House shifting Ceiling an wall separating

My house shifts from winter to summer and consequently my ceiling and the walls are separating. It is only the supporting wall that does it. I tried repairing it with strips you can buy but they just crack themselves. Can anyone help?

 

This sort of thing usually happens when you have trusses, which are not (and should not be) nailed to interior walls so as to allow movement with seasonal temperature changes. They are fastened with slotted clips that allow the truss to slide up and down as temps change. The problem usually occurs not from the truss movement, which is normal, but from the way the drywall was installed. Drywall should not be attached to the trusses around the perimeter of the room (screws should be kept 16-24" away), so that the perimeter is allowed to float. When the drywall IS screwed solidly to the trusses at the room perimeter, it will crack and move with the trusses as they shrink and move upward.

So the solution isn't really a simple one... but you would need to get in the attic and actually break the drywall off of the screws/nails holding the perimeter... perhaps by laying a short scrap of 2x4 next to the truss, and smacking it with a hammer to drop the drywall back down where it can again lay tight with the top of the wall drywall.. Good luck with that, it will probably be a recurring problem. Hanging it correctly in the first place would have helped a lot.

 

ok I bought the house so I never did the drywall. There must be something easier- no?

 

Not sure what you want to hear... I already answered the question. There is no magic wand for this. Which is easier, tapping the ceiling drywall along that wall off the fasteners from inside the attic, as was suggested, or ripping it all down and rehanging it? You already know that trying to patch it won't work.

 

Two thoughts,
One you didn't confirm you have trusses, although I'm in agreement with XSleeper that you probably do.
Second would be to trim the ceiling and fasten the new trim to just the ceiling and not the wall, so the trim can slide up and down. The trim approach would not help with any air leakage and in cold country that area of the house is usually cold.

Bud

 

What about installing crown molding stained to match the rest of the woodwork?

 

Then you would have a gap open up above the crown moulding in the winter. As Bud said, it would have to be nailed "to the ceiling only" if you wanted it to be tight to the ceiling and move up and down with the seasons.

 

My thinking was that stained woodwork doesn't highlight the crack like it is with paint. You'd still get the movement and the crack but the crack at the top of the the crown wouldn't be as noticeable, right ??