Start with what the crack is telling you
Almost every ceiling crack is a drywall repair. A small number are a symptom of something above the ceiling, and calling a drywaller for those gets you a repair that comes back. The difference is usually visible if you know what to look at.
Call a drywall contractor when
- The crack is thin, straight, and runs along a joint line. That is a taped seam that has moved, which is the most common ceiling crack there is.
- The crack is at the corner where the ceiling meets the wall. Seasonal movement opens these and they are routine.
- It appeared after a season change or after the heating came on. Materials expand and contract, and joints are where that shows.
- There are hairline cracks radiating from a light fixture or a vent. That is usually fastener or compound movement around a penetration.
These are our work. We open the crack, re-tape it properly rather than filling it, feather the compound wide enough that the repair does not read as a stripe, match the texture, and prime.
Call someone else first when
The crack is stained brown or yellow. That is water, and the leak has to be found and fixed before anyone repairs the ceiling. Depending on what is above, that is a plumber or a roofer. We will repair it afterwards, and we will not close it up before the source is dealt with.
The ceiling is sagging as well as cracked. Sagging means the board is failing or the fasteners are letting go, and occasionally it means the framing above has a problem. That needs looking at before it is patched.
The crack is wide, stepped, or runs diagonally from a corner, and there are matching cracks in the walls or over doorways. Cracks that appear in a pattern across several surfaces can indicate structural movement. A drywall repair will hide it and it will return. That warrants a structural engineer, not a contractor with a trowel.
You have had the same crack repaired twice already. A crack that keeps coming back in the same place is information. Something is moving, and the third repair will fail like the first two.
How to tell the difference from the floor
Photograph it with a light held to one side so the shadow shows the depth, and photograph the whole ceiling so the pattern is visible. Then check the room above and the walls nearby for anything similar. Those two things answer the question most of the time.
If you are unsure, send us the photographs. We would rather tell you to call a plumber than sell you a repair that fails.
What the repair involves
A properly repaired ceiling crack takes more than one visit, because compound needs drying time between coats and a rushed ceiling repair shows through the paint within months. A typical crack is two or three short visits across three to four days, most of which is waiting rather than working.
Get it looked at
We repair ceiling cracks across Washington DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia. Send a photograph and tell us whether there is any staining and whether it has been repaired before. We are insured and bonded.
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