Just painted walls - cracking appeared near most corners??

[Baffie]

I've just moved into this place recently and have papered/painted walls. Within a month of painting, (two or three coats of magnolia emulsion) I've noticed that in the corners of stud walls that a fair few vertical cracks have appeared. They're not long continual cracks but a series of small ones that have appeared within 75mm of either side of the corner Should I be worried about these? What's the best method to stop the cracks from reappearing? cheers,

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[Christian McArdle]

Assuming these are small cracks, it is possible that when the skim coat went on, no tape was applied where the walls and/or ceilings meet. This leads to a greater level of cracking due to natural building movement.

Christian.

[Tim Mitchell]

In article , Christian McArdle writes

Or if like my house, the walls are not skimmed, they are just bare plasterboard filled at the joins. Cracks tend to appear at the edge of the tape and at the edge of the filler.

That flexible acrylic decorator's filler seems to work OK, but you always get some cracks.

[The Natural Philosopher]

If its stud walls it will sadly continue to happen for some time. You nearly always get some shrinkage as the timber goes from 'in the builders yard' to 'inside with heating' type moisture levels.

My advice is to ignore it for at least a year, and then work out how to fill and repaint the affected reas.

[Baffie]

the stud walls have been there quite a few years. looking closely (a big mistake!) the same sort of cracking appears in places like around the light switches too.

the walls have had three coats of magnolia emulsion over the previous paint (which was a 'silk' type finish. and yet three weeks on, there are cracks.

does anyone make paint that can cope with this sort of thing?

thanks for the replies - much appreciated.

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[Chris Bacon]

Were the walls previously papered? If so, this sort of thing does happen if the wallpaper paste isn't cleaned off *very* thoroughly. The wall should not feel slimy or slippery at all when it's damp from washing down. If you hang lining paper and paint that, it should solve the problem. If you hang it carefully and well, you won't realise it's there! Failing that, scrape/wash/fill/rub down where needed, then re-paint.