Cracked plaster

CouponWoman

If you tap the plaster in some places it sounds hollow and in others sounds solid, so some replacement is needed.

The ceiling in the bedroom is pretty bad and has dropped a little in two places.

Its just the quanity of cracking that is worrying me, and the suddenness of it.

There were a few cracks in the plaster on the stairs and landing when we bought the house.

The surveryor said we should consult a builder about it. One builder said we needed a new ceiling and another said ignore it and do nothing. We cannot ignore it as it looks a right mess, it would be impossible to paper over the cracks in the ceiling, there are too many.

Some cracks we filled and others we just painted over and it wasn't too bad. We now want to wallpaper one room at a time but the cracking is quite a worry.


thanks everyone for your advice.

Mrs_Imp

We papered over some huge cracks in our ceiling. We didn't want the hassle and mess of taking down a lathe and plaster ceiling and redoing it. We used something called wallrock or Rockwall (can't quite remember). It's brilliant stuff.

justjohn

OP
lathe and plaster - you should do as little as you can.
If only a few cracks then rake out and FILL with PLASTER AND LIME

If loads off cracks then it will only get worse(may take years). There are many things you can do .

1 skim hole room with plaster board straight on top of the lathe & plaster
2 fill and paper(i would not do that, looks terrible eventualy)
3 skim coat it if not sagging
4 Cut sections out/all and plaster board it.

If the cracks are realy bad you need to be sure of why they are appearing.

I have just raked out some plaster in my house(built 1800's). Cracks were there because plaster was over wooden lintels and plaster had just worked loose from wood.(raked,scored wood and plastered crack)
Also did a bit on my stairs caused by baby elephants running up and down stairs...

Kent_Plasterer_2

Never try and paper cover the cracks they will only come back and haunt you!