Determine the Wall Type. The first step to repair cracks in walls is to determine what the cracked wall is made of. Whether you are dealing with a concrete wall, a plaster wall, or drywall — also called sheetrock, plasterboard, or wallboard — affects the way you should go about fixing the crack. Generally, only older homes are finished with. Allow the repair to dry thoroughly, sand it smooth (avoid exposing the tape) and paint it. As homes settle, cracks may radiate from the corners of doors and windows. Whether your walls are made of plaster or drywall, you can repair the cracks in two steps over a day or two—and get the area ready to sand and paint.

• Fixing Hairline Drywall Cracks With Caulking
• Drywall Repair For Small Cracks
• Patching Drywall Cracks Caulk
• Fixing Cracks In Drywall Seams With Caulk

Using Latex Caulk to Fill Small Drywall Cracks. To fill small cracks you need something that is liquid enough to penetrate the crack but drys to a finish that can be painted. The easiest material is a 100% latex caulk and this type of caulk just so happens to be the least expensive too. If you’re in need of a quicker repair use latex caulk. Place the caulk tip flush to the crack with slight pressure and with slow steady caulk gun trigger pressure fill the crack. Some of the caulk will get behind the tape and when it dries it will add some adherence between the loose tape and the dry wall.

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Learn how to use paintable latex caulk to repair ceiling cracks. Find out how to determine if the crack is a drywall seam. Concrete crack repairs: Recommended methods for sealing cracks in concrete floors & slabs - How to seal control joint & expansion joint cracks in concrete slabs List of materials used to fill poured concrete slab control joints How to seal a cracked masonry foundation wall or floor slab Typical concrete crack preparation for sealant with an epoxy product Use of Polyurea as a control joint.

Any type of building can be viewed as a set of lungs that inhale and exhale throughout the year, taking in warm air and expanding, then contracting to expel cold air. As a result there is a natural level of cracking and expansion that will happen on a yearly basis and over the lifetime of a home, leaving behind cracks in places where two walls meet. These cracks will never go away, but you can maintain them to keep the walls looking crack-free at all times.

Apply a bead of caulk to the crack and use a crosshatch pattern to work the latex substances into the crack. Do not apply the caulk along the crack or straight against it. Otherwise you won’t force the caulk back into the crack, you will actually pull it out of the area you want to fill. Allow the caulk to rest for about 5 minutes. Take a damp paper towel and remove excess caulk from the crack.

Caulking

Corners are more susceptible to movement than any other part of a home because they are where two different moving sections meet, similarly to how tectonic plates move beneath the surface of the Earth. Caulking is the best option whenever it can be used, such as with tile installations, wall paneling, wood paneling or anything other than drywall installations with textured surfaces like stucco or just drywall mud.

Latex Paint

Latex-based paints are the best solution if you have a painted surface. These have special additives included in the mixture which allow for greater levels of elasticity, or the ability to expand and contract without actually giving way and cracking. They can be used alone if all you have are spiderweb cracks up the corner, but if the cracks are larger you will want to caulk them first and then paint to cover the caulking as well as old layers of paint.

Grout Removal

A mistake that some do-it-yourselfers make when installing tile on their own is grouting the inside corners. If you have existing grout in the corners from a previous installer or you just didn’t know any better on your first time through, the grout must be removed from the joint and the corner filled with a color-matching caulk that goes along with your grout selection. Grout is cementitious and will always crack under pressure and during expansion and contraction, and if you don’t remove the grout it will just keep cracking over the years until nothing is left.

Texture Repairs

There are really only two solutions for unpainted textured walls that crack up the corner. You can try to find a matching caulk that will cover the cracks as well as possible, or you can caulk the corner and cover it with a new layer of stucco.

Understand that trying to match the exact color of dried stucco is very difficult, as there are numerous variations in mixing batches, manufacturers, dyes, additives and temperature, especially over years, that will never allow for exact matches. The best you can get is a close match that should be enough to pass anything other than close inspection.

About the Author

Tim Anderson has been freelance writing since 2007. His has been published online through GTV Magazine, Home Anatomy, TravBuddy, MMO Hub, Killer Guides and the Delegate2 group. He spent more than 15 years as a third-generation tile and stone contractor before transitioning into freelance writing.

Photo Credits

• Hemera Technologies/AbleStock.com/Getty Images

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Fixing Hairline Drywall Cracks With Caulking

Related articles:

Buy a fresh tube of paintable silicone caulking.

Caulking is useless once it becomes dry.

Apply a thin bead of caulk into the crack.

Be sure to get the caulk actually inside the crack.

Smooth out the caulk bead.

Drywall Repair For Small Cracks

You can use a wet finger if the crack is small enough. If not, use a 5-in-1 tool or a putty knife.

Smooth out the caulk bead.

You can use a wet finger if the crack is small enough. If not, use a 5-in-1 tool or a putty knife.

Clean away excess caulk.

Wipe the excess caulk away from the outside of the crack. Rubbing alcohol works great.

Patching Drywall Cracks Caulk

Paint over the patch with primer.

Don’t skip this step or you’ll end up with a permanently goofy-looking, non-matching area.

Fixing Cracks In Drywall Seams With Caulk

Apply touch up paint to the patch in your wall color.

This is why you saved that half a gallon of leftover wall paint.