WWYD? Normal Drywall Settling Hairline Cracks

[RetireeRobert]

I agree it is just normal aging of new construction type stuff. Slightly green lumber aging/drying out, and or settling, and/or stress.

I also agree with the latex caulk for longer lasting repair. Also agree with keeping some paint around of your main colors---or nowadays the paint stores are very very good at matching colors.

A trick my wife tried at old house and which seemed to work fine, was to squeeze and rub some toothpaste into crack! And use touchup paint if shade of toothpaste is way different than some light-colored paints.

 

[Texas Proud]

Maybe it is because they were professional but our contractor matched older paint in our house and you cannot tell the difference..


Heck, they tore into the ceiling and I was sure that you would be able to see the repair as it was a bunch of smaller cuts... nope... I have shown it to others and nobody has been able to show me where they cut...


They also did a small section in my daughters room with pain that I had in the garage... still cannot see the touchup...

 

[latexman]

Maybe I wasn't direct enough. DW is the one who is worried...

It’s a trap! SWMBO wants a full paint job.

 

[ncbill]

cover with 1970s surplus "wood paneling"

 

[Sunset]

I...
A trick my wife tried at old house and which seemed to work fine, was to squeeze and rub some toothpaste into crack! And use touchup paint if shade of toothpaste is way different than some light-colored paints.

Also has the advantage of not needing air fresheners for a while

I've certainly heard of this trick for renters to do when leaving nail holes in an apartment from pictures.

 

[mountainsoft]

We moved and bought a house in 2019, the house was built in 2016 so it's relatively new. There are about a half dozen hairline cracks that I am convinced are just from normal post construction settling. A couple radiate out from the upper corners of a doorway between rooms (no door) and the others are at the junction between walls and ceiling in a couple rooms. I've hardly noticed them, but DW seems more aware of them. They are strictly cosmetic and they haven't opened up wider in the 2 years we've been here, all the more reason I think they're just from initial settling after the home was built - I assume that's pretty common. I hate to patch them up because we'll have to paint whole walls (if not rooms) to cover the repairs and we'd probably have to pay professionals vs doing it ourselves.

Most homes are built with green lumber (not kiln dried) and will shrink over time as they dry out. That shrinkage can cause cracks to develop (in addition to foundation settling or other earth movement).

I recently had to repair a fairly significant crack in the corner of our dining room. The main wall had shrunk away from the half wall in the kitchen, exposing the fiberglass mesh. I cut out the old mesh, applied new mesh and joint compound, then repainted. Now it looks like new. A couple days work only to look like I didn't do anything.

For minor hairline cracks you can probably just fill the crack with spackling or joint compound, then sand it smooth when it's dry. Then repaint. If the crack reappears later, you'll probably want a more significant patch with mesh tape to minimize future cracking.

As others have mentioned, most any paint store can match paint colors remarkably well if you have a sample (or have the original paint code is better yet). While you probably wouldn't notice a touched up area, it's better to paint a full wall if possible, painting to the corners.

 

[pb4uski]

cover with 1970s surplus "wood paneling"

I sort of did that in our old house. There was a 6' long floor-to-ceiling wall that divided the kitchen from the living room in a valuted ceiling great area. There was a crack along the top of the wall near the ceiling that would regularly appear in the winter and disappear in the summer... I'd guess 1/32"-1/16".

Rather than try to fix it, I trimmed around the top of the wall attaching the trim to the ceiling rather than the wall with wood trim painted the same color as the wall. We never saw the crack again but I'm sure it was there behind the trim in the winter.

 

[sengsational]

I did the wide-repair process on several, where you cut a 2" swath and lay drywall tape, then go over it. Then globby paint to get stippling, then dry brush the area, feathering out a big area. I did this at the corner of 4 or 6 doors in my previous house, and all those held-up...never cracked again.

I did the same thing in this house. It held up in several places, but one place, rather than a crack, I now have a wrinkle. I've done that place several times, and each time it comes back, and it's because I did a "dumb thing" when I built that area...I glued the drywall to the beam to match the existing drywall on the wall above. I got a nice flat plane, but the two pieces just move a little between summer and winter. I've given up. I'll probably do it one more time when it's time to sell, hehehe!