Newly Plastered Walls.

Adam135 · 9 Oct 2008

Hi,

I have had the walls plastered recnetly.

I have a problem/question.

Is heat ment to make plaster crack?

Well the wall, Were the fireplace is, Has cracks in it.

The only logic i could work out is the heat has made the wall crack.

What can be done to get rid of this crack and prevent it from happening again?

I have enclosed a picture below.

Distance:

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Adam135
9 Oct 2008
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UpClose:

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Adam135
9 Oct 2008
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Thanks!

marshman · 9 Oct 2008

heat will crack plaster more so if the backing plaster is render and is to hard a mix near a fire place.
this maybe a one off shrinkage crack so for the time being I'd just fill it with Polly filler and give the room time to dry.

Adam135 · 9 Oct 2008

Oh Okay.

What does "render" mean,

Sorry if thats a stupid question.

Will polyfiller cover the crack up completely.

Richard C · 9 Oct 2008

Waqz said:
I have had the walls plastered recnetly.

Do you mean plastered as in “base coat & a skim” or have you just had a re-skim?
If it’s just a re-skim & no attempt has been made to rectify cracks already present, then it won’t hold the base coat together, it will just crack open again.

Waqz said:
I have a problem/question.
Is heat meant to make plaster crack?

Heat, especially concentrated from a fire, will make any plaster crack if it hasn’t has a chance to fully dry out; on a new house this can take up to a year & builders call it shrinkage! The best new house to move into are those completed in April/May as you won’t have to put the heating on till October & so will get far fewer cracks.

Waqz said:
Well the wall, Were the fireplace is, Has cracks in it. The only logic i could work out is the heat has made the wall crack.

Presumably you’ve lit the fire, how log ago was the wall plastered? But it’s not really relevant if you’ve just had a skim over existing cracks.

marshman · 9 Oct 2008

render = sand & cement backing plaster coat.

Adam135 · 9 Oct 2008

Um, Not too sure.

Well there was wallpaper there, Took that off and skimed over it.

It isnt a new house that ive moved into.

Its been a couple of months since the skimming has been done, No mroe than 4 months id say.

The old fire was lit and it made a mssive crack along the wall,
From reading elsewere it said to cut that crack bigger, enough to fill, fill it up with plaster and than paint over, It should go away, But that crack has now come back again.

After that the new fire has been put in, Its now showing this crack above in the picture. If i tried to fill this up without making it any bigger, Would it be okay?

Richard C · 10 Oct 2008

Almost zero chance of that working I would say. With small cosmetic cracks restricted to the outer skim, I apply some reinforcing tape before skimming & this is usually all it needs to hold it together. I don’t know where you got the advice about cutting back larger cracks & just applying filler but it’s not very good advice! If the cracks are more substantial, I always remove the plaster & base coat or render right back to the brick/block work to have a look. If the bricks are sound I just re-render & skim but with block work walls, sometimes the crack goes right though those as well. In this case, I hack it all off around 200mm each side of the crack, reinforced it with a 300mm wide strip or stainless steel mesh, re-render & then skim. It’s the only way you’ll stand any chance of it not cracking open again; it’s usually very successful but no guarantees it won’t reappear even then.

onlymem82000 · 10 Oct 2008

Hi ya before you go and hack at the wall try running a stanley knife along the crack to make it only slightly bigger and then use a flexible filler like decorators mate, this may sort this out if it is just a shrinkage crack.

There may be a bit more of a problem there but try the easy way first , dont start hacking at the wall as this may well work, it will save you time and money if it does.

I have been plastering for nearly 20 years and shrinkage will happen, some times more than others deppending on the surface of the wall that was plastered.

you could have another underlying problem but with out knowing what the wall was like before it was plastered it hard to say,

good luck

Richard C · 11 Oct 2008

onlymem82000 said:
Hi ya before you go and hack at the wall try running a stanley knife along the crack to make it only slightly bigger and then use a flexible filler like decorators mate, this may sort this out if it is just a shrinkage crack.

There may be a bit more of a problem there but try the easy way first , dont start hacking at the wall as this may well work, it will save you time and money if it does.

I have been plastering for nearly 20 years and shrinkage will happen, some times more than others deppending on the surface of the wall that was plastered.

you could have another underlying problem but with out knowing what the wall was like before it was plastered it hard to say,

good luck

Nothing to loose in trying I suppose but the OP’s last post would seem to indicate he’s already done that & it’s failed; difficult to say without actually seeing it but it looks like more than cosmetic shrinkage in the skim to me. If the base has gone, no amount of flexible filler will hold it together & it will keep cracking open; if the blocks/bricks have gone it will need more serious rectification.

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Newly Plastered Walls.

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