Paper on ceiling has a slight crack!

[dc110770]

Ok my lounge / dininger has paper on the ceiling. It is a textures paper but doesn't look too bad.

I note that there is a slight tear in the paper along one of the joists. Having it overboarded is out of the question as we have coving up. Not enough space to have a board. I have looked at taking down the existing ceiling but its more money than I can afford.

Options?:

Repaper the ceiling? over paper the existsing ceiling paper.
Get an extra thick paint and apply a few coats to try and cover the crack
Smooth over the crack and paint?

Any recommendations welcome.

Thanks,

Dan

 

[sparkwright]

Fill it carefully with filler and paint.

 

[dc110770]

Will polyfiller suffice?

 

[Richard C]

If there is enough movement to tear the paper then covering it with more paper or filler won’t be successful, it will only crack again. You can repair cracks on what is (presumably) a plastered ceiling under the paper but you will have to remove the paper, sort out the movement (usually additional fixing screws), tape the cracks & re-skim; you can either just blend in the crack or re-skim the whole cieling. Downside is you won’t know what else is under the paper until it’s off but you should be able to see where there are likely to be further cracks; as long as the ceiling is basically sound, it can be repaired without over boarding.

If you still want to try filling, flexible caulk is likely to be more successful than filler; it normally looks awful used as a filler but should blend into patterned paper quiet well.

 

[dc110770]

I think the paper is on the board. I took the paper on the ceiling in one of the bedrooms and it was not plastered. I am going to have the entire upstairs reboarded and reskimmed but as I say the lounge / dinner is a different story!

Due to the house already costing me an arm and a leg to update / fix since I moved in (3 months ago) I can only have so much done. Eventually we will get a new ceiling inn but for the timebeing its a quick fix I am afraid.

So I am planning the following:

Fill the crack / tear with flexible caulk (where is the best place to get this please)
2 coats of cracked ceiling / wall polyfiller paint
one coat of brilliant white silk

I will report back with the result.

Cheers,

Dan

 

[Blagard]

I think the paper is on the board. I took the paper on the ceiling in one of the bedrooms and it was not plastered.

In the 50's with some of the system build houses they just put the boards up closed the gaps off with approx 2 inch wide tape and painted over the lot - Looked horrible with visible nail heads to. Not even close to a modern taped system. I can understand someone sticking a textured wall paper over them!

I would do as you thinking, either reboard or overboard when you get the chance and have a conventional skim plaster finish. Reboarding can make it easy to check you have sufficient noggins and perhaps strutting in the joists to eliminate/minimise risk of movement on the new boards

 

[jcpreston22]

Hi Dan

Appreciate your post was 2010 but Ihave exactly the same problem with cracked in painted ceiling paper.

I am trying your fix. Caulk, Polyfiller fine crack paint then vinyl brilliant white. How did it work for you? Over time did the crack(s) come back?

Best
John