How do I permanently repair a corner joint where one wall has shifted downward during summer settling?

Question

I've repaired it a couple of times, but each summer when the ground shifts (clay soil) one wall will move downward a little bit (less than an inch) causing the tape to buckle and make diagonal ripples in the tape joint. Sometimes it pulls the tape off the wall, sometimes it doesn't.

Answer 1

Sounds like you have a pretty funky structure to have that kind of shifting?! That said, the movement is in the whole wall it sounds like and the good fix would be to get under the outside part of the foundation, dig it out and jack it up (10 ton jack, rent or cheap t buy) to be where it is suppose to be. Pour a second stabalizing foundation block under the offending corner. 4-8 bags of concrete should do it. Back fill and tamp the ear around the new pour.
If there are cracks in the foundation there are epoxy glues that you can fill those crack with and they hold like gang busters. I've used em'. Chekc with Simpson Ties, or any lumber yard should have that info for you.
Once you have stabalized that corner, you should be able to tape and mud that corner interior and not have to deal with movement in it anymore.
Lots of work but you asked! Good luck!

Answer 2

You can do what I do when the dry spell hits I water my foundation along with my yard. This keeps the house from settling and is a whole lot cheaper that paying ten grand to have the foundation supported as to not fall. That was the quote from one of them guys , I was considering it when I ran into a man who had his done ten years ago and now he just had the other side done. I figure I can keep watering my foundation for many years for ten or twenty grand.

Answer 3

How about putting two pieces of trim over them and attach it in such a way that it floats. then who cares whats happening behind it.