A former owner of my ranch style home modified the kitchen by moving a 10 foot section of an outside wall, outwards two feet to the fascia. He installed a sliding glass door in the new wall. The roof line forced him to add a 12 inch soffit at the ceiling above the new door. The construction techniques used were questionable at best. He installed a large header where the original wall once stood. It serves to support the ceiling as well as provide the surface for the face of the soffit. He did NOT use a cripple stud to support the header. Over time, the header dropped and crushed the drywall in the corner at the bottom of the header. This distorted the outside corner beads as well. There are two beads involved. There is a 7-foot long vertical piece running up the wall and a 10 foot horizontal piece running the length of the header. The beads are damaged where they meet in the corner of the opening. I can repair the drywall easily enough but I'm not sure how to repair the corner beads short of replacing them. If I replace them, there will a lot of work involved finishing the area with joint compound. The damaged area of each corner bead is about 1 to 2 inches long. Is there an easier way to repair the beads short of replacing them in their entirety?
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I suspect that you already know that answer to this one....no need to repair drywall until you fix the underlying structural issues if you haven't already. This will likely involve tearing out drywall here and there and you may as well patch it all at once.
I'd strongly recommend getting a structural engineer in to assess the header and header support. If the support for the header wasn't done correctly, it makes me wonder if the header itself is sized appropriately.
Once the structural issues are resolved, I'd probably just cut out the damaged corner bead and replace it rather than pulling out the whole bead. This will damage the surrounding drywall, but will be easier to fix than if you pull out the whole thing.
Steve
steve@paintermatch.com
http://www.paintermatch.com
I'd strongly recommend getting a structural engineer in to assess the header and header support. If the support for the header wasn't done correctly, it makes me wonder if the header itself is sized appropriately.
Once the structural issues are resolved, I'd probably just cut out the damaged corner bead and replace it rather than pulling out the whole bead. This will damage the surrounding drywall, but will be easier to fix than if you pull out the whole thing.
Steve
steve@paintermatch.com
http://www.paintermatch.com
Steve, Thanks for the advise. It's well taken. I've discovered that there's actually more to the story. The modifications were complete about 14 years ago. In addition to the kitchen mods, they built an addition as well (family room) off the kitchen as well. I have added a sketch to help in the explanation. The other end of the subject header is attached and fully supported by another header. The wall adjacent to the one modified in the kitchen was placed at a 135 degree angle and opened uo for passage between the kitchen and family room. The opening is more than 10 feet wide. The subject header is attached to the header of this newer opening about 3 feet from the end. In other words, I can stand directly beneath the end of the subject header and not touch anything at all. The original damage was done before I purchased the house, 7 years ago. I am sure the addition was added some 14 years ago, minimum as the electric base board heaters had a date code of 1992. No additional damage has been noted since I bought the house. I did find some original damage once I looked closely at the second end of the subject header. Someone had replastered the area and it was well covered. No additional damage has occurred. I'll have a structural engineer look at it. Thanks again.
