Fixing a Crack
Posted by Wayne
Another thing I knocked of the list at the same time as the fireplace was a big unsightly 12″ long crack from the ceiling corner of the kitchen into the living room. I didn’t really know what to expect or how to fix this, but I assumed this was just happening at a drywall seam. I started digging with a putty knife and sure enough, I was picking out paper drywall tape (which is only used at seams). I dug down with the putty knife all the way to the drywall, about 3″ wide, and dug back past the crack along the seam being careful not to tear into the drywall. I then replaced the old drywall tape with a strip of the sticky drywall tape, and then filled it back in with joint compound.
Whenever I’m doing a fill in with joint compound I know it’s going to shrink a little bit when dry, so I overfill a little bit and then when it’s dry I wipe it down with a wet sponge until it is smooth and flush with the wall. If you fill it in flush when it’s wet, expect to see it indented when it’s dry in a couple of hours.
Once this had dried I put another thin coat on it, dabbed with a real sponge to create a random pattern, and when that had dried I wiped it a couple of times with a wet drywall sponge to knock down the peaks and match the surrounding drywall texture. Once again, this worked like a charm.
As you can see from the picture below, well… there’s nothing to see. I wish I had a before picture so you could see what a fantastic improvement this was with just a little effort. Now I don’t feel like I’m living in that house from Fight Club (my wife probably still does though, considering I look just like Brad Pitt).
After
Total Cost: < $5, Total Time: 1 hour
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