Cracks in newly skimmed plaster

[Andrew Thelwell]

Hi,

We had our spare bedroom re-skimmed yesterday. Unfortunately, on checking the room out this morning to see how the drying was going, we noticed that the plaster had cracked in long, thin cracks all the way down 3 or 4 of the metal beadings used on the corners. The cracks follow the beading almost perfectly in each case. So far, there are no cracks anywhere else.

The guy was a professional plasterer and we are otherwise pretty pleased with the job done. I phoned him back and he says he will come over later to have a look, but he sounded less than willing/happy to oblige. I'd like to be as well prepared as possible and also am generally interested in what is likely to have caused this.

Anyone got any ideas/info as to what may have caused this and whether it's the plasterer's fault or not?

Cheers,

Andy

[daddyfreddy]

I'm not a fan of skimming, I'm sure others will come in and disagree. We had skimming done on a property and ever since more and more very fine cracks, like a crazing, have continued to appear.

As for your problem, I'd guess the original wall surface had not been sealed properly and sucked the water out of the skim coat.

[John]

That's a possibility. We've had a couple of rooms skimmed and each time the plasterer painted the walls with PVE to prime them before plastering. No cracks so far anywhere.

John

[FKruger]

Same here. Maybe he attached the beading first with plaster but without using PVA under it.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Plaster also cracks when applied too thickly. Maybe the positioning of the beading was such that the plaster near it has got significantly thicker.