Fixing cracked drywall?

[BeauJangles]

I've been puttering around the house today and decided to finally fix some cracks that developed in our upstairs bathroom.

cracks

I believe the cracks are from water leaking out of our shower, an issue which has been resolved.

What do I need to fix these cracks? I have joint compound, but no drywall tape. I can go pick some up, but I wanted to see if anyone on ATOT knew the best way to fix this stuff.

Thanks!

 

[boomerang]

What exactly are we looking at there? Is that the bottom corner of the shower door? Is that a hinge top left?

 

[squirrel dog]

The one on the left is going to take some talent.The one on the right can be fixed with some spacklin and paint.I would enlarge the one on the right a little,then add mud,let dry and paint.The other one looks to need refloating,mud,paint.Its at least a 12 pack no matter how you look at it.

 

[Rubycon]

That looks like plaster to me.

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: squirrel dog
The one on the left is going to take some talent.The one on the right can be fixed with some spacklin and paint.I would enlarge the one on the right a little,then add mud,let dry and paint.The other one looks to need refloating,mud,paint.Its at least a 12 pack no matter how you look at it.

I'm wondering if the one on the left could be a stress crack. That's why I was asking if we're looking at the shower door. I'm wondering if the crack gets smaller and bigger as the door is opened and closed.
Edit for spelling - twice!

 

[bctbct]

The one next to the tile is expected because the two surfaces dont bond together and expand and contract differently. Try caulking it.

Its hard to tell on the second one but I suspect that you have had structural movement that cracked through the drywall itself. You can try to retape it with durabond setting type compound and mesh tape for the best results. However if you are getting alot of movement it will reappear.

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: boomerang
What exactly are we looking at there? Is that the bottom corner of the shower door? Is that a hinge top left?

Yup. The tile for the shower ends right there and turns into plaster.

Originally posted by: Rubycon
That looks like plaster to me.

Pretty sure you are correct

<-- still noobly at home improvement stuff.

Originally posted by: bctbct
The one next to the tile is expected because the two surfaces dont bond together and expand and contract differently. Try caulking it.

Its hard to tell on the second one but I suspect that you have had structural movement that cracked through the drywall itself. You can try to retape it with durabond setting type compound and mesh tape for the best results. However if you are getting alot of movement it will reappear.

This is my friend's house and the guy who put in the shower door did a shitty job. The shower was used for a few weeks with huge leaks -- I didn't know this until I moved in and fixed the leak. I'm pretty sure that's what caused the separation. So, I don't think it's going to get any worse.

 

[bctbct]

you sure thats plaster? Plaster typically does not crack like that and I see a drag mark in joint compound just below the angled part of the crack. It may have been patched before with joint compound.. Scratch it with your finger nail to see if it is soft.

Anyway, drywall or plaster I would recommend durabond, its similar to bondo.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
That looks like plaster to me.

:thumbsup:

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: mugs

Originally posted by: Rubycon
That looks like plaster to me.

:thumbsup:

So is durabond still a good way to go about patching it?

 

[ManyBeers]

Just sand the area, put some mesh tape over the cracks and then mud it, sand and paint. Simple.

 

[DrPizza]

You may be able to patch it with a flexible, paintable caulk.

 

[feralkid]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
You may be able to patch it with a flexible, paintable caulk.

This.


Seriously, who gets out the mud for small cracks like that?

Sure to fail anyway...use silicone II or other mildew-proof paintable caulk.

 

[Squisher]

I would attack the one near the edge by by scraping it down especially removing any plaster touching the cabinet, and go at with some patching plaster. Then after it dried I'd again vee it with a straight edge and put some caulk in the vee. That way you'd have a nice straight line of caulk.

The other one I'd just vee it out, put on some mesh tape, and then patching plaster. I like using joint compound for a finish skim coat because it is easy to smooth and if your working on a large area you can do the bulk of the smoothing with a damp sponge after it dries and just then just make a minimum of dust by sanding to just feather the edges.


If this was a highly stressed area you could look into using Krack-kote. It stays flexible, but you can't sand it.

 

[BeauJangles]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it. Tomorrow I'm headed over to the hardware store to pick up a few things I need.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

How high up does the crack go?

 

[IGBT]

..FixAll or Rockite is good.