Plastering & Rendering

Hairline cracks in the plasterboard of a refurbished mid-terrace

Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 2.44 PM

In January 2013 I bought a refurbished mid-terrace house built circa 1900. The work was done by a developer between June and November 2012 and I am the first person to live in the property since the work was completed. I was told that the property was re-plastered throughout although I have a feeling it was just skimmed. There were a small number of hairline cracks in the plaster when I bought the property and the survey stated that these were just cosmetic, but the cracks have developed quite dramatically in number since, to the point where they are virtually on every wall, where they spread out quite widely, plus there a couple on the ceilings. There are some horizontal cracks at the very top and bottom of the walls which would seem to indicate shrinkage, but there also a number of them in the middle of the walls, some of which are in a general horizontal (across the chimney breast) or vertical (on the hallway wall) direction but some are also in a diagonal (recesses to either side of the chimney breast) and haphazard direction (on the hallway wall). Having read other discussions on the topic I'm starting to think that these are more than just shrinkage cracks and that the new plaster was only a skim and that either the original plaster is blown or that the bonding agent has failed. The cracks are only hairline at the moment and seem to be only developing in length and quantity. My question is if the original plaster is blown and/or the bonding agent has failed should I be concerned? Is the newly skimmed plaster likely to fall off the wall and thus needs replacement or repair or is this just a cosmetic issue? Thanks. Response to Phoenix Plastering 06-Apr-2013: Thanks for your advice. Sorry for the confusion, the walls where the plaster is cracked are solid brick and so must be of the 2 coat variety that you mention. There is a hollow sound when I tap near the cracks so it does appear that the plaster has come away from the wall in various sections. None of these sections seem particularly large, there are just quite a few of them. Due to the fairly large number of cracks, plus the rather large length of some of them (2 meters) I'm not sure that it would be practical for me to try and fill them all. Most of them are only hair-line and so I don't mind too much as you can only see them on closer inspection. However, if I do try to fill the more noticeable cracks using the method you have stated below, if the plaster has come away from the wall, would opening the cracks up slightly not possibly result in the loose section coming off completely? I'd rather leave them as a cosmetic flaw than cause further damage by trying to fix them. Thanks.