Avoiding cracks in boarded ceiling

pilsbury · 10 May 2016

Over the years, I have boarded a few ceilings, some overboarded, some straight onto joists. Pro plasterers have been in and skimmed as and when, all have taped joints, but down the line there are a fair few cracks on board joints. I used plenty of plasterboard screws so the boards were secure - This has also caused some screw head plaster dropouts too!

What is a sure fire way to avoid this - cracks and screw head holes. I'm moving and will have a few ceilings to sort.

PrenticeBoyofDerry · 10 May 2016

What size boards? 12.5 or 9.5?
What joist gap?

pilsbury · 10 May 2016

12.5mm

PrenticeBoyofDerry · 10 May 2016

staggered joints and bonded edge running perpendicular to joists?

pilsbury · 10 May 2016

Yep to both.....

PrenticeBoyofDerry · 11 May 2016

and the cracks are only appearing on the butted joints and not plaster cracks.
If so you have springy joist above probably with foot traffic in the room above or you are screwing up the boards tight enough or over screwing and puncturing PBs.

pilsbury · 11 May 2016

Crack only along butted joints. Not all, just some - I'm quite finikey about this so always notice. A slightly springy joist might be the culprit.

Boards screwed up tight - this may be the cause of the screw hole dropouts. PB? Paper bond? I might have overscrewed a few and gone a bit below the paper. Is that a recepie for screw hole dropouts?

PrenticeBoyofDerry · 11 May 2016

PBs= plasterboards.
But if you underscrew obviously the board is not secure/loose and will move, but over screwing and puncturing the board with the screw heads, will also leave the board unsecured/loose. These issues will allow the board to move or sag therefore cracks on butted joints appear. Plus the springy joist are going to have an adverse effect, specially if foot traffic is above.

pilsbury · 11 May 2016

Cheers for that. This might be my problem - getting a bit over-excited on the screwing up and screwing in too far. I'll bear this in mind.

Will.. · 11 May 2016

Drywall bits stop you from puncturing the plasterboard. Well worth getting some if you're boarding.

roughcaster · 11 May 2016

As PBD says, aleays make sure there is no play in the plasterboard, and don't overscrew. There are 3 things that I do "all the time", that might be of interest.

When i'm putting screws into plasterboard, especially on a ceiling, I push UP with my hand, onto the board as well, this makes sure the screw and the p/board have got maximum contact with the joist.

Second thing, and this might sound overkill, but I put a small piece of mesh tape over every screwhead, whether on a ceiling or a wall. Doesn't take long to do, and it binds the plaster over each screwhead.

Thirdly, and this never fails. When putting mesh tape along a BUTT joint, I then put half a dozen or so, pieces of mesh tape ACROSS the length of each butt joint. Each piece of tape across the joint would measure about 4 to 5 inches in length. This makes it far stronger across the joint, because EACH SEPERATE/INDIVIDUAL PIECE OF TAPE ACROSS THE JOINT, becomes a seperate barrier, gives it more strength, eliminates butt joints cracking.
I do all of these things and never have any of the problems mentioned above, cracks/ screwheads throwing plaster off.
Takes a little longer to prep, but no comebacks. Give it a go and see.

stevethespreader · 15 May 2016

Some joint cracks comeback no matter what you do I live in a small row of houses and each of us have cracks on the ceiling in 3 rooms in the same place give it take an inch they run from one wall to the other and then through into next door and so on, ive put it down to stress cracks but could it be something more sinister? Anyway I sured the cracks up with screws and scrim then skimmed I done everything text book and they still came back , I've just this moment redone the biggest one by ripping the old scrimtape out the tape was not cracked but the crack underneath transfered to the skim on top , I've now replaced it with papertape and jointed it anybody got any ideas as to why all houses has cracks in the same place? Anyway I took some pics of the progress they are on my old phone I will upload them when Ive got time

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Avoiding cracks in boarded ceiling

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