First time on the site today. I've spent half the day looking through the forums, I am learning a ton!

First time home owner, only been in the house a few months. There is a place in our upstairs ceiling where the drywall tape is pealing. I know I can take this tape off and repair with new but I am a little concerned about the cause.

I'll post a picture of what it looks like. The huge mudding knife mark next to it leads me to be to think it's just poor quality work, but could there be another cause? Right about this ceiling is the attic, could an attic humidity issue cause this?

I stuck an humidity meter up there. Over a week it registered 44% humidity as the high and 29% as the low. Of course this is winter in the north east so it registered a high temperature of 55º and a low of 40º.

I plan to just replace the tape and patch but wanted to make sure.

 

Yes it looks like poor work. Tape often peels like that when it was not applied properly.

There could be other issues at play though. Is there plenty of attic insulation above this area? Condensation from cold attic air might have cause the tape to get wet from the moisture. Or maybe if there is a bath fan, condensation on the pipe has been leaking into the ceiling. Hot steamy showers and a cold winter ceiling might cause it to happen too. A large gap between sheets of drywall can increase the likelihood of tape peeling.

 

The 2 main causes for peeling tape are not enough mud [or mud that was thinned too much] under the tape to adequately 'glue' it in place and moisture degrading the mud causing it to no longer hold.

 

Thanks for the information. The area isn't moist or anything to the touch and it hasn't worsened or changed at all since we moved in. I'll pull the old tape off and retape with joint compound.

I appreciate the help.

 

FWIW, paper tape is stronger than mesh. If you decide to use mesh, the first coat of mud must be setting compound instead of joint compound.