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Seams & crown molding cracking after 2 months

10 years ago

We had a large kitchen renovation project done over the summer/fall. We are now finding, after only 2 months, that all of the crown molding and wall seams are cracking open. These are all 1/8" to 1/4" cracks where the caulking was used in the seams, and then painted over. All of the crown molding is along walls that existed before the renovation and were not modified. We didn't make any major structural changes - just removed 1 non-load-bearing wall, and widened an opening on a load-bearing wall - but added a larger header above that opening - and the cracks are nowhere near where those changes were made.

The weather has now gotten cold (Virginia), so that might have an impact. All of the other existing walls/molding in our 18-year-old house are not doing that, except in a few places (and those are after 18 years).

My question is whether this cracking after 2 months might be due to the quality of caulk that was used or some other factor, or is this normal after a renovation? I'm pretty sure our contractor used a latex caulk so that it could be painted.

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Comments (4)

GreenDesigns
10 years ago
Wood expands when it's humid because it absorbs moisture. It contracts when it's dry, because it loses that moisture. Movement from wood is 100% normal and to be expected seasonally. It perhaps may be magnfified in your case because the AC wasn't running when the work was done so there was more humidity around for the wood to absorb.

Contact the contractor for a call back, but you have to be careful about making things too tight during the dry season. If you do that, you can get buckling and cupping when the humidity naturally rises come late spring into summer.

You can also talk with a HVAC pro about installing a whole house humidifier. Most wood floor manufacturers and cabinet manufacturers require the home's humidity to be between 25-55% year round for their warranty to remain in force. That means using the AC in the summer as well, and being sure that it's not too oversized to handle the humidity.
ajw_in_va
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks for the reply. Given that seasonal movement of the wood, is there any sort of caulk that would handle that movement without cracking? Any reason all of the other molding and wall seams don't have seasonal cracking? I see caulks with silicone at the home stores - is that a better choice?
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aidan_m
10 years ago
Elastomeric caulk handles movement.

Framing lumber is often VERY wet. When a whole house is built from scratch, all the framing wood is similar. When a new house dries out, the whole structure experiences the shrinkage proportionally. In a rennovation, the new framing is going to shrink to a much greater degree than the old existing framing. I think this is why the new framing shrinkage seems so severe compared to the 18 year old framing.

I use kiln dried framing lumber in rennovations, to minimize this phenomenon. It behaves much more like the old framing.

The good news is the wood has now dried to a stable level of moisture. The future seasonal movement of the rennovation will be similar to the rest of the house. Replace the bad caulk joints with elastomeric, a little touch-up paint, and you're good to go.
homebound
10 years ago
Wall seams, too? How about some pics?

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