Cracks along Recessed Ceiling Joints that haven't been "Backblocked"...

Dear Sirs,

In an attempt to tackle some cracks along the Recessed Joints in the Bedroom ceiling, and after a lot of sheer Hard-Yakka, I was able to scrape out the old Compound/Tape/Compound at the joints right down (or should that be up?...) to the paper coating on the plasterboard itself, thus exposing the actual recessed edges of each sheet of plasterboard, with an eye to re-taping the joints...

Well, that was the original plan anyway... Only problem is - when I got that far, I discovered why the cracks had developed; the cotton-pickin' joints hadn't been "Backblocked"...:(. I can tell they haven't been, because midway between any two battens, I can push upwards on the edge of one sheet at a time, and get up to about a millimetre of movement without any effect on the adjacent unpushed sheet whatsoever...

Now, the thing is - I can't get into the ceiling, because there's no "Ceiling Space" (it's an old Block of Flats - complete with a near-flat roof...), and the roofing is old Kliplock (after a few years, with a little bit of oxidisation at the laps, you just can't get the stuff up and then back down again...:no: No Sirree!...)

So, my question is: Is there some sort of magic, very-thin, galvanised-metal barbed strip for pushing-in between the sheets along Recessed Joints in such situations as mine in order to get some "connection strength" along the joint prior to taping and plastering it up again?

Or is plain old tape and plaster by itself just about the only thing I can do?

If the latter is indeed the case, a couple more questions beg:

Does all perforated 50mm Paper Tape have that little crease (for using at corners) down the middle? (It was the only thing they had at the BigB besides the EasyTape...) Tape without the crease would surely be better for limiting cracking again in the future...

And is there any perforated Paper Tape available that is wider than 50mm?

Also, might one type of compound be markedly stronger than the rest in such a situation (perhaps Cornice Cement...:rolleyes:)

Any ideas Chaps?..:?

Many Thanks,
Batpig.


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