How to repair the peak joint in a vaulted ceiling.
by
Sherrie
+1
We have knock down plastered ceiling. It separated, leaving a small crack. We tried to fill the crack, now it’s lumpy.
Sand out, use paper tape and re-finish. First figure out why the crack developed.
How old is the house? Is it settling? If that's the case, use the wire mesh tape to fix. If it's not settling, Clayton's right: find out why it cracked. Good luck.
Hi Clayton,
If it was a small crack it could be just from settling. Our house was built in the 50's and still does that occasionally. As for the lumpiness, is it because the crack got wider or is it from the patching? If it's from the patching you'll need to get up there and sand it smooth. Sometimes when you're fixing minor cracks, it looks like you've gotten it smooth, but once it's painted you can see that it's not really smooth yet. Wishing you the best.
Sand/scrape what you filled in. Use drywall mesh tape on the crack. It's sticky on one side. Use a no shrink drywall patching compound over the mesh tape. Paper tape tends to be hard to work with and needs to be embedded in drywall compound to stay in place. If the crack comes back you have a structural issue that needs to be addressed.