We live within a few miles of Aberdeen Proving Ground. Once a week or so they test fire the howitzers and it shakes the whole house. There are these cracks in the sheet rock seams in two places in the house and I kept patching them until I got fed up. I was thinking about peeling the paint (we are repainting anyway) and trying to fill them with a sandable caulk since it's flexible but not sure what will happen to the paint after it dries. I'm afraid to use an epoxy or some sort of glue thinking that if I stabilize that joint another crack will appear somewhere else. Looking for options here.

Cheers

 

Since this will be a recurring problem, I'd say you should rock over that wall with new sheetrock. Don't even take the old off. Be sure the sheets span over the cracks and end on studs that are some distance away. Get sheets long enough to cross the entire wall if possible so that there are no butt joints.

Your house must not have plywood sheathing under the siding or it wouldn't shake the studs like that, I imagine.

Just repairing the crack won't make it invisible and it will be back before you know it.

 

The house is brick so no sheathing. I don't think sheeting over is an option. the crack extends across the ceiling in both rooms and we just remodeled the kitchen so on that particular wall we'd have an 18" edge of the drywall exposed between lower and upper cabinets. There is also a forced hot water register running across that wall and it's a stairwell.

We had to seal a crack in the brick on one end of the house this year from the shaking.

 

There would be plywood/osb sheating behind the brick.

I like X's suggestion of another layer of drywall with any seams falling on different studs. That will make the wall more stable, just remember to use screws long enough to secure the new drywall to the studs. It usually isn't a big deal to move the baseboard heat a 1/2" forward. If you don't have a tile backsplash adding one would take care of that issue.

 

We do have a tile backsplash already installed and the granite countertop has an 1 1/2" overhang. Moving the register isn't an option, since the piping comes up through the new floor and goes down through the outside wall in the stairwell so I only have 1/4" on either side of the piping.

If I did re-sheet on the cracked wall, what about the ceiling? Wouldn't I have to re-rock the whole ceiling? Of course the crack is in the middle of the room---where else would it be?

You can see where the cabinets, backsplash and countertop is. I tried to shoot the register, but I get a "to big" error

 

You could always cut out the affected wall area. If I was doing it, I'd probably get a 12' long sheet... cut 32" left and right of the cracks 4 feet high (assuming 16" on center) and replace that bottom sheet with an 80" long, 4' tall sheet. Then for the 4 foot sheet above that, cut 16" left and right of the cracks and replace that piece with a 48" long, 4' tall sheet. This would get your joints away from those studs that like to move. The studs moving is what is cracking the drywall... and since it's a straight crack, you apparently have butt joints there. And I bet they may have hung the drywall vertically instead of horizontally. (how high is the wall?)

As for the ceiling crack, I would guess that maybe it just wasn't fixed properly the last time. Sand off all the mud you can and get down to the original paper. Then use Lightweight setting compound (like 20 minute Easy Sand) and paper tape to fix the crack. Then once that is dry, cover the tape with another coat of setting compound... and once it's dry you will need to feather that out on each side until it is about 20-24" wide on the following coats. For your final coats use regular joint compound. Sand everything with a pole sander... shine a bright light on it to see anything that needs to be skim coated. Then prime it with primer... check it again with the light and if it looks good paint it.

 

Awesome! That sounds like a great plan.

Cheers