Repairing Cracked Drywall

One of our never ending projects is painting the interior of our house. However, before we were able to get to putting new colors on our walls, we had to repair the existing problems. The house has several non-structural cracks in the drywall in addition to about a thousand nail/screw holes.

The first step was to google the problem. Frankly I don't know how we would begin to do these home repairs without the interwebz! I did my research, made my shopping list, bought the stuff I needed, and dove in. I decided to start with a crack in the master bedroom because it was one that wasn't in any direct line of sight and if it all went horribly I wouldn't be ruining anything. Here's the process I went with!

Cracked wall. Also you can see how gross the walls are and why they so badly needed to be painted.

Step 1: Take a razor blade/exacto knife and cut out the old repair job, and dig into the crack creating a V-shaped crack that is mostly clear of debris. Our lovely previous owners did not repair this crack correctly so the majority of our time on this project was removing old repair work and cleaning out the crack.

Demo always comes before Reno

The infamous previous owners did not patch it correctly. 

Nice trench waiting to be filled and taped. 

 Step 2: Using drywall compound, smear/fill the crack with your fingers. This step is really similar to filling nail holes with putty, except you use drywall compound and you have a long crack to fill instead of a round hole.

Fill it up! 

Filled, no tape yet

"Honey I'm so glad we bought a fixer!"

Step 3: Smear a thin layer of drywall compound over the crack using a 6" taping knife.

Step 4: Place fancy drywall tape over the crack. Be sure to cut your pieces small enough to be able to follow the shape of the crack but not so small that you end up having a ton of seams. Smooth out the tape using your fingers. Wipe your fingers on your work jeans because it's fun to make them look messy.

Placing tape

Step 5: Smear another layer of drywall compound over the tape and feather out slightly (again using the 6" taping knife.) Let dry overnight.

Tape with compound on top (left) and tape with compound only underneath (right)

Step 6: Spread a final thin layer of drywall compound using a 12" taping knife and feathering out the sides. Let dry overnight.

Step 7: Sand using fine sandpaper, wipe clean.

All ready for texture!

Of course... I didn't take good pics of steps 8-10. You get what you get.

Step 8 (optional): Spray texturizer on the crack and wipe it with a special blade so it at least kind of matches the rest of the wall.

(can you tell this is a different room?)

Step 9: Prime, paint, and hope it the crack doesn't reopen!

Step 10: Repeat process at least ten more times because you bought a fixer.

Before

After