How to seal cornice gaps in garage?

[blackraven]

Hi all, 

Looking forward to being more active here having bought our first place. 

My question relates to a fairly large gap between the cornice and bare brick wall in our garage. Spiders and dust etc falls down onto our items we store there. 

The gap is pretty much around the entire garage- so not isolated to one area. I have attached some photos. I can see a previous owner has done some filler or something that has degraded or broken as the house has settled I guess. 

Can I just use some Selley's No More Gaps to plug the hole? Is there anything else I need to worry about. One photo has a crack visible on the ceiling that worries me a little. 

Thanks for the advice

[JacobZ]

Hi @blackraven,

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community and congratulations on your first home purchase. I am excited to see how our members can help you make it a wonderful place to live.

I will start by addressing the crack as if there is some movement in the ceiling, it will likely affect any gap filler applied nearby. Cracks are common at any corners in plasterboard sheet such as the one you have. It is likely due to settlement as you have stated but it is still worth assessing. 

I would start by gently pushing the sheet up to see if there is any movement. If there is, it could be one of two things, the plasterboard sheet has lost connection to the ceiling battens, or the ceiling battens have become compromised.

You should be able to tell the difference between the two quite easily. If the board moves and then hits something, it has come free of the battens above and can be fairly easily fixed by locating a batten and rescrewing the board with plasterboard screws, then taping and coating the crack using a Gyprock CSR 1.5kg DIY Rapid Plaster Repair Kit. Some guidance on this process can be found in this helpful article:

• How To Repair Cracks In Plaster

If you find that when you gently push the ceiling up, there is no void and it feels as if the whole ceiling moves, I would stop immediately and contact a professional as your ceiling framing may be compromised.

Hopefully what happens is you find there is no movement whatsoever and the crack stems from building settlement. In this instance you would simply follow the steps in the beforementioned article on how to repair the crack.

Once this is done, the gaps in the cornice are an easy fix. Selleys No More Gaps is perfect for this application, however if you find the gap is too wide and the gap filler is falling out, you may want to use some Moroday 10mm x 5m White Gap Filler Rod as a backing before applying the No More Gaps over the top.

Let me know if you need any further advice or assistance, I am more than happy to help.

Jacob