Our house is approximately 15 years old - it's a 'standard' development house in a suburb. We moved in less than two years ago, and the previous owners (elderly) were pretty open about the flaws that were in the house. One thing they made sure to point out was the peeling drywall tape at the joints in two places - the ceiling in the garage, and in the closet of our bedroom. It wasn't that bad in the garage when we moved in - perhaps a section of tape about 6' long had started peeling.
Since then it's kicked into high gear - more than HALF of the tape in our 2 car garage is peeling off, and there are a couple new spots inside the house where the tape is coming off the walls! What gives? This really has us spooked and waiting for more joints to go bad. I have two main questions:
- First, how do we STOP any more of this from happening?
- Second, would you recommend I repair the failing parts right now? Or wait for more to go bad?
My wife seems to think we should go after the builder even though we are the second owner. I told her they probably won't even know the drywall contractor who did the job and even if they did, he probably wouldn't be in business in the same name today. I've never repaired a ceiling before (just built and finished walls) - do you think the damage can be repaired without being too obvious?
Pics follow, they are highly compressed to save space.
Here's the garage!
This is the ceiling in one of my boy's room.
Here's the corner of our dining room. This is less than a month old!
This is the closet of our bedroom. Looks like the tape popped off almost in a single piece!
This crack in our upstairs bathroom is newer too.
This really has us freaking out. Seems every time we turn around we find something else...
Thanks for your comments.
Patrick