Plaster Tape

[madge1]

Morning

In our newish house (3 years) the plaster tape in the corner is coming away from the walls in places. Obviously it's dried and hard and won't easily go back against the wall, so it's not a case of painting over the top and sticking it down. Is there anything I can do apart from cutting it away and having a small line at the top of the wall. I don't really want to replace it all.

madge

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

Use a sharp knife or pair of scizzors to cut the paper tape away. Remove only the loose tape. Replace that short piece of paper tape with a piece of self adhesive fiberglass mesh plasterboard tape. Cover over that fiberglass mesh with joint compound, sand smooth, prime and paint.

 

[madge1]

thanks!

but is there an easier method? Like just removing it and replacing with a thin skim of polyfilla or something. Is the tape 100% necessary?


madge

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

Madge:

The tape is there to carry any tensile stress if there's any tension on one side of the wall due to the wall bending (or the building shifting, or whatever).

If it's just a short section of tape that's come loose, then, yes, you can just cut it out and patch with whatever you have available.

If it's a longer piece, then you can probably get away without tape in the wall, but it would be better if there was some tape to carry the tensile stresses because the joint compound itself is very weak in tension.

(That is, the surface of the plaster board is paper, and paper is very strong in tension. So it's the paper that gives plasterboard it's rigidity and strength. Also, a single sheet of plasterboard will bend quite far before it breaks because of the strength of the paper. But, where you have a joint between two panels of plasterboard, there is nothing in the joint to carry any tensile stress in the wall except that paper. So, without the paper, the joints between panels of plasterboard are more prone to cracking than they would be with either paper tape or fiberglass mesh tape in place.

But, no tape is going to prevent those joints from cracking if there's sufficient stress put on the wall.)

 

[madge1]

I think I understand that Nestor...

Thanks for your replies. As the tape in question is only about 20 cm long ( in two places) i may try removing it and seeing what happens.