At the top of our stairs we have a ceiling to skirting crack, has been there for many years (settlement) Has been re-filled over the years. Now needs doing again. It's not just a 'hairline' crack, is looking quite bad. Should I take it back a fair way and re-fill/skim with multicoat. The walls will need re-emulsioning anyway.
Easi-fill or plaster
- Thread starter mikegm
- Start date
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What are the walls constructed of Mike?
If that was my job, i'd cut back the plaster (carefuly), 6" "either side of the crack", all the way up the wall. Cut and fix an 8" or 9" strip of EML, (wire lath), centrally over the crack in the brick/blockwork, fixing it on both sides of the crack. Fix the wire lath with 25 mm (or smaller), galvanised nails. If the blocks are soft enough, you can (carefuly) hammer the nails into them, but if the blocks are hard, then try hammering them into the old mortar joints. Make sure the wire lath is not proud of the original plaster surface. Once you have the wire lath fixed tightly, give the prepared area a wet down with water/pva, then bring it out flush, ( preferably in two coats), with bonding coat, hardwall or render. If you bring it out in two coats, make sure you scratch the first one, to provide a key for the second. When the backing coats have set, finish off the job with a couple of coats of multi finish. Let the whole thing dry out, then you're ready for decorating. There's a bit of work involved here, but there's more chance of it "not" cracking again, by doing it this way,, than simply taping it over, or using a filler.
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Cheers mucca. 
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