LESLIE: Greg in Indiana needs some help repairing a ceiling at his money pit. What could we do for you today?
GREG: Hi, Leslie. I have a crack in a textured, vaulted ceiling.
LESLIE: OK.
GREG: It’s at the peak. And I have tried putting a – what I think is a higher-quality siliconized, paintable caulk – and repainted and it seems like it doesn’t last very long and we’re having to redo it.
TOM: Right.
GREG: I didn’t know if there was some type of a permanent fix for that.
LESLIE: Are you using any tape when you’re making this repair?
GREG: No. Well, I’m trying to avoid taking the texture off.
LESLIE: OK.
TOM: Yeah, because it’s textured, it would be a big deal.
GREG: Yeah.
LESLIE: But I feel like you’re going to just continue to make this repair unless you can, you know, get underneath, add some of that fiberglass mesh tape, which will sort of help. Because you’re going to get continuous movement because, as you say, it’s at the peak, so there’s going to be a lot of movement there just from the nature of the structure.
Now, what kind of texture is it? Is it a popcorn? Is it like a twist? Is it a stipple? Can it be replicated, is what I’m getting at.
GREG: I’m sure that it can. I’ve just avoided it because it’s a room that is probably, I don’t know, probably 20 to 25 feet wide. The length of the crack would be – so I’ve just avoided doing that. I, kind of in the back of my mind, felt like that was probably the permanent solution but was trying to find an easier way out.
TOM: Well, I think that you know what the solution is. The fact of the matter is that this crack is a break. The fact that you caulked it is not going to stick to both sides in such a way that it will stretch across and bridge that gap on a permanent basis. You’re always going to have it reopen again and again and again.
So you can either live with it or you could pull off the texturing and put up a fiberglass mesh tape and spackle it, as Leslie suggested, and then retexture it. I will tell you that there is texture material that’s sold in a can now.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm. That you can just spray on.
TOM: So you don’t have to have a company come in and spray it. There is patching material for this very purpose.
GREG: OK. Excellent. I think that’ll do it. Not exactly the answer I wanted but I think that it was – that’s probably – I just needed somebody to tell me to do it, so I thank you.
TOM: Alright.
LESLIE: Alright. Do it already.
TOM: Alright. You’ve been tasked.
GREG: Alright. Thank you.
TOM: Alright. Go forth and patch, my friend. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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