Colouring fine surface Polyfilla

I have several fine drying out cracks in the plaster of my house, which is now about 18 months old. Several walls are affected. I shall short;ly be placing the property on the market. I don't want to go to all the hassle of painting all the walls, which are currently magnolia.

My aim is to repair the cracks and dust over them with a fine brush with magnolia so that the cracks are invisible. In other words, the kind of repair done to Old Masters.

Possible?

I could do this by colouring some Polyfilla to match the magnolia. Alternatively, just use Polyfilla as it comes, then brush across the crack with magnolia afterwards. Maybe then leave it a couple of months for normal ageing to work and for the newly applied paint to 'weather' into the surrounding wall.

It just seems a heck of a lot of work (and money) to repaint all the walls, since the new owners will doubtless have their own preferred colour scheme anyway.

Another alternative is just to sell the house 'as is' and let them worry about filling the cracks.

MM

Reply to
MM
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Moving again? I should fill the cracks and paint the whole of whichever walls are affected. It's really not a lot of "hassle". The "quick fixes" will be likely to stick out like a sore thumb, and cracks will draw unwanted attention.

Reply to
Chris Bacon

Very hard (or impossible?) to do undetectably I'd say. If you're going to do it at all, I'd paint the whole walls.

No way; you'd never get a colour match in a zillion years as the stuff dries a different colour to its wet state. Likely to mess up the Polyfilla setting, too.

Use it as it comes; if you can find exactly the right paint (ie same brand/type as used before, it might work. Otherwise it will probably look like a bodged repair gone wrong.

Not an issue - the reason you are considering doing this is to conceal the presence of the cracks from buyers, right? It's already painted in a good colour (ie neutral/blank canvas) to appeal to buyers (Beeny Rule 17)

I'd do so, unless you're going to paint the lot. If it's all nice and clean and you can get a good, albeit not precise, colour match, you'll get away with a single coat for this purpose.

David

Reply to
Lobster

Year's ago the practice was to mix some paint (emulsion) with the pollyfilla, fill the crack and then wipe off the excess with a damp cloth.

Reply to
stoker

Now that does sound like an excellent idea!

MM

Reply to
MM

'Fraid so. This house, while in itself a nice enough property, is too characterless. I had always promised myself a new house. Now that I have one, I yearn for an older house with draughts, a loft you can walk around in, and the souls of past inhabitants perhaps. Plus, the garden here is tiny. I'm not complaining, as I did sell my other house, which was the big challenge of 2004.

But it is a LOT of hassle! For a start, the wall leading up the stairs is inaccessible in parts because it is so high. I'd have to employ a professional painter, or try to manhandle a roller on a long (very long) pole. Or build some kind of scaffolding to support a ladder. Then there's all the masking off to be done. This house has very nice wood skirting, so I'd need to take care that none of that became spattered with paint. Ditto the wall-to-wall fitted carpet. I'd say it's a huge task.

But cracks that have been filled and are shown not to have opened up again? They might draw attention, but be shrugged off as unimportant (which is indeed what they are, structurally speaking). Also, if I paint the walls, there's no guarantee that other cracks won't open up in the time it takes to sell the house, as houses are simply not shifting at the moment. (I'm not going to put it on the market until the spring.) Latest rumours from RightMove do suggest a slight increase in optimism, however.

MM

Reply to
MM

Yes, it's possible but the difficulty will come in getting the colour to match.

Personally, this is the route I'd take. Fill the cracks with a flexible decorators filler (The sort that comes out of a sealant gun) and paint the cracks, with a thin brush (Artists brush). Matchpots will save the expense of buying a big tin of paint.

sponix

Reply to
--s-p-o-n-i-x--

Stairs: get a board long enough to go from the back wall of the stairwell level onto one of the stairs. Wrap some clean rag around one one end, tape it on. Get a bit of 4x2 long enough to reach to the back wall of the stairwell level with the selected stair. Screw a "T"-piece to the top of the 4x2, made of 6x1, using 2 1/2" screws. Put the "T" up, rest board on top and stair, there's access. £20 - or perhaps don't do the stairwell! Masking? Get a big bit of dust-sheet (cloth, not nasty plastic which tears easily). That'll be a tenner. Buy two! Tape it onto the skirtings, lay it over the floor. £4 for tape. One coat of emulsion on selected filled walls. £23 for 10 litres of emulsion. Total £67, and not much time spent.

But the buyer would still have to paint, and in these market conditions almost anything that'll help sell is wortth doing!

True, but if they're just shrinkage, there should not be any.

See above.

Hmm.

Reply to
Chris Bacon

Agreed. Also, I have had considerable success in the past with the Dulux paint matching service at Homebase and elsewhere. Even the tiniest swatch of paint is enough to get a match, and the match has been very close each time. I might have to 'steal' a portion of the plaster, with magnolia surface intact, from some unobtrusive place around the house - inside the walk-in wardrobes, for example, or if it's the same wall - as each wall may have been painted at different times over several days - then down in a corner somewhere.

MM

Reply to
MM

Crown do caulk (which is what you are referring to) in magnolia.

Reply to
Peter Johnson

Brilliant! Thanks!

MM

Reply to
MM

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