Caulking cracks

[AdamW]

I have a hairline step-crack in my bedroom wall. I redecorated 9 months ago and before painting removed the thick band of filler bodged on by the previous owners. I am thinking I should do the usual of opening out the crack a few mm, then filling with flexible decorator's caulk.

However, this is normally done before painting a whole wall. Any tips on doing this and just repainting the filler? I have the original paint and it is in painting condition hence it won't be from a different batch to the original paint. Is it relatively easy to blend with judicious use of sandpaper and water?

Repainting this particular wall would be a right bu**er so I would rather avoid painting the whole wall if at all possible.

 

[masona]

Cover it up with a picture of Tony Blair

 

[IanDB]

I think you'll find it depends on the type of finish you have. If you've used a matt emulsion then it should blend in OK. If it's more in the satin/glossy styles then you may find you're left with a "patch" in which case it's the whole wall - or of course you could put up a picture of Tony Blair.

I've found that polyfilla is fine for cracks in walls rather than decorator's caulk as you can smooth the finish off afterwards to the right level with fine sand paper.

 

[AdamW]

I can't put a picture of Tony Blair on that wall, I wouldn't have a clear shot with my darts!

It is matt emulsion on that wall. But I thought polyfilla would crack, hence the flexible caulk. Or do walls settle and stop cracking?

 

[IanDB]

Your walls shouldn't be moving any more (unless you've been drinking southern european quantities of alcohol ). Using something like polyfilla means that the surface finish will be very similar to the original plaster. You can also work it after it's dry by sanding it very lightly.

If you use decorator's caulk I'm pretty certain you'll never get it to match properly - although you could always prove me wrong!

Matt emulsion normally matches in very well - I've been patching up bits round my house and never had a problem so far.