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Plastering & Rendering

Degree of acceptable cracking after re-skim

Anonymous user 03/03/2024 - 3.37 PM

Hello all, We had our entire property ( aside from kitchen and dining room- future extension) skimmed in April 2020. The underlying plaster (1960's semi) was sound without being blown. After decorating the property we are now finding a significant degree of cracking ( on the skim layer) in every room. When tapping around the cracking you can hear it's starting to come away from the underlying plaster i.e. it sounds hollow. I did get the plasterer back once to fix a snag on a crack that emerged very early on. The whole house is finished now so I suppose I'm just trying to understand whether this degree of cracking ( every room, especially around where the ceiling /wall joins) is acceptable or a failing on the part of the contractor? Many thanks

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4 Answers

hillside decorating

Rating: 5 out of 5
Stroud
Check the plasterer used scrim tape between ceiling & wall join.
Answered15 February 2021
2

Timothy David Interiors

Rating: 5 out of 5
Tonypandy
Plaster overskims fail like this far more often than you can imagine. When im asked to repair this i find its always down to a lack of a bond between the new plaster and the old. And thats down to a lack of preperation. Dusty chauky surfaces, and often walls that have had their wallpaper removed but not the wallpaper paste residue
Answered15 February 2021
1

A Jones Property Services

Rating: 4.8 out of 5
Highbridge
Hello, This is a failing on the part of the contractor. The cracking means the old plaster was not sealed before being skimmed therefore no adhesions has taken place. Unfortunately this will only get worse and needs completely redoing. Regards Adrian
Answered15 February 2021
1

M R Jenkins Plastering Services

Rating: 5 out of 5
Havant
Hello there . Any plasterer worth his salt would scrim the wall/ ceiling angle . If he didn’t that’s bad practice .However there is always the chance of movement cracks especially in this area so that may be a reason for the cracks . You mentioned the scim coat sounds hollow . This would indicate it has ‘blown’ from the substrate . Either bad prep or wrong prep on behalf of the plasterer . Different products and methods are used to treat the background prior to scimming depending on what you are going on top of . You didn’t say what the state of the walls were prior to scimming . I’d say try and get the plasterer back and get him to look at it and go from there . Best of luck with it
Answered18 February 2021
0