Settlement plaster cracks

nosmo-king

How can settlement plaster cracks be repaired on exterior walls without
leaving obvious sign of new plaster.
I intend repainting soon so I thought I might get repair done in advance.
Can this be done .
Any ideas

jack of all

Can you post a photo or two?

Kashkai

I use "Painters Mate" (available in most DIY stores) which is a flexible gap filler that you use like silicone sealers in bathrooms. Just squeeze it into the gap and run your finger over it to push it into place. You can then wet your finger and poke the filler in several places to produce a "ripple" effect like the surrounding plasterwork. It can be used indoors or outdoors and is over paintable in an hour. I've found it to be much more effective at finally filling cracks as its flexible unlike pollyfilla that will shrink and crack open again and again.

Joey the lips

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

I use "Painters Mate" (available in most DIY stores) which is a flexible gap filler that you use like silicone sealers in bathrooms. Just squeeze it into the gap and run your finger over it to push it into place. You can then wet your finger and poke the filler in several places to produce a "ripple" effect like the surrounding plasterwork. It can be used indoors or outdoors and is over paintable in an hour. I've found it to be much more effective at finally filling cracks as its flexible unlike pollyfilla that will shrink and crack open again and again.

I swear by painters mate usually I actually imported it. Its a brilliant product. Highly rec for this application. Its waster proof and acts like silicone outside.

However as pointed out on boards a while ago because it has an acrylic plastic feel it does not smooth off as well as polyfilla on inside walls.

But yes on this application its perfect, cheap and easy to clean off you hands oh and paintable in 1 hour literally.

nosmo-king

Thanks for the info folks.

Dinarius

Our kitchen was recently extended and a goal shaped steel frame (i.e. two x uprights surmounted by a cross beam) was fitted where the old kitchen windows used to be.

As a result of all the disturbance during this we have a hairline crack on the outside rear wall of the house. In addition, the floor tiles in the bathroom above have seperated slightly (about 1mm+) from the back wall of the house. Finally, there is a hairline crack in the back bedroom of the house.

The job was completed six months ago.

1. I presume some kind of settlement is normal in this kind of work?

2. What sort of time frame is typical with settlement? Does it stabilise quickly? Or over a longer period.

The final payment to the builder is due at the end of the month and I want him to deal with all the snags before then.

Thanks.

D.

ammg

We got our detached two storey house built in 2006-2007. We put in a raft and holicore. We have settlement cracks all over the place. The contractor came back twice to fill them but they keep re-appearing. Is this normal and is there anything we can do to help the problem. You could get a ruler and draw a line about a foot down from the celings all around the external walls

paddy147

nosmo-king wrote: »

How can settlement plaster cracks be repaired on exterior walls without
leaving obvious sign of new plaster.
I intend repainting soon so I thought I might get repair done in advance.
Can this be done .
Any ideas

Outdoor/exterior flexible masonary filler/caulking is all you need.

Any diy shop/builders providers will have it.

Carlow52

ammg wrote: »

We got our detached two storey house built in 2006-2007. We put in a raft and holicore. We have settlement cracks all over the place. The contractor came back twice to fill them but they keep re-appearing. Is this normal and is there anything we can do to help the problem. You could get a ruler and draw a line about a foot down from the celings all around the external walls

This is not normal at all. You need to look beyond a Bandaid solution

Was the design/construction supervised by a professional?

Who designed the raft foundation etc?

I would get a structural engineering report as I dont believe you have settlement cracks which are normally, but not exclusively vertical in orientation.

This is what bothers me

You could get a ruler and draw a line about a foot down from the celings all around the external walls

Is this inside or outside or both?

Whats the crack with the crack around windows and doors?

What is the external wall construction and how were the hollow-core units supported?

If you decide to answer these questions, ands post some pictures, you might then consider posting a fuller post over in C and P as this is IMO is outside normal DIY

ammg

I should explain that the cracks are not big just unsightly We had a very highly qualified engineer supervise the entire projectThe problem is only internalwe have a few hairline cracks vertically around windows - nothing much. This is a standard build house