LESLIE: Carol in Texas is on the line with a question about a sheetrock ceiling crack. How can we help you?
CAROL: I have a crack right in front of my front door. It’s a slab. It was the porch and then it was [took into] (ph) the house. It’s more like a sunroom. We extended the outside of it all the way to the ends of the house, so it’s about 33 foot across. And I think what happens is that it gets dry – the soil gets dry – and so now we have a crack in that ceiling.
And we hope to put our house on the market next year. Being a realtor, I don’t really want that crack showing, because people get alarmed. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about but I don’t like the looks of it. So would you tell me what to do and do it right?
TOM: So, the ceiling material in the porch is made of sheetrock?
CAROL: It is sheetrock up there with the finishing so that you – it’s not popcorn or anything like that. It’s smooth finish on the ceiling.
TOM: And the sheetrock ceiling crack is – you said it’s 33 feet long. So is it a …?
CAROL: No, no, no. The crack goes across the other direction.
TOM: Oh, OK. So it’s – good.
CAROL: It goes from a – yeah, it goes the other way.
TOM: So it’s not 33 feet long. Alright.
CAROL: Yes, sir.
TOM: So here’s what happens. The sheetrock ceiling crack reforms because people generally spackle them. And then they expand and contract and it kind of shows through. The right way to do it is to sand over the area of the crack so you get some rough surface there. And then you put a piece of fiberglass repair tape across it, which is sort of like a mesh-looking kind of sticky-backed drywall tape. And it’ll hold there by itself and then you put spackle on top of that so the fiberglass mesh actually bridges the gap across the crack. And once that’s done, it’s a much stronger seam. And as the ceiling expands and contracts, the crack doesn’t reform. It takes three or four good coats of finish to get that done but that really is the hot ticket.
CAROL: And then you go ahead and paint it white, just like your ceiling?
TOM: Paint it. Yep, yep. Absolutely. Uh-huh. That’s correct.
CAROL: White paint. And I just don’t want it showing. I’m not really worried about it because it’s a very, very small hairline crack. I just – I know that it’ll alarm people and so …
TOM: Yep. Sure. Totally understand. And I think that that’s basically the right thing to do for a sheetrock ceiling crack. OK?
CAROL: I appreciate that. And thank you for your help.
TOM: Well, you’re very welcome. Good luck with that project and good luck selling the house.
CAROL: Yes, sir. And thank you very much.
Leave a Reply