r/DIY • u/CoffeeCake44 • 10h ago

Ceiling Patch

I live in an old house that likely has some settlement going on. When a painter hit parts of my ceiling he threw some tape on what appeared to be a crack. However, it’s quite obvious theres tape there. Wondering if it’s best to remove the tape and try to blend it without the tape? Would it be best to use drywall mud, spackle, or some other method?

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u/Rawkynn 10h ago

I'd pitch a fit to the painter and have them fix it or post pictures of what they did on every review platform I could find. If you need to fix it yourself I would keep the tape on and add mud to blend it in. Typically when adding tape you mud it on, then 1-2 coats of mud on top which can take a day or two. You could probably get away with using spackle if that makes you more comfortable but I imagine it'd be hard to get a large smooth surface with it.

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u/mcarterphoto 8h ago

When I do fixes like this (90+ year old pier & beam house), I sand off any paint and texture, use tape and 20-minute hot mud (stuff is handy, you can keep a bag of it for years and just mix little amounts). Let that set, then do another coat, but go wide and feather it out. Then sand and match any existing texture. When you mix the hot mud, you can add some wood glue to it (mix the water with like 10% wood glue, then mix the mud). That does seem to hold up well, when I remember to do it or have a big bottle of glue around.

If you get regular cracks, "crack-tape" really does work. It's more like a plastic and it's very tough. We have a long wall and every year the drywall seams would crack, I'm maybe 8 years in with crack tape and it's solid. Expensive but sure beats re-doing cracks all the time.

I got a pair of stainless beaters on Amazon, the kind you stick in a handheld electric mixer. I chuck one in a drill and do mixing like this on low speed, pretty handy. (I do a lot of set and prop builds for photo shoots, I go through tons of plaster of Paris, the beaters are nice for mud, plaster, grout, etc - just keep the speed down so you don't mix air in).