crack in newly skimmed plaster

tanoid

Hello,

I had no idea that these hairline cracks were normal! Should i still be expect shrinkage cracks appearing after 3 months?
I've had some bad problems with cracks appearing in my living room in a top floor flat which was reskimmed. The plaster originally did the work about three months ago and cracks keep on appearing. He has been back twice already, thankfully, to patch up the cracks. However since being away over christmas i have returned to see many more cracks appearing and i am really unhappy at this continually happening. I have not had a living room for 3 months and desperately want to get on with redocarting, but i will have to sort this out again before i can get going. Overall there are about 10 places where hairline cracks have occurred. Is cracking to this extent normal?

ormus

it takes about a year to find out what/where/when any cracks will appear. thats to allow for a complete year of seasons. ps, then you have the extremes such as the summer of 76?
or the winter of 62?

where are the cracks actually?
normal movement cracks usually appear at the wall ceiling joint. hence we use a flexible filler before we decorate.

if you live in a flat, there maybe other reasons why the cracks are developing. ie is anyone doing any building work next door, up or down?

tanoid

or the winter of 2010...

most of the cracks appear on one wall, which was partially covered with artex. i've attached a picture to show where cracks have appeared and where the artex was. the room previously had a false ceiling which went down to the top of the artex, which has been removed. obviously the change in room volume must have had some
effect.
there isn't any work going on next door or below. i'm worried that the large amount of cracks could be symptomattic of structual problems, however we had a structural engineer inspect the property 3 years ago and everything was ok.
i'm running out of patience as i really want to get the room painted and get a carpet in. i suppose that i will have to just paint it and get any new cracks patched up as they appear.
i wonder if wallpapering would hide the problems?

Imp

I re-plastered my 1930s kitchen last summer. The bottom half was tiled, and when the tiles were removed, the plaster came off. I used hardwall on this section to bring the wall level. Once this had dried, I painted everywhere which Wickes Plaster Bonding Agent to seal the different surfaces and provide a key for the skim. I then put tape at each joint between the old plaster and the new plaster, and over any existing cracks and skimmed the lot.

So far no cracks, the only problem was the tape didn't stick at all well the the Bonding Agent.

In the living room, which was full of cracks and was obviously moving, instead of skimming I used Wallrock lining paper and painted over that. This gave a good finish to the room, and again, no cracks.

Radsteral

logik wrote: »

I have to disagree with some advice on here as i too have a 1930 house and i had some of it reskimmed. PVA is what needs to go on any wall first and it creates a barrier to stop plaster drying out too quick if you do it there should not be any cracks from drying quickly. sometimes a few coats are needed. secondly plaster tape needs to be placed over all existing cracks before skimming and if you dont do that all olds cracks come back through.
i had a crack in 1 ceiling and the plasterers did not tape over it and as soon as the plaster dried the same crack came straight back. i never used those plasterers again but the new plasterers used tape and pva on walls and no cracks have ever come back. so the rule is tape up all cracks and pva all walls to slow the drying and that will fix 99% of problems.

after 5 years i now have crack free walls and ceilimgs on a 1930 house, there is also always cracks that would appear on very large rooms with shrinkage and ground movement on like a new extension as it settles they are easy enough to fill like previous post mention.

PVA?
Pva is 6 quid for 5 littres my friend , its getting cheaper and chaeper and the quality going down the drain aswell.
I use thistle bond-it 10 litre= 50 quid and its the best you can treat your walls, and still my warranty covers everything but the cracks.
I put mesh in every corner a standard, and everywhere cracks visible but still cracks,
Your house- just luck thats all.
I was probably the only company that issued 1 year guaranttee for cracks when i first started .
Now my terms and conditions are very basic No guarantee for cracks