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Plastering & Rendering

Why does my 18 month old plastering have cracks in it?

Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 3.15 PM

We had our hallway re-plastered in September 2016. By March 2017 there were a number of cracks appearing in the plaster so we arranged for the contractor to come back out. He said where it had happened looked like the base layer had failed and they only skimmed it. Fast forward to now about 18 months after it was carried out and there are cracks in every wall in our hallway all the way up the stairs. It has got worse. There are sections of different age "base layer" plaster that have cracks. My question is as there were cracks in the old plaster before they started the work should they have advised us differently? I didn't know the difference between base layers and skimming but now hear they probably should have put a new base layer on. We are meeting up with them to discuss it but think they will just say it's something that couldn't have been foreseen and tough. Is this right or do I have anyway to get the hallway fixed? Should they have seen any signs and actually redone the base layer too? We paid a lot of money to get the hallway sorted with this company and it is disheartening to see it with cracks all over in such a short time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

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3 Answers

R Whetton Plastering & Rendering

Rating: 5 out of 5

Bognor Regis

Preperation is key and one of the most important factors to consider when plastering. Undercoat plasters can sometimes blow, whether the adhesion was wrongly controlled (if the suction dried it out too quickly), not mixed correctly and sometimes the wrong material used!. I've recently carried out a job where I found the finishing plaster 'bounce' and not sticking to the undercoat resulting in numerous cracks. I removed all the finishing plaster, and found the undercoat plaster crumbling. I removed the damaged blown undercoating and corrected with new and finished in the same day with fresh multi finish. Also check with a surveyor there are no subsidence issues within your property. (If this was the case you'd see cracks form in other rooms).

Answered26 March 2018

Anonymous user

I am re-rendering a house in Pimlico and we had cracks in the roof parapit wall and large garden wall, this was the second time this had happened to this property over decades. We simply removed back to the bricks to ensure that the same thing wouldn't happen again. Isn't it just common sense, unless the contractor was told to do a cheap job there should have been no restriction on this project in terms of doing it properly. If it's cracked the likely hood remove mix properly replaster properly, don't bother about messing around.

Answered26 March 2018

Timothy David Interiors

Rating: 5 out of 5

Tonypandy

Hi. I see this problem often, and often see the same question being asked on here. Always the result of skimming over old walls.

Answered26 March 2018