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jeff47

(26,549 posts)
4. Well, the good news on the cracks
Wed Dec 4, 2013, 11:47 PM
Dec 2013

is they're probably aesthetic - house isn't going to fall down, they're just ugly.

To check up on the guy fixing the insulation:
The key element in dealing with condensation in your ceilings (and walls) is the vapor barrier. It's a sheet of plastic-like material that keeps the water vapor on the "warm" side so it can't reach the cold air and condense. If you're in a temperate climate, it should be under the drywall, in front of the insulation. (If you're in a very warm climate - think Miami - then it'll be on the opposite side of the insulation. I'm gonna treat the rest of this as if you're not in such a warm climate)

It was either a very large roll of material that was stapled in place before the drywall was installed, or it is the paper-like facing on the warm side of fiberglass bats. You should not have such material on the "cold" side (attic side). The attic side should just have "raw" insulation. There also should not be a vapor barrier in the middle of the insulation. (often people will add faced bats when upgrading their insulation, which is wrong. Need to use unfaced in that situation.)

The cracks themselves:
The cracks are probably happening because the people who installed your drywall did not properly account for expansion of the drywall as it heats up. They should have left a small gap between the panels so that they have room to expand - the panels expand with heat, and if they're too close the only way they can expand is into the room, creating a crack.

To fix this, you can create room for that expansion. Use a utility knife, router or other convenient cutting tool to trim the drywall where it is cracked so there's room for expansion. The gap should be something like 1/8th of an inch or a tad larger. Don't go bigger than a 1/4 inch, because that will make it harder to finish the drywall. Then you'll need to apply drywall tape and drywall compound to cover up the gap. It's easy to do, and there's lots of resources on the web describing how.

The microwave condensation is probably being caused by the range vent in the microwave. There should be a small door inside the vent that prevents the cold outside air from reaching the microwave. That door might be stuck. The "easy thing to try" is to use something like a shop-vac or other vacuum to try and clean out the vent from the outside. Beyond that the fixes start to heavily depend on how exactly the microwave is installed and vented, and your abilities with tools.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

My dear GreenPartyVoter... CaliforniaPeggy Dec 2013 #1
Thanks, Peggy! I have a sinking feeling that the blown-in insulation has all gotten damp with GreenPartyVoter Dec 2013 #2
My guess would be warm moist air hitting a cold vent pipe. Hassin Bin Sober Dec 2013 #3
That's what we think too.The vent is GreenPartyVoter Dec 2013 #5
The section exposed in the attic - can you wrap that with insulation? Hassin Bin Sober Dec 2013 #7
Thank you. :^) We are definitely going to try to wrap the parts we can reach, and I want to GreenPartyVoter Dec 2013 #8
I'm a fanatic about bath fans. Hassin Bin Sober Dec 2013 #11
Well, the good news on the cracks jeff47 Dec 2013 #4
Thanks, Jeff. I tried explaining to Hassin Bin Sober about the cracks (mini canyons, really) GreenPartyVoter Dec 2013 #6
It looks like the cracks are still a heat expansion issue jeff47 Dec 2013 #16
Thanks! I will go up to the attic this weekend and poke around. Is the duct tape the same as the GreenPartyVoter Dec 2013 #18
It's similar enough tape. jeff47 Dec 2013 #19
I wonder if a re-paint with a good quality low permeability primer would... Hassin Bin Sober Dec 2013 #9
Supposedly the house needs to breathe??? But I would just as soon not have GreenPartyVoter Dec 2013 #10
You've got two envelopes that need to breathe ..... Hassin Bin Sober Dec 2013 #12
Yikes! $60K?! That would give me a heart attack! GreenPartyVoter Dec 2013 #14
I wonder if the decking in the attic is giving you less margin for error ... Hassin Bin Sober Dec 2013 #13
I do wonder about it myself. I need the decking because I am GreenPartyVoter Dec 2013 #15
Probably not jeff47 Dec 2013 #17
Very nice looking home! Adsos Letter Dec 2013 #20
Thanks! Got it at Home Depot or Lowes. It's Bruce, and was very cheap, but there were GreenPartyVoter Dec 2013 #21
The last time I ran into that problem Wash. state Desk Jet Dec 2013 #22
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