"Laurie" wrote in message
news:Jluhi.441$7k7.156@trnddc01...
I am redoing the gameroom as a bedroom for my son now that the pool table's
been sold. I'm removing the awful wallpaper to paint, and have discovered
it is wallpaper over smooth plaster over textured plaster over drywall, but
hey, at least it's only 1 layer of wp. Pulling off the paper has pulled off
some of the smooth plaster, and we're going to have to steam off the rest
of the paper - don't know if that'll affect the plaster or not.

We've discovered some drywall cracks, plus my kid put his forearm through
one wall playing ninja warrior and indented the drywall with what looks
like bouncing a golf ball off of it (you know, the stuff that "Idunno"
does?), so I've got some repairs/replacements to make. This whole house
had foundation work done years ago and last summer a SE said it was
holding, so these are older cracks hidden by the wallpaper.

Q1 - there are some cracks over the doorways: must that drywall be cut
out and replaced or is there anything effective that will work on approx
8" long 1/8 - 1/16" crack between the doorframe and crown molding? I used
some flexible rubbery like spray coating several years ago to finish
cracks along a window on a P&B house I sold, but I never saw if it held or
not...


I am assuming these cracks are in the corners of the door opening and not in
the middle. If this is the case the drywall was hung improperly and the
hangers put a butt joint at or very close to the corner instead of breaking
in the middle or preferrably away from the door (a full sheet across the
opening with no joint near or over the door). If this is the case the
rubbery coating you used might work. The preferred method is to put a
single sheet of drywall all the way across the door opening and up to at
least the next stud away from the door.

Q2 - there are two corners where there is about 1/8" separation between
the two walls the entire height of the wall. How would I best deal with
that?


This reinforces the inproper hanging, or in this case, improper mudding of
the corner. Either the mud was put on too thick or there is no joint paper
in the corner. Sand it down to the paper and then redo it the correct way.
They now have inside corner molding. This might not be a bad idea for this
repair.

Q2 - Can I just retexture over the smooth plaster spread over the textured
drywall or is there some reason a 3rd layer could be a problem? I intend
to paint whenever we're done with this mess.


Unless you are using texturing paint you need to use green or moisture
resistant dry wall. Either way, a 3rd layer does not sound too good, but I
have no experince in this area. I hang for a living right now and have done
standard mudding in the past.

Mike D.