FYI: This is NOT Kerry's Wall
Kerry has a good question: Hi there! I moved into my Lincoln Square condo last year- it was a gut rehab of a 1920\'s vintage building. Over the last 18 months, cracks have appeared in some of my walls. I am planning on painting my living room next week and want to repair the cracks prior to painting. Any suggestions on how to make them disappear permanently? (Note: Include a pic of your problem and your question gets posted first.
Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to:
chicago(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com)
Email questions and pics with QUESTIONS in subject line to:
chicago(at)apartmenttherapy(dot)com)
I'm guessing a skimcoat wouldn't guarantee permanence. New drywall?
view theserovingeyes's profile
I'm not an expert, but cracks usually mean movement. I'm wondering if some structural work was done on your place and your interior walls are just now "catching up". We unfortunately had some structural issues and have had some experience with nail pops, drywall seam buckling, and cracks over doors. We were told it can take up to 9 months or more for interior drywall to catch up with framing if the structure of the house has moved.
As an example, once a building has been stabilized, residents are typically advised to wait a period before painting etc to minimize having to redo the work due to drywall or plaster damage that may eventually occur as a result of structural work.
You could wait a while longer before you begin your patching and painting to see if the cracks worsen, which might indicate movement, and you may want to consult the Board in your building to determine what the structural situation is in any case.
If you would like to plow ahead and are not too concerned about about having to possibly redo the work you might want to google 'images' for drywall patching or plaster patching to try and find a similar situation to yours and follow some of the advice offered. There are many different types of joint compound and redi-mix available on the market, and drywall tape can be a big help in some circumstances too. Unfortunately, I've had some experience with all of this and if I had to do it all over again I would have gladly hired somebody else to do the work, and I would have eaten pasta for a month if I needed to just to be able to afford the cost and I do not say that lightly.
view jendavid99's profile
You definitely have to at least tape the cracks first before skim coating. It's actually not that hard to skim coat, but can be hard to learn without having someone show you. Short of hiring someone, ask your friends if any of them has the know-how, or look for a video online or see if Home Depot is giving a class or something like that.
view home body's profile
More than skim coat is necessary, otherwise the cracks will just open up again.
There's a fiberglass mesh tape that's meant to help stabilize plaster cracks - Used with drywall compound or plaster, it will help fill in the cracks and bind the plaster together.
See your local hardware store and tell them what you want to do and they'll help you get the correct supplies.
view bepsf's profile
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=how to repair cracks in wall&spell=1
view nashdp's profile
I rent an apartment in a fairly old house (1890's) and have used the fiberglass mesh tape along with spackle to mend cracks over doors and windows. This filled in the cracks fairly well, and they have not opened up again in the 1 1/2 years since we did the repairs. (I don't expect the repairs to last forever, though.) We had no expertise in this; I just read a lot of websites on how to repair plaster.
view emilie_b's profile
jendavid99, thanks for the info! We've recently had some structural work done to our place. It looks like we painted and caulked too soon thereafter gauging from our new cracks.
view wig3000's profile
I second the tape advice -- that's what I used when I moved in a few years ago in a 1920s building. If you do skimcoat (or at least smooth it with compound or the like), it won't show at all under the paint.
view carrefour_ny's profile
Repair the cracks however you like, but the cracks WILL come back. Because you have building movement that's causing them.
view Daily Nuance's profile
I painted my rental's very cracked and damaged walls and didn't have the money to do a full skimcoat, so I went with spackle and sand, spackle and sand. Two years later it's still holding up and I don't have new cracks. Of course the wall is not perfectly smooth but the place is rather funky so the somewhat bumpy walls look fine. If you don't want to go that way and you don't want to skimcoat, wallpaper might be a good option too...
view mskk's profile
The cracks WILL come back. My plaster guy said that heavy duty wall paper can help hide a minor problem, provided the wall has been prepped correctly and the paper doesn't have shine (which magnifies bumps). But painting allows you to fix new cracks more easily.
view gquaker's profile
When I painted the lounge earlier this year we just wanted a quick hassle free solution so we filled the gaps with polyfiller and sanded it back level with the wall then painted. At the moment you can't tell where I have fixed but I'm sure this will also crack at some stage when the house moves again over time. My main concern was just to fix a few soft spots in the original plaster so I could hang artwork where I wanted it so you may need a more permanent solution.
view niahr's profile