Help: How to repair cracks in plywood walls

[Chris E.]

I have a room in my house where the walls just seem to be made of sheets of plywood nailed to the studs. No drywall, plaster, etc. When we moved here, it was freshly painted and looked OK, but since then, vertical cracks have begun to appear where the individual pieces of plywood meet. This doesn't look very good. We wanted to paint the room but I'd like to somehow fix the wall first so the cracks don't just reappear 6 months down the line.

So how should I approach this? I would love to rip out the plywood and put in drywall or something, but there are six windows in the room, not to mention baseboard heating, and I really don't have the experience or comfort level to remove all of that and put it back correctly. I have no idea how the plywood pieces are *supposed* to be joined -- even in the places that aren't showing cracks, the joints don't look very good. They are definitely visible up close and not at all smooth like I would expect a professional job to be. Is there any way I can salvage this? If necessary I can post some photos to illustrate what I am talking about.

One other question: How are you supposed to handle the case where the plywood meets a door opening? Currently it looks very ugly -- when the door is open, the edge of the plywood immediately adjacent to the door jamb is visible. It seems to me there is probably a way to correct that but I don't know how. Even if I were to put a casing around the door opening, it would be on top of the plywood and that edge would still be exposed. Does this make any sense?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

-chris

[Tom Baker]

I think you are seeing the effects of wood shrinking. It will probably swell in the summer. You could try adding trim over each joint to cover the crack. Anchor the trim to one piece of ply and let it float over the other to allow for movement. It might not look so good.

TB

[big jim]

you can install drywall over plywood, as long as you know where the studs are.

you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

Do it right, no screwing around. This is your home we're talking about. a major investment. Get a "How To" book, they're a dime a dozen at home depot. this ain't rocket science. You figured out how to post on a news group, I can count on one hand how many people I know who can actually do that.

big jim