Cracks between ceiling & walls!

[Adrian]

HI Folks

I've just been shown a list of

"Things To Be Done Before the Winter....."

now that the Irish Summer has been & gone & I've finished the open-air markets for another season).

Some of this list is 'fun stuff' (like adding auto-air-vents to the central heating, and fixing the soil pipe vent which used to vent into the roof space (nice!)) - but there are also some jobs which are going to be simply tedious....

The house has only been lived in for the past 2 years - but I believe that it was built over an extended period of time. Probably because of this, and as everything dries out, many of the rooms have cracks around the join between wall & ceiling - where the ceiling seems to have raised by a few mm. This is unsightly, and is 'To be Fixed' ....

So - flexible filler (acrylic??) from a mastic gun and what's folks preferred 'weapon of choice' for getting a nice, smooth, 'doesn't need sanding' finish to this sort of repair ?

I'm particularly keen to avoid making it worse than it already is

A similar job needs doing round the inside edges of the UPVC windows - where a small gap has opened up - same technique / tools ?

Suggestions / techniques etc, please ??

Thanks Adrian

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yup. 'decorators caulk' is what you want. Use a wetted wrung out sponge to smooth it down after injecting. Wait a day and paint..

Yup.

None really. Its water soluble stuff till it sets, so wet sponges and cloths clear up any mistakes.

Then leave it until its at least skinned over, and simply paint it.

[meow2222]

ordinary decorators filler is fine.

Definitely a finger. It squishes it in, creates the right profile, deals with unevenness without any difficulty, and gives a nice smooth finish that doesnt need sanding - and does all this in one or 2 wipes.

I'm not sure exactly where you mean. Its going to see significant vibration though if a window slams, so I'd lean more towards flexibles like silicone - but hard to say anything for sure without knowing exactly where the crack is.

Silicone, if its what you use, is totally unsandable, so the final finish must be obtained when filling. For corner cracks, again a finger's good, coated with 50% washing up liquid.

There are articles on fillers, putties, silicone etc here;

[Adrian]

Right - ceiling's white - was hoping to avoid the painting - though we'll have to see how it looks afterwards...

Like the idea of using a sponge to smooth it - thanks!

have to look out for some caulk

Adrian

[Adrian]

OK

It's where the rough-plastered walls meet the UPVC windows - there's two problems actually...

- they've not been to careful with the plastering - so some grey plaster is showing in places on the UPVC (white) window frames

- 'something' has moved on some of the windows - so there's a crack opened up between the frame & the plastering. Don;t think it's down to windows being slammed - can't suite think of what's caused it.. but it's (apparently) needing to be fixed..

OK - thanks

Adrian

[meow2222]

A little movement between frame and wall is not uncommon, and may recur. Really you can use pretty much any kind of filler, but a flexible one will be much slower to recrack if it moves some more. Silicone isnt paintable, making it a nonideal choice for a wall crack, but if you dont mind the line of silicone against the frame being permanently visible then it will last better.

Plaster on the pvc can usually be mostly broken off by poking with a sharp thing. Any remmaing plaster residue marks can be removed with acid dabbed on with an artists brush - there are other options too. The advantage of avoiding scouring is you dont lose the surface polish, which would cause accumulated dirt to be next to impossible to remove later.

NT

[Adrian]

OK - thanks.

Very true.

I think I need to have a play with one of the less 'obvious' windows - and see about getting the plaster off first. For some reason, the plaster has been finished with a rough, almost 'sandy' surface - so getting a smooth bead between window-frame and wall is going to be a bit of a pain......

Thanks for te advice

Adrian