Drywall blues

[Laurie]

I am redoing the gameroom as a bedroom for my son now that the pool table's been sold. I'm removing the awful wallpaper to paint, and have discovered it is wallpaper over smooth plaster over textured plaster over drywall, but hey, at least it's only 1 layer of wp. Pulling off the paper has pulled off some of the smooth plaster, and we're going to have to steam off the rest of the paper - don't know if that'll affect the plaster or not.

We've discovered some drywall cracks, plus my kid put his forearm through one wall playing ninja warrior and indented the drywall with what looks like bouncing a golf ball off of it (you know, the stuff that "Idunno" does?), so I've got some repairs/replacements to make. This whole house had foundation work done years ago and last summer a SE said it was holding, so these are older cracks hidden by the wallpaper.

Q1 - there are some cracks over the doorways: must that drywall be cut out and replaced or is there anything effective that will work on approx 8" long

1/8 - 1/16" crack between the doorframe and crown molding? I used some flexible rubbery like spray coating several years ago to finish cracks along a window on a P&B house I sold, but I never saw if it held or not...

Q2 - there are two corners where there is about 1/8" separation between the two walls the entire height of the wall. How would I best deal with that?

Q2 - Can I just retexture over the smooth plaster spread over the textured drywall or is there some reason a 3rd layer could be a problem? I intend to paint whenever we're done with this mess.

TIA - Laurie

[Sacramento Dave]

Save yourself some time call a drywall contractor that dose repairs and retextures it's hard to give good advice without seeing it. When I removed the wallpaper in two bathrooms and a bedroom it tore the walls up pretty bad . I know on some small cracks I used caulking not sheetrock mud the caulking if flexible

[Laurie]

Thanks Dave - :-) I've got more time than money these days. Plus this is a project my kid wants to do with me, which is fine. I've replaced drywall, mudded seams and textured a kitchen before, all successfully (in the end), so I'm not worried about doing it, just want to tap the real talent before getting into it.

As far as the walls, I'm not pulling off the drywall paper, just a bit of the top layer of smooth plaster.

[Mike Dobony]

I am assuming these cracks are in the corners of the door opening and not in the middle. If this is the case the drywall was hung improperly and the hangers put a butt joint at or very close to the corner instead of breaking in the middle or preferrably away from the door (a full sheet across the opening with no joint near or over the door). If this is the case the rubbery coating you used might work. The preferred method is to put a single sheet of drywall all the way across the door opening and up to at least the next stud away from the door.

This reinforces the inproper hanging, or in this case, improper mudding of the corner. Either the mud was put on too thick or there is no joint paper in the corner. Sand it down to the paper and then redo it the correct way. They now have inside corner molding. This might not be a bad idea for this repair.

Unless you are using texturing paint you need to use green or moisture resistant dry wall. Either way, a 3rd layer does not sound too good, but I have no experince in this area. I hang for a living right now and have done standard mudding in the past.

Mike D.

[Laurie]

I didn't know that - in the past it's all been corner cracks at windows and doors, but this one goes right up the middle. It looks like it was a decent sized one that was plastered over when they smoothed the wall to wallpaper - and the top layer of the new plaster pulled away - but it doesn't go all the way through now. I'll try it the easy way and if it doesn't hold pay someone to do it right. :-)

This I can do! As long as the house really is done shifting like the SE says, it ought to hold.

I'll look into texturing paint. Thanks so much for your advice and education Mike!

Laurie

[Mike Dobony]

I talked to my boss about this, the long time pro. He suggest you make sure the joint is well nailed as it is likely only nailed at the top and bottom. You want a minimum of on nail per side in the middle of the butt joint, preferrably 2 or even 3 if you are having problems. Another possibility is that there is no header, must stringers running from the door to the ceiling.

[Laurie]

Thanks for the extra info Mike - I've been out of town and am just back - and getting ready to tackle this project head on. There are some other "interesting" creases in the wallpaper where there's SOMETHING going on beneath it - either a new crack or more imperfect repairs. Everything you've told me will come in handy - I learn how much I don't know every day!!

Thanks again - Laurie