PS to the below. If you don't want to buy a whole roll of tape
for a 12" crack, a strip of paper from a paper grocery sack will
work just fine.



wrote in message
ups.com...

Gary KW4Z wrote:
We plan on selling our current home in a year or so and upon
doing
inspections to find possible flaws or common problems that will
need to be
addressed to help sell the home I noticed a drywall crack
extending from the
top corner of a room opening to the edge of the second level
floor in an
open foyer (open from lower level to upper level). This crack
is visible in
the drywall and looks bad and I would like to get rid of it to
keep it from
being an issue with a home inspector or potential buyer. The
home is about
4 to 5 years old.

Any ideas on how to eliminate this crack, most likely caused
due to some
settling, without causing some major problems to the drywall.
The crack
extends at about a 45 degree angle, upwards, and about for 18
inches.

You need something to hold things together- either open-mesh
glass
tape, or
the traditional paper tape, work fine; the glass is thicker.
Your
technique can
be a limiting factor in the mudding part.

What I'd do: sand the area lightly about 6" either side of crack
(don't
fuzz up
the paper on the wallboard), removing whatever's loose in the
crack.
Then "tape"
it like any other drywall joint, keeping layers as thin as
possible.
Scrape
the area after each coat dries to remove any high spots, which
should
be few.

Prime & paint.

Just stuffing anything _into_ gap won't git-er-done.

J