How to Repair Cracked Drywall Seams

Do you have stress cracks in your drywall from your house settling. Or maybe you have some water damage and drywall is all right but the seam aren't.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Drywall tape,Utility knife, one inch mud knife, six inch flex knife, sanding pad, mud pan and some joint compound.

1. 
   Cut out you seams two inches wide if they are water damaged.

   First dig out the seam. If the seam is just a hair line crack, only cut it out enough to widen it about a quarter inch. If the seams are rippled from the tape absorbing moisture. You will have to cut out the whole seam and redo it. Cut with a utility knife on both sides of the seam. Using a one inch utility mud knife, run it under the seam to pull it all out at once. This will give you a clean surface to run a new seam.

2. 
   Patch seams using drywall tape.

   Apply joint compound where you gouged out your seam. You only want to put a light coat of joint compound with your one inch mud knife. Apply a strip of drywall tape. Then apply another coat of mud over top of the dry wall tape. Smooth out your seam with a six inch flex knife. Don't worry to much about it looking pretty. You will have to sand and patch it again. Allow to dry over night or at least six hours.

3. 
   More dug out seams.

   Sand seams smooth with a medium grit sanding sponge or 100 grit sand paper. Using a six inch flex knife apply another coat of joint compound. After this second coat you can repeat the previous step again. Three coats of mud is generally enough. Depending on the thickness of your coats you may have to apply a forth coat.

4. 
   This is what it would look like if it were fresh drywall before priming.

   Sand your last coat smooth so that it is flush with the surface of the wallboard. You are now ready to ready to apply primer. Use a roller to apply stipple when priming your seams. Stipple creates depth and texture. You don't want your seams to appear smooth while the surrounding area appears textured.

Tips & Warnings

• For finish patching coats you can switch to 5 or 20 minute durabond to move along production quicker.
• If you just apply more mud to a cracked seam that will crack too. You will be doing this project once a year if you don't apply drywall tape.

Resources

• Maverick Money Makers
• Ipod
• Abs Of Steel
• Blog to the bank
• Forex on Steroids
• Yahoo Cash

[Mindee94]

on 5/13/2009 With these directions this will be a successful DIY task. Thanks for the great tips and pics too!