Here are some more images with the drywall. We do not want a dome. the diameter of the space is 16ft.

Vinyal

Well, dry wall cracks are going to happen on just about every house. Particularly if you are on soils that expand and contract a lot with moisture changes and new houses tend to settle a bit.

I see no reason what you are showing would be any more likely to crack as any other joint -you just happen to have a lot more of them in the same area. Sheetrock is fairly easy to fix.

I suppose you could lathe and plaster it but I don't think I would. I suppose the sheet rockers could have done the ceiling with two layers of 1/4" and eliminated 2/3 of the joints and over lapped them.

Chris

Thanks for your input. I might have look into the 1/4 inch board idea. The problem I am worried down the road will be how to get up there (26ft high ceiling located above a spiral staircase)to repair the cracks. I was wondering if there is some material (polyurethane or something else) that I could nail it on the drywall and then paint it. Would using EIFS with the foam boards and mesh be an option?
Vinyal

We rented a house with a Turret over the stairs. What a nightmare! It had a chandelier hanging from it and it was so difficult to change a light bulb and dangerous. We tried propping a ladder on the stairs but it was too scary.

The other problem was cob webs which hung from the turret. The house was built in the 60's and I don't think the turret was ever dusted.

When we contacted the owner about cleaning the cobwebs and changing the bulbs he said he couldn't do that nor clean the webbing.

We wound up hiring a painter who managed to get up there to change the lightbubs and sweep away the dust.

I do think this house had a higher ceiling than yours, so maybe you will be able to get up there. The stairs are the problem getting a ladder up there.

Jane

Jane

That is exactly what I am worried about. I am installing a chandelier lift to take care of changing bulbs.

Like Chris above mentioned I was wondering if a 1/4" high-flex Sheetrock and making it wet will make it flexible enough to be applied on the ceiling without cracking.

Vinyal

I could not tell how much curve you have up there it may be too much for 1/4" but the drywall people would know.

Yes I would think that you could plaster over a wire mesh and the EIFS system essentially does the same thing. I would guess that the final EIFS coating would have a bit more flex.

Ah the price of beauty!

Turret=

Completely impractical from a usability standpoint, but what a statement it makes. And people are willing to make sacrifices for appearances sake. So, you just have to take the bad with the good.

Looks like we have decided that we will stucco the ceiling. Our stucco guy has done this once before for a similar ceiling and so far has held up well for about 4yrs now. We shall see.

You could have a fiberglass dome, that uses bondo at the joints, to make the ceiling. The roof rafters settling would not effect it.

http://www.imperialdomes.com/DOME-4.htm