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Building Homes or Extensions/Inside corner wallboard tape buckles

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Expert: - 10/25/2008


Question

Corner Tape
I have a 27 year old home.  The tape in the corner of one bedroom, and in
one corner of our bathroom area has "buckled" - it is noticeably puckered for  
the height of the wall in one room, but not the entire corner in the other.  The
surrounding sheetrock area does not seem to be affected.  The two corners
are not connected to each other.  I have other areas in the house where the
sheetrock has cracked horizontally (straight line, not anlgled), but again, on
unrelated walls.

Answer
Hi Steve, the puckering of corner tape can be caused by two different things.  The first possibility is that somehow moisture has gotten behind the tape and caused the mud to soften and the tape to loosen.  If this is the case then you need to find the source of the moisture, fix the problem and then retape.

The second possibility is that the tape was never bedded properly and there wan't enough drywall mud put behind the tape to begin with or the mud that was put behind the tape was squeezed out during the taping process.  One way to tell is to just peel the tape off and look.  If the tape peels easily off  and then sticks in certain areas, the areas where the tape sticks probably has obvious drywall mud behind it and the area where the tape is loose has little if any drywall mud behind it.  This problem can go several years without discovery because the mud on top of the tape will hold it in place until something disturbs it.  It sounds to me that you might have had some movement in your walls recently i.e. the cracking in other areas. This movement may have been enough to break the improperly bedded tape loose and cause the buckling.

If your tape is improperly bedded you might be able to pull the tape loose one side at a time, put some drywall mud behind it and refinish it without having to remove the tape and start over from scratch.

I hope this information helps feel free to write again regarding this or other matters, sincerely bruce e johnson..bejohnsonconsulting.com

Bruce E. Johnson

Expertise

I can answer any construction related question in regards to carpentry, concrete, drywall, masonry, structural elements of any type of building, residential or commercial. Interior or exterior.

Experience

Custom Commercial and residential buildings. Churches, theaters, schools and auditoriums. Most recently I am working with the Catholic Church on several design build committees. I have a website related to scheduling and project supervision. Although my expertise is more related to multimillion dollar commercial, educational and theatrical projects my generous credentials in residential and remodelling construction make me a viable source of information regarding all forms of building questions.

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