Crack Repair

A crack is a moving joint, which is why filling it with compound and painting over it almost never holds. The fix is to open the crack, bridge it with tape so the two sides are tied together, and rebuild the surface across the reinforcement. That makes it a different job from patching a hole, where nothing is trying to move.

Inland Empire soils move, and expansive clay plus long dry summers followed by winter rain is a recipe for hairline cracking. The familiar patterns are diagonal runs off door and window corners, straight lines along a drywall seam where the tape has released, and ceiling-to-wall separation at the top plate. Older Riverside plaster cracks differently — wider, more irregular — and needs a different approach.

Each crack gets read before it gets filled. We note whether it is a finish failure or a joint that is still working, then choose paper tape for a seam or a flexible mesh bridge for a corner, and float wide enough that the line cannot telegraph. Primed and textured back, a repaired crack should be invisible under the finish coat.