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I live in a 5 year old home with a cathedral ceiling. There is a wall that divides the kitchen from the living room that develops up to a 1/2″ crack where the wall meets the ceiling during the winter. By the middle of summer, it’s gone. Is there a simple way to fix this?
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Mike -
There's no simple way, but it can be done. I'm not exactly sure how effective it will be on a cathedral ceiling - I've never seen that tried before.
Basically, you attach blocks to the top plate of the wall. (Up in the attic) The blocks should sit perpendicular to the wall, and be oriented vertically. You'll probably have to cut one end of the block to match the slope of the cathedral ceiling.
Then screw your drywall to these blocks. Then you'll need to find any other nails or screws that are driven into the truss that are within 16" of the wall. They need to be removed, or driven through the drywall with a punch.
It ain't pretty, but it gets the job done. You may also have some luck by increasing your attic ventilation. A poorly vented attic seems to compound the problem.
There's some decent reading on the subjuct at Trussnet
Look for the link at the bottom that says "Partition Separation"
*Mike,You might try to hide it behind a couple of pieces trim. One attached to the wall, the other attached to the ceiling. The roof would be free to move with the movement hidden behind the molding. Chase
*Well I've talked with just about everyone I could think of from the manufacturer to the janitor and haven't found a way yet to correct truss uplift on an already built house. Only thing is to use some trim to hide the crack with trim fastened to the ceiling. I've used this and seen it used several times. Always works and after awhile you even will forget it is there.
*paint it, caulk it, plant a tree in front of it."Trim Carpenters Thesis" cliff notes 1987
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I think the best way to repair the problem would be to adress the wild swings in humidity/temperature which are causing the problem.
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Mark,
Can't be done unless you move the house to the Mojave or Saharah.
John
*Youse are all a buncha dork hacks !!!Mike, the fix is really relatively simple.Getcherself two pieces of sheet steel, 8 feet wide, 1/2 inch thick, and long enough to reach from above the rafter to below the floor joists. You will be bolting these steel plates to the rafter and the floor joists.Cut holes in the floor on both sides of the wall. The hole has to be big enough to reach through to the bolts if the joists aren't accessible from the bottom.Cut holes in the cieling, if ned be, to get at the rafters above the wall.Using 3/4 inch stainless steel bolts and stainless nylocks, sandwich the wall, the joists and the rafters between the steel plates.Then doug hubbard's advice fits. Caulk it, paint it, and plant a tree in front of it. Seems doug is the only one of the bunch who had any brains at all. And he was gettin it from a book......p.s. This is all assuming the rafters and floor joists run parallel to the wall. If they run anti-parallel, then you will have to bolt individual plates to each floor joist and rafter, and have them all welded to the main steel plate.
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calm down, Luka.........just calm down.
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thank you luka. that is a very pretty compliment. i almost missed it...
*anti-parallel???Rich Beckman
*Sorry Rich, I forgot to dumb it down for the tofu eaters among us.Here it is in a nutshell. First you must determine the dulimentary angles of each component to each of the other components. (Wall, floor trusses, and rafter.) Yes, I know that it has hitherto been thought unpossible to determine the dulimentary angles of antimobile components. But if you take the optonic angle of the mating surfaces and divide that by your grandmothers' underwear size, you will find that the dulemic and the bentary nature of said surfaces will begin to come together. Multiply the daendric opposite to the resulting degree by the sum of the equation, 2 over cake are square, and you have the dulimentary angles.Now, once you have the dulimentary angles of all the components, you still must find the angstitude of the pulmontosis of each surface. Since every kindergarten school student since mid-1975 has been able to figure these attitudes on the fingers of one hand, I won't bore you with the details of the process.If the angstitude and pulmontosis do not conjoin in waquinstin with the dulimentary angles then you must resort to a simple eyeball scrutination of the philmary job at hand. If the wall, joists and rafters are anywhere within proximity of each other, use a laser level to cut a test groove between each of the components. Lay a standard chalk line in the groove. If the line stays in the groove, you are free to go ahead and cut the holes in the floor and the cieling for the steel plate. At this point, all you have to do is to look at the joists, wall and rafters. If the joists and the rafters run the same direction at the wall, they are running parallel. If they run contrary to each other, rest assured, they are definately anti-parallel.
*I'm still confused. Does it draw a circle or ellipse?
*Luka,Geeez, it was all becoming so clear until that last paragraph muddied the water all up again. Now I'm still confused!Rich Beckman
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I live in a 5 year old home with a cathedral ceiling. There is a wall that divides the kitchen from the living room that develops up to a 1/2" crack where the wall meets the ceiling during the winter. By the middle of summer, it's gone. Is there a simple way to fix this?