Any drywall experts in the house?

[JohnC]

Our home in Idaho is pretty newish. We noticed that one area of the ceiling had an approximately 2 foot section of drywall tape starting to bubble and just seemed like it wasn’t adherent to the Sheetrock and joint compound beneath it. There’s no reason to suspect a water issue.
I pulled the loose tape up, cleaned up the area of loose material and re-taped it using the adhesive drywall mesh tape. I then filled in the area with joint compound, re-textured and repainted the area. Less than 4-6 weeks later there is a very noticeable crack forming exactly at the drywall seam. I scraped away some of the loose material before I thought to take a picture but here is a picture of a cracked section.

Any idea what would cause this and how I can prevent it from happening the next time? From the small section where I scraped the loose material it seems like the dry wall mech tape that I recently installed is still intact and not pulling up.

 

[JohnC]

Here’s another section where I scraped the loose material. You can see a section of the mesh tape still buried in the joint compound and firmly adherent. At the bottom of the picture which is a bit out of focus, you can see a section that is cracked.
As I recall, I fill this area in 2 stages. After taping, I buried the tape in joint compound, then after it dried I went over it again to bring it up the the level of the surrounding area. I’d speculate that could be the reason why it seems to have almost delaminated. The second layer didn’t fuse with the first layer. Not sure that explains why the crack is coming through though

Thanks.

 

[JohnC]

Update:
Figured it out. I realized there is nothing behind that sheet rock joint. I ripped off my prior repair including the sheetrock tape and noted a little movement when I pressed with the putty knife.
So I got up in the attic and Liquid Nailed some strips of 1x3 wood over the joint. So these two edges shouldn’t move relative to each other now. I’ll retape and mud the joint tomorrow.

 

[kmakar]

Typically in a newer house there will be settling to begin with. As you mentioned if there is nothing securing the 2 ends of sheetrock those are the sections that will likely crack with no backing.

Was this between joists, or near and end seam? If it's near and end seam the best way to repair it for good is to screw another 2x4 scab and then screw the sheetrock from below, then tape and refinish.

 

[Shovelrick]

Air bubble between the drywall and tape can cause that

 

[JohnC]

The seam ran perpendicular to the joists near the middle of a room.

 

[kmakar]

The seam ran perpendicular to the joists near the middle of a room.

It's very possible the tape was never bedded properly and settling has presented itself in a bubble.

 

[Shovelrick]

This is a wall repair I did in 2011 and our wood frame house with a Huge oak tree messing with the foundation on the opposite side of the house it’s in need of repair again or I may have not bedded it good enough

 

[JohnC]

I’m no expert but I think the original issue was the tape was not properly embedded. Perhaps not enough joint compound underneath causing the whole piece of tape bubbling up.
My retape job was good though. The tape was well embedded and didn’t pull away without significant effort. For whatever reason the two floating edges of the Sheetrock moved relative to each other causing the reappearance of the hairline crack. I feel pretty good that bonding the two edges together with a piece of wood backing will prevent future failure.

 

[kmakar]

Most times what people (and some pros too) is the tape must be wet otherwise it sucks the moisture from the mud and never really attaches. I usually take all my corners and flats and run them into a bucket of water before I bed the tape in the mud.