Help! Cracking where ceiling and walls meet! Round 2

MCLB01 · Post by **MCLB01** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:23 pm

I have a 1950's taylor woodrow house which I have renovated including replastering every wall and ceiling (by a professional plasterer - not me!).

The problem I have is that I get hairline cracks in some of the rooms upstairs where the celings and walls meet. I have sanded and re-painted but they come back. I have also caulked and painted and they came back. This just spoils the look of an otherwise perfect finish.

The house is definitely not moving and never has had subsidence history. I suspect the 50 year old ceiling plasterboards are just moving at the edges with temperature changes.

Should I run silicone along the line instead? Will this crack?

Hi everyone,

around 1 year ago I posted the above post/problem here under the same title and received some excellent advice. To cut a long strory short I tried many things to stop the caulk cracking including zinsser 123, oil based undercoat, wickes caulk and I even replaced all of my loft insulation (now 300mm deep).

The problem was seemingly cured then but 1 year on the cracks are back. They started to come back as soon as it got colder. I work away from home a lot and the house gets very cold for days and even weeks on end and I know there is movement (subsidence ruled out 100%).

The problem around the wall/ceiling joint is not as bad as before and even looks better after the heating has been on for a short while as the cracks almost vanish. The bigger issue is that the walls are cracking (very finely) in places where I know the plaster is partly blown underneath as it sounds hollow (was re-skimmed a couple of years ago but those parts were always hollow).

Is there a flexible paint I could use or can you add plasticiser to paint to stop cracking? Or, on the walls should I hack away the hollow plaser and fill it properly?

Many thanks in advance.

darrenc · Post by **darrenc** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 4:38 pm

Cracks are a common problem between wall and ceiling the best long term solution is coving. My own place i can paint a ceiling and i can guarantee it will be cracked within 6 weeks, its the joists.
Your other problem sounds like the plaster hasnt bonded, i'd rake it all out and re-plaster it, but i'm confident i could get it all flush and a 'seamless' fix, if your good at that sort of thing then go for it. If you use plaster it just short of flush then finish it off with filler and rub down flush or you could use filler building it up in layers. If you plaster you'll have to pva the area first

MCLB01 · Post by **MCLB01** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 9:49 am

darrenc wrote:Cracks are a common problem between wall and ceiling the best long term solution is coving. My own place i can paint a ceiling and i can guarantee it will be cracked within 6 weeks, its the joists.
Your other problem sounds like the plaster hasnt bonded, i'd rake it all out and re-plaster it, but i'm confident i could get it all flush and a 'seamless' fix, if your good at that sort of thing then go for it. If you use plaster it just short of flush then finish it off with filler and rub down flush or you could use filler building it up in layers. If you plaster you'll have to pva the area first

Cheers Darren, thanks for replying mate.

darrenc · Post by **darrenc** » Fri Dec 04, 2009 4:55 pm

No prob's hope it goes well!

54aardvark · Post by **54aardvark** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 11:29 am

Sounds very like the the ceiling/wall joints weren't taped when they were first plastered and when they were re-skimmed it may have been assumed that they were already taped.

Taping the flats are no problem, but the ceiling/wall joints can eat up time and if the original plasterer was in a rush/lazy/cowboy they could easily have been left out or just caulked - come across this a few times.

If its a recurrent problem, I would suggest tape & skim all these joints or, as mentioned, go for coving. Have a look at the Homebase "arthouse" range of high density polystyrene coving, good range of styles/sizes, dead easy to put up and a good finish.

MCLB01 · Post by **MCLB01** » Sat Dec 05, 2009 3:23 pm

54aardvark wrote:Sounds very like the the ceiling/wall joints weren't taped when they were first plastered and when they were re-skimmed it may have been assumed that they were already taped.

Taping the flats are no problem, but the ceiling/wall joints can eat up time and if the original plasterer was in a rush/lazy/cowboy they could easily have been left out or just caulked - come across this a few times.

If its a recurrent problem, I would suggest tape & skim all these joints or, as mentioned, go for coving. Have a look at the Homebase "arthouse" range of high density polystyrene coving, good range of styles/sizes, dead easy to put up and a good finish.

Cheers for that mate. When I had the walls skimmed the wall/ceiling area was not scrim taped at all - feel a bit ripped off now as I didn't know it should have been done but glad to be a little wiser.

In some areas (celing/wall joints) where the plaster had blown and been removed I noticed an old metal mesh in there at the top - a little like angle bead material. Would this have been the tape equivalent in the 1950's as there was definitely no tape in the original job?