing some joint compound into the crack then wiping it down with a damp sponge before it dries. Sometimes the compound is close enough to the color of the ceiling so as to be almost invisible without repainting. You could do the same with caulk if you prefer.
 
That texture was fairly common in homes of the era when I lived in the DC suburbs back in the early 1990's. Better than popcorn, but that is the soft bigotry of low expectations. Even a bad drywall job is better than popcorn because at least you don't have to scrape off popcorn to fix a bad drywall job and a "smooth" ceiling. Here in NC homes of the era would have popcorn. Out west and in Florida you'd see a knock-down orange peel texture on the walls and ceiling.
 
bud16415 said:
Looks to me like a sloppy drywall job and the sheet came up short and they pushed some mud in the corner and taped it. Looks like the wall might have been painted blue at some point up in the crack. The texture job doesn’t look original to a 1980’s house to me. It looks like a DIY job by maybe a flipper or just the homeowner fixing it up to sell. I’m almost wondering if maybe you didn’t get a fresh layer of drywall up there. That could be confirmed by looking under a ceiling fixture fan or light or by probing up in the crack with a paperclip to see what’s behind and how far back it is.

That break line about a half inch from the wall is too straight to just have happened that’s the edge of a sheet I think and then the space over to the wall is lumpy like it was filled in.

A little caulking and maybe a little mud and some paint is the fix I think. If the corner isn’t taped the crack will come back most likely.
Click to expand...

What do you mean about not getting a fresh layer of drywall?

There are a couple of other random areas in our home where the edges of the ceiling look "lumpy" like that too, but no other cracks (yet). The lumpy area beside the crack does feel kind of crumbly, like if I tried to poke it or scrape it, it might fall apart. The other side of the crack feels sturdy, though, like it could be a sheet.

Assuming we don't find any moisture up in the attic (it's a process to get up there, so we won't be checking until this weekend after our house guests leave), it sounds like this is a relatively simple repair we could do ourselves (though we've been fooled in that regard before haha). How would we go about taping the corner? Would this be something worth calling a drywall contractor to come check out?

Thanks for all your help so far, guys.
 
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Sometimes when remodeling it is easier to cover the whole ceiling in a room with new drywall rather than fix whatever you don’t like about the old ceiling. Could be water damage, could be it had popcorn and they didn’t feel like scraping it off. In my house I just did it in several rooms over old plaster and wallpaper rather than repairing the plaster. I don’t know for sure if they did that but it sounds like you are saying what I was thinking as to the sheet wasn’t quite wide enough so they filled the crack in other locations as well. You most likely won’t see too much from above but it’s a worth a trip up just to be sure and see what you might find up there.
 
Gotcha...that does make sense. Is it safe to slap a new layer of drywall over an old ceiling like that? Just curious. We're hoping to vault our ceilings someday and it would be a bummer to have to deal with the popcorn and asbestos if it's still up there.
 
If you do have a second layer and we don’t really know if you do it is safe to do as long as it was done correctly. Most likely would improve the fire rating even.

As to re-taping the corner it could be done but will mess up the texture and one thing leads to the next in home repairs. Go with some caulking that will stretch and then some ceiling paint to match and you will be fine.

This type repair is just cosmetic, but with any new home keep your eyes on everything for a while. If things go bad again then you will need to dig for the problem a bit more.

Most of all don’t worry too much. Just enjoy your new house.
 
Any signs of moisture on the wall below the crack? It may be a subtle stain or a soft spot in the dry wall, or some blistering of paint. It could have been an old leak that was poorly patched.
 
Nah, no signs of moisture from what I can tell.

I've just learned to assume that nothing was done right in this house. Ever since we moved here, we've run into all kinds of shoddy work. The previous owners made a lot of renovations to the house right before they sold it, but we learned pretty quickly that they did them all on the cheap.

Anyway, bud's input does make me feel better. :)
 
The straightness of the crack and the distance from the wall make it look like a bad drywall tape job. The tape wasn't properly set in mud. I find wetting the tape before I bed it helps it bond better to the mud. That said, I have never installed or finished drywall for a living.
 
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