Hey everyone,
I’m just looking for some knowledge as to why this has happened/how it could have been prevented, so I can get the issue fixed properly moving forward.
New plaster has started to crack, the plastering occurred 2 months ago.
The cracks are quite significantly in one area.
The walls were stripped of wall paper first, no board was used, the plaster was put directly onto the existing wall.
The plasterer said he used PVA before applying the plaster, and is saying it has cracked due to high suction in the area.
If there anything else that can be done to this sort of prevent cracking?
I can appreciate little hair line cracks can appear with plaster, however these cracks are very obvious with a mist coat, to the point where I can’t imagine them being hidden with further coats of paint.
What would the solution be?
Will all the plaster have to be removed? Or can it be plastered over?
Thanks in advance.
(The plasterer has plastered elsewhere in the property and it has been fine).
Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?
Hi
I would say your best best would be to re paster, using a SBR or may be a blue girt as a sealant rather than PVA to hold the plaster back, or perhaps just cutting out the damaged cracked area and using filler could be another option and something you could try your self. could even just be the patch may have been missed when PVAing if there has been no problems anywhere else.
hopefully that has help you
Hello courtney11541,
As mentioned by L Rosier Plastering perhaps the plasterer missed a part of the wall with PVA which can be quite frequent due to the colour, as mention again something like blue-grit with a dye in would have been better to use as well as adding a key to the wall.
Also, depending on what the wall that was plastered on could of been an issue for cracks too, If he plastered on old lathe plaster boards that were incredibly worn or had cracks pre existing, a change in temperature could of caused the previous cracks to cause new ones in the plasterwork.
There's a few choices you can pick from;
1.Put new gypsum boards up and plaster.
2.use a Stanley to cut along the crack and use a good quality polly filla
3. cut out the patch which is affected and plaster, I wouldn't recommend the latter due to feathering in and further hassle that may cause.
These days pva is the cheap option and least effective ,a blue or green grit product is the only thing most plasterers use now if the guy knew it was high suction then grit should have been used from the start
Often Multifinish on older walls can cause this cracking. If the plaster is not bossed( hollow sound ) and it still has good adhesion ( it's not easy to separate from the original finish surface with a firm wallpaper stripper) then it may be possible to replaster. If steps one and or two are causing concern then strip the plaster back to original base and start again. If all is sound, then use Blue Grit or PVA 5:1 dried , 3:1 tacky and skim. In the first coat use render mesh (75 or 100gsm is ok but 150gsm is very strong) overlapping by 100mm each strip. Thin bed mesh tight coat and flatten, second coat as normal.
It's about £40 for 50sq metre roll.Never had any comeback when used in troublesome situations, especially where older properties are concerned.
