Drywall Cracks

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I just noticed I've got a couple hairline cracks in my drywall where I repaired it a few years back and I also have one in the garage above the entry door that seems to get worse in the winter. Same with my hardwood floors. Is this a result of low humidity?
 
I cut out the crack and filled with Premixed Joint Compound and used mesh tape.
 
Ditch the premix and get some real mud. We have a product called sheetrock 90 which is used in initial plaster coats on drywall because it does not shrink. If you have to repair the same area again, you should try non shrinking plaster.
 
Water can cause ground to swell some, in the winter time.This can make doors stick,cracks appear,even raise a floor,depending on type of soil and where the house was built.
 
Yup I have seen a few nail pops due to the icy blast that keeps revisiting us. The news said this has been a record year for gas consumption so it's definitely the coldest it has been in a while.

When spring rolls around, get out that spackle and paint!
 
Probably just shifting. Ground is drying and contracting vs. seasons when you water.
 
Can you tell if there has been settling? If there has been, (in theory) you can re-level it using the adjustable teleposts which have been fairly normal construction on the Canadian prairies for decades. I don't know how common they are elsewhere. I have a fairly large pipe wrench which I've only used once, for adjusting a "loose" tele-post. I only had to adjust it once.

It isn't easy to tell if there's been settling, but it should be relatively easy, if you have an unfinished basement, using a laser level.

Say you have a beam that runs from one side of the house to the other. You'd check the ends to see if they're level, and then check at various points along the beam. The problem is you don't know how level it was in the first place. About all you can do is assume it was originally level at the ends and the adjustment points and work from there. I assume there'd be more potential for drift if a beam only runs across part of a span, say from a basement wall and ending at a post.

This process might be beyond the skills of the average homeowner and you might need help from an engineer or someone in the construction business.

If you do adjust tele-posts, go very slowly, making only part of a turn every few days, or you could end up with worse cracking, or at least that's what I've been told. And it goes without saying, be sure you're adjusting it in the right direction!

One of our houses had dry wall cracking in the winter. The cracks would close up again come spring. I never figured out what that was about.
 
It's just seasonal shifting. Best not to jack with engineers and foundation people.
 
I, too, would say that its from seasonal changes due to humidity changes, temperature influences, etc.. There might be a small installation "flaw" in the wall: compound problem, lack of fasteners, stud framing problem. It's likely to reappear year after year unless you can correct the root cause.

The only topping type, somewhat permanent repair I found is to use a fiberglass tape topped by a flexible top coat. It used to be available as permanent crack repair kits, but I have not seen them lately. I found it very difficult to use because the product is difficult to level and feather edge. It doesn't sand down very well. It took a lot of skill to make a repair that didn't show through the paint. I used the kit, then topped it with some very thin conventional topping for final feathering. This final coat was applied more as a glazing type operation to just fill, level, and feather the repair area.

Here's the one I used:
Krack-Kote-Acrylic-Crack-Repair-Kit-for-Drywall-and-Plas-9vxY-w50nPNOwA.jpg
 
foundation aside, wood (frame of house) shrinks when dry, swells when humid. Especially a problem on big/long houses.
Drywall compound cannot handle any movement at all, as you've noticed.
I've had great luck using a specific elastomeric coating to deal with seasonal movement like this :
specifically BlackJack Ultra-Roof 1000 - https://www.lowes.com/pd/BLACK-JACK-3-6-...arranty/3013308
This stuff goes on like real thick latex paint. read the specs - it can expand and contract 350% without cracking !! On ceilings - it matched the pure-white pretty good with no paint touch-up needed. On walls it accepts latex paint well to color match the patch, and the latex overcoat flexes pretty well with it for a few years till it gets brittle. For really big gaps (that constantly move) I simply fill the gap with some latex foam first (it too can handle movement better than drywall compound or spackle) then elastomeric coating over it - sometimes a few coats if gap is big.
 
Originally Posted By: FZ1
It's just seasonal shifting. Best not to jack with engineers and foundation people.

You're probably right. You could do more harm than good.

There has been at least some seasonal cracking in every house I've owned, some more than others. It seems if you repair these minor cracks enough times the cracking eventually stops. Or maybe you just stop seeing them.
 
You might laugh at this, but during dry months here, to include summer and winter like right now, 0 rainfall in over 40 days....I actually "water" my house. Give a good soaking all the way around the foundation. Learned that from some old timers living here and so far, had no cracks. But, I have a slab foundation and have sandy loam soil.
 
Originally Posted By: doitmyself
I, too, would say that its from seasonal changes due to humidity changes, temperature influences, etc.. There might be a small installation "flaw" in the wall: compound problem, lack of fasteners, stud framing problem. It's likely to reappear year after year unless you can correct the root cause.

The only topping type, somewhat permanent repair I found is to use a fiberglass tape topped by a flexible top coat. It used to be available as permanent crack repair kits, but I have not seen them lately. I found it very difficult to use because the product is difficult to level and feather edge. It doesn't sand down very well. It took a lot of skill to make a repair that didn't show through the paint. I used the kit, then topped it with some very thin conventional topping for final feathering. This final coat was applied more as a glazing type operation to just fill, level, and feather the repair area.

Here's the one I used:
Krack-Kote-Acrylic-Crack-Repair-Kit-for-Drywall-and-Plas-9vxY-w50nPNOwA.jpg



I wonder if you can mix it with paint and apply with a roller. I wonder if an outdoor paint would work since it's more flexible than indoor paint?
 
Does the crack heal up? If so I'd suspect humidity. Not sure if I would want to raise humidity since that can pump moisture into the walls, but it can sure be nice in winter.

If it doesn't heal then I have to think foundation or framing.
 
Yep. I'm sure a good foundation man can always find,5k,10k,or 15k worth of things that "could" be fixed. They could damage it,lifting it,etc. I've got a few cosmetic wall cracks but my house is not gonna fall down. Ain't worried.
 
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