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After about six months, hairline cracks are showing up in a drywall job in a new house, mostly the corners. Nothing unordinary about the framing, weather or time built and settling has been ruled out. The drywall contractor says it’s because the wood is shrinking-i.e. it’s not his fault. This is a new one to me. Comments anyone?
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The guy is half right. There is a significant amount of contraction in the wood as it's moisture content decreases. Given that most houses are framed with green wood these days, I'd say this is the cause of the cracks you see.
Let's see. You mentioned cracks in the corners, but if you look closer you'll see cracks above some doors and perhaps at the cornerbeading at window jambs.
*Yep ditto, the frame is drying, get ready for the nail pops.
*Pops won't necessarily happen. These come about when a sheet sags, moves, or otherwise delfects from plane. Cracks come about when the mud shrinks, flakes, or otherwise loses it's bond. First case, it's the sheet; second case, it's the mud.
*Give it about a year. Not sure of your area, but one heating/cooling season will hopefully get the wood to its stable state. Any decent builder will tell you that these things are bound to happen, and will usually come back to fix after a year so as to only have to do it once. Did yours mention that?Wood is a natural product, and its moisture content when installed is bound to be different than once it is part of a dried-in structure. The crack locations you mentioned sound like "normal" ones, at least from your description. If the right type, number, and length fasteners were used, you shouldn't expect to see many if any nail pops. Give it some time, and fix it once (well, hopefully...).
*teo, I like to use Durabond 90 as a first coat on all of my corner bead. Most contractors don't like to use it because it comes dry and must be mixed. It also dries hard as a rock and will bond to almost anything. The major downfalls are: it is very difficult to sand and it will bleed through paint. That is why it should only be used as a first coat and you should apply two coats on top, another reason why contractors don't use it. I never have any problems with my outside corners and they'll take a much harder bang then your standard two or three coats of mudd.TC
*Thanks all for the replies. What irks me is that this is the first time we sub-contracted out the drywall work and the first time we've had cracking like this so I was wondering if they rushed the job. We will fix everything, of course, but I would like the drywallers to shoulder some of the costs. They may simply on good faith and a continuing working relationship, but would you use them again?Something like Durabond 90 is a great tip. However, It is extremely difficult to do all those extra steps we'd all like to do and still keep a home affordable.
*If you are going to fix everything and would like the drywall contractor to shoulder some of the cost - you might pull off one or more of those corners and see how they were attached. Clinchers always (to me) seem to leave the bead loose and perhaps prone to movement thus cracking. Also, attempting to use regular mud in one heavy application with one finish coat will result in shrinkage cracks. Durabond is my choice for a bedding and even a second application. It's a piece of cake with a power mixer and a clean bucket. A little care during application and there is no reason to sand that stuff.An afterthought: A patch or refinish coat of mud over a corner bead crack will most likely crack again. Pull them all and do it right.Second afterthought: How affordable and profitable is it to you to have to redo a job? Or, as someone once said, "Why is there always enough time to do the job a second time."
*What about two stud corners as a way to minimise or eliminate corner cracking? GeneL.
*Gene, I know your the guru of owl saving, but I don't remember how a two stud corner is configured.I'd be willing to use only two on my jobs as long as all aspects of the frame are accounted for.Care to explain?blue
*Blue. See pages 266 and 275 of my book, Complete Building Construction,4th Edition published by Macmillan Publishing Company. The traditional 3 and 4 stud corners are structural overkill--just ask any structural engineer--because the corner studs carry only 1/2 or less of the weight that the load bearing studs carry. Furthermore they cannot be insulated, and higher wind speeds at the corners creates greater heat loss. These solid corners are thermal short circuits. Now I have 2 stud corners and what do I do for a nailer or return for the second sheet of GWB? The third stud is replaced with a Prest-On clip. They are clipped on to the GWP 16-inches oc, and the tabs are nailed to the stud. Thus one sheet floats ( the studs do not float) and the other sheet is solidly nailed to the stud. See the illustrations and explanation in my book. the Prest-on clip is the only clip allowed in single family residences in California--according to Prest-on(call them at 800-323-1813 and ask them for a free copy of their video).Remember that with traditional 3 or 4 stud corners,the GWB is attached to two different studs which shrink in opposite directions, thus the cracking. By allowing the corners to float the cracking is minimised or eliminayted. Hope this helps. GeneL.
*Ok, Gene, i got it now. Yours is a two stud with clips corner. We used to do those in commercial with steel.To eliminate cracking in the traditional 3 stud corner, the drywallers are supposed to float the first sheet and nail only minimally on the second sheet. Cracking is not a problem on inside corners around here.blue
*Blue. How right you are. But what rockers are supposed to do and what they actually do differs considerably. Most of them believe that crack free outside corners happen only when you nail/screw the bejesus out of the corners.Jim Locke in his book, The Well Built house says that two stud corners is a sign of a shoddy builder.He wants "strong corners." Indeed, in addition to the outside corners the junction of the outside wall and the ceiling should also float. U.S. Gypsum calls it the floating interior angle. Joe Lstiburek wrote an interesting paper on the subject "The Big Chill" for the March 2000 edition of Walls & Ceilings. You can read it on their web page http://www.wconline.com. GeneL.
*teo Check out "no coat" at no-coat.com for future reference. they make a pretty good product for drywall corners. Skip