# Drywall Tape Ghosting?



## black ops (Feb 15, 2014)

Hi All,

We just rebuilt our home about 2 years ago. We had major flooding and the only thing that was salvaged was the frame work. We thankfully had insurance which covered the entire repair. We spent about $35k in cleaning and drying alone and also spent a few $$$ on a certified mold/mildew specialist to test inside and outside of our home about a year ago. We also recently re-shingled the roof. All is great...except for our ceilings.

We live in ND and we have had more than usual single and below zero temps this winter. We have cathedral ceilings in our home and every room shows signs if dark streaks. Ghosting right? Well I am confused because the dark steaks follow the drywall seams and not the studs or joists. I also verified that our studs run vertical so the streaking is going the wrong way if it were following the studs. One area was soft and the paint and texture bubbled. I investigated further and determined that the drywall was in fact dry which leads me to believe it was caused by surface condensation. Again this happened in the area of one of the dark streaks.

Is it possible that the gypsum installers over sanded the taped areas causing less of a barrier? My guess is that the warm air is attracted right to those areas.

I have tested our humidity with in the home and everything tested great. The streaks are getting worse and I am losing my mind. Also, we never had this issue prior to rebuilding. We have no leaks from the roof that we are aware of and nothing points to that. 

The streaks are happening on both the north and south side of our home and all run the same direction and many time line up from room to room. I would also like to mention that this only seems to occur during the winter months ans it did start prior to the new roof being put on.

Help? Suggestions and comments greatly appreciated. Thank you!


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## Huskee (Feb 14, 2014)

A good coat of paint with a good cover up paint like Killz, followed by a topcoat of whatever regular paint you choose will help this. It is not from over-sanding. This sounds like some old humidity mildew/mold staining on the seams (the mud and tape on the seams will saturate and collect moisture from when the flooding occurred and stain or mold/mildew, causing the staining, even though it's dry right now, this is especially true if there wasn't a good quality seal from good paint prior to the flooding) If you're looking for a sure thing, get your ceiling textured or skimmed by some pros and repainted and you'll never see this again. Better yet, get it re-taped, and textured and painted. But on cathedral ceilings in a finished home this will run $$$, sorry to say. I've been through home flooding, and sometimes the after-effects are surprising with what things are affected after the fact. Best wishes.


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## black ops (Feb 15, 2014)

Thank you for your advice. My thought was to seal with kilz and seal with paint as well. We went back through old receipts and found that we paid $15,000 to a professional painter to come and prime and paint for us upon rebuilding. Receipts show 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint were used. We hired all professional people to come in and clean, dry and rebuild this house, as required by our mortgage holder. We weren't even allowed put a door knob on ourselves.


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## black ops (Feb 15, 2014)

I also want to be clear that every piece of drywall was taken out and replaced including the ceilings. I forgot to mention in my op that most of the streaks are starting to show a small crack in the sheetrock also running the length of the streak and again this is the length of the seams and not the studs. We have tried covering it with regular primer and paint but to no avail, it comes back over time.


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## Huskee (Feb 14, 2014)

black ops said:


> I also want to be clear that every piece of drywall was taken out and replaced including the ceilings. I forgot to mention in my op that most of the streaks are starting to show a small crack in the sheetrock also running the length of the streak and again this is the length of the seams and not the studs. We have tried covering it with regular primer and paint but to no avail, it comes back over time.


To me it sounds like bad materials. Whoever did the work should offer some warranty. Have you tried ringing them?


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## black ops (Feb 15, 2014)

Yep , have a them coming out to look into it. Hopefully their visit will turn up something.


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## Jb1234 (Aug 18, 2012)

$15,000 to paint? Can I ask how large your house is? I assume this included all materials. Do you know what materials were used? As in brand names for primer and paint.


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## black ops (Feb 15, 2014)

Jb1234 said:


> $15,000 to paint? Can I ask how large your house is? I assume this included all materials. Do you know what materials were used? As in brand names for primer and paint.


The home is 3200 sqft (main floor and basement). All materials included.. Sherwin Williams materials. We are in the middle of a very large oil boom and have been for a few years. Housing shortages plus the flood has driven up the cost of everything in our part of the state.


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## Gary in WA (Mar 11, 2009)

Is every bay of the cathedral ceiling vented- top/bottom?

What type of cavity insulation?

With the rafters acting as thermal bridges to the cold outdoor temps, the warm, moist inside air is condensing at the framing, better understanding of how/why, but reversed; http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-009-new-light-in-crawlspaces/

Pulling all tape and re-taping with hot mud (setting type compound)/paper tape, MAY cure it as it would repel moisture better plus a good coating over that; http://www.usg.com/content/dam/USG/...e-joint-compounds-durabond-submittal-J17A.pdf

Gary


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