Patching a Settlement Crack in Drywall

Hi, my name is Mark McClain and now, we are going to show you how to fix a settlement crack. First, we are going to get a knife and we are going to take some of the pressure off. I am cutting the crack open. Settlement cracks are caused by movement in the ground. Definitely, when a house is sitting on a slab it will have a tendency to shift as the ground gets wet and dries up. Now, we relieve the pressure from the crack. I am going to go back with the same material and start pre-filling the hole. This is a chemical mud so it can be used for all parts of the repair. I am going to put the mud on it. Now, we are going to put some paper tape. This will make the crack stronger and keep it, prevent it from cracking back up. Then that's for the first step. We are going to let that dry now. A typical job would be a three coat process, would be a tape, a top and a skim and then a texture coat depending if it is smooth wall or a textured finish. Everything depends on what's existing or what's desired. Now, we are moving on to the second step where we will be coating this patch. Yes, we will feather the patch up by going wider, I am pulling both sides of the tape and then again, we are going to press on the edge. Take the edge off. On the other edge, we will come back and pass it down each side. At the end of this we are going to show you how to do some final skimming and texturing. I am going to go ahead and clean this up here and we will let this dry for about 40 minutes and that takes care of that process. In our next clip, we will show you how to repair a hole in the wall.