got a call to look at some cracking interior walls today.
It’s an on-slab town house with a foundation / drainage problem. The owner has had a structual enginer determin that when the ground gets saturated with water, it swells, worse on one side of the townhouse than the other, and likewise, contracts with dryness under the house.
The back of the property (the side with the cracking walls) slopes away, and the front is ajacent to the parking lot, so I’m not sure what else can be done about drainage. Sounds like it’s just built on some funky soil.
Back to the cracks… He has repaired them (taped, mudded) once before. The cracks are on walls that are on the back area of the house, perpendicular to the exterior. The cracks will expand and contract from 0 to maybe a couple of mm’s as the climate varies. The cracks only follow the taped joints in the drywall and run all the way from the floor to the ceiling.
Are there any remedies for dealing with such problem. getting someone in to deal with the foundation will cost a fortune, so were trying to find a fix for the drywall cracks that can withstand the slight back and forth ongoing movment of the side of the house.
I mentioned caulk, and he said the opinion he got from S.W. was that the caulk would stretch during the opening of the cracks, but would bubble out during the compression.
A solution I’m running through my mind is to apply a second layer of drywall over the exising. The existing is about 12 feet wide, verticaly installed 4×8 pannels, so I’m thinking a couple of 12 ft pannels, horizontally installed might do the trick.
Im open to sugestions.
Thanks,
st
Replies
I have seen a "spackle" that is rubbery--you cannot sand it. It supposedly stretches as the crcks open. I guess it would bulge out a little when the cracks close, but I think that would look better than open cracks.
Concerning the second layer of drywall: sounds like a PITA to me, but if you do it, maybe glue it with construction adhesive so there is some "give" to it, so that the wall moving underneath won't telegraph through to the new layer of DW. I suppose you could even use some sort of thing like an isolation membrane between, but how then do you attach the new dywall? Maybe One big panel glued and taped at the joint and held in some sort of frame that allows for movement. Lots of screwing around though!
who make's the flexible spackling?
Sorry to reply so late--just got back from MS last night. I think Red Devil made the flexible, rubbery spackle. Think I bought it at Ace or Do-All hardware.
thanks,
I'll look for it tomorrow.
If the cracks are small, you can use an elastomeric, but if their more than a sixteenth of an inch I would try to v them out and fill them in with a lightweight spackle.
I would go with a board and batt paneling over the rock, paint the boards before applying the batts.
"he...never charged nothing for his preaching, and it was worth it, too" - Mark Twain
This is going to sound a little whacked, but from what I understand it can be done. I have not tried this, and am not recommending it, just passing along what I have heard.
At some moisture content that soil may quit moving as long as the moisture content is maintained at a relatively steady point. Normally when building a pad we try to hit the optimal moisture content for compaction. In the case of expansive soils, it's anyone's guess.
I have heard of people installing subsurface drip irrigation to maintain a steady moisture content in the soil. Not so wet that it causes a problem for the house, not so dry that it shrinks.
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.
-Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate
(1875-1965)
I know this is a handyman 101 question, but what is the basic difference between spackling and joint compound anyway?
Not an answer so much as an opinion - Spackle seems to be more of a filler, whereas joint compound contains glues. Spackle will fill a crack, joint compound with tape will eliminate it."he...never charged nothing for his preaching, and it was worth it, too" - Mark Twain
I think this general theory is the only one that will have a chance of providing a true solution. Another approach is to go the exact opposite direction: put in a perimeter drain that will prevent the soil - probably has high clay content - from becoming saturated.
Sorry; I don't have much faith in the patch-the-drywall approach.
Advocate
Maybe you can find some of this:
http://www.magnum-products.com/products/flexJoint.htm
I dont know nothing. BUT.... would bondo work in this situation?
Refer to my opening statement if i am wrong