Drywall Cracks at the above corner of door frames

[The A-Team]

Hello All, We are very new to this site as well and pruchasing and older home for the first time. There are cracks (some straight up and down and others at at angle) above some of the door frames in the house. At first this really scared us, however, after having a structual engineer inspect the home... it is in pretty good condition. No Piers or Beams needed. Ederly or disabled lived have lived here for the past 40 years. This house has just not been well maintained but, was built well. My question is how do we repair the cracks? Re-place the drywall by cutting it out around the cracks (i.e. strenghting it) or just patch properly and paint over it. 1st. We have fixed drywall before. For example, behind a washer or dryer but, you could always tell if you looked closley that it had been fixed. 2nd. This is an odler, crawl space home, and with Oklahoma clay soil it is really a pretty well built house. However, we want to invest in the solution that will best be for the long term? Very excited and a little scared at the same time. Would appreciate any advice you guys can give. Thanks, The A-Team

[marksr]

Welcome to the forums!

Are you sure it's drywall and not plaster? Generally drywall will crack along the seams while plaster can get cracks in any direction.

For drywall you would tape and finish like you would any joint. The same can be done for plaster although many times it's easier [and better looking] to scratch out the crack and fill with a setting compound like durabond.

[GBR in WA]

http://www.plaster-wall-ceiling-solu...er-cracks.html
Be safe, Gary

[The A-Team]

It's drywall as far as we know
The angled cracks we were told are due to shifting or movement of the house... and the straight up and down are due to being old and no new paint... does that sound right?
My question is do you cut out the drywall around the door frame and "patch" it like you would wet or otherwise damaged drywall or do you just tape it and/or fill it in with something. Because it is old if you just tape it will it crack again?

[The A-Team]

Would plaster be common instead of drywall in an older home? This one was built in the late '60's.
If so how do we tell?

[marksr]

I don't exactly when drywall was introduced although before drywall became prevalent they had switched from wood lath to a gypsum lath [strips of drywall to apply the plaster too] By the late 60's there were probably more homes being built with drywall than plaster. If you took a switch plate off and examine around the opening, you should be able to determine what the wall consists of. If you try to scratch out the diagonal crack and hit paper - you have drywall.

Because drywall is in sheets, it isn't common for it to crack anywhere but the seams but it is possible for there to be cracks elsewhere, just not common. I don't know that lack of fresh paint would cause the tape at the seams from failing although good paint does help the wall from obsorbing moisture.

Generally it's easier to repair than to replace. Is there a specfic reason that you think that area isn't repairable? Usually taping the cracks and filling or covering with joint compound as needed is all that is required.