We just completely gutted our home and redid everything. We used all new 5/8" drywall and fiberglass tape on the seems. Taping and muddying we're completed about 3-4 months ago and now all the butt-seems running parallel to the floor at mid wall are showing small cracks. The drywall was filled adequately with nails and screws and if I push on the drywall by the crack, the crack becomes nearly invisible. This tells me the drywall is 'settling' from climate changes this time of year. I think the fiberglass tape is not stiff enough to hold the joint from cracking, this seem correct? Do I need to strip the joint and completely redo it? Please help it is driving me mad!!!
FYI I live in Los Angeles area.
Thanks, Justin

 

Fiberglass tape sucks. Use paper tape, and bed it in joint compound that you have thinned with a little water to make it more creamy... and then wipe it down tight, squeezing out all the excess mud from behind the tape. If you have a lot of joints to fix, you might want to rent a power drywall sander (like the porter cable drywall sander) which hooks up to a vacuum. You could sand most of the joint compound off the joints, then retape.

You could also tape right over the crack, but you will need to feather the joint out farther... at least 12" on each side to make it blend in.

 

You will need to add some screws to the areas near the cracks. If you can move the drywall with hand pressure, it is not secured to the framing. Tighten it up, make sure you don't have any movement and then proceed with new mud.

 

Thanks guys, that is what I thought. The dry wall only flexes with a lot of pressure between the studs. It was pressing on it there to affirm it has moved (stress relieved) with the changing temps/humidity. I will be striping it back some and using paper tape.
If anyone has any repair tips, please let me know cause it looks like my Christmas break is now really busy.

 

You may have had a little wave in the stud work of the walls. Then you put up fairly ridgid 5/8" drywall. A few over driven screws and the paper backing on the drywall is not sufficient to be held by the nail/screw head. It pulls the nail head through the drywall as it flex's back toward a straighter position. you can't really see the nail pops but you can see any of the seam cracks that resulted. You say it is mostly on the butt ends as the tapered ends are more dense and can take an over driven fastener and hold a little better.

I don't have a problem with mesh tape. But I use setting type drywall compound. It sets up fast and be chemical reaction not be evaporation. It therefore is a little stronger than traditional ready mix. You need to work quickly as it will harden in the pan as you work. Proceed in small batches and soon as you see it start to stiffen in the pan, dump the rest in the garbage. Regular joint compound isn't as strong, shrinks a little in situations where you have a larger repair or gap, but worse of all for a remodeler, is that you have to wait for it to dry. Resulting in many callbacks over several days.

A wall without flex is the key prior to proceeding.

 

As mentioned, the drywall needs to be secure before you start! Any screws that have broken thru the paper have little holding power. In those places another screw should be installed next to it making sure that the screw goes deep enough so you can cover it with mud but not so deep that it goes thru the paper.

A setting compound is a must with the mesh 'sticky' tape! Even so, I've had a few failures with sticky tape that was covered with durabond. I've never bought any sticky tape since the first roll and never use it except for the rare instances that someone buys it for me to use AND I don't have any paper tape on hand.

 

If you have that much movement, any tape may fail. As mentioned, the paper tape is going to work better - not intuitive but it's actually stronger than the mesh tape.