Ceiling plaster problem

I had to cut a (roughly 50cm by 1m) hole in our triple plasterboard bathroom ceiling last year in order to do some work in the loft space above. I then sealed it back up by nailing double plasterboard back in its place, plastering over and sanding. Everything looked beautiful until recently when I noticed a thin crack almost completely surrounding the area where I originally cut the hole. Aaargh!

a) How should I have resealed the hole to avoid this and b) What should I do now?

Raphael

Reply to
lesshaste
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Not enough detail about how the board fixed back up to answer (Nailed to what/where? What is the ceiling construction?) Did you reskim the whole ceiling or just the new area?

If it's a thin crack, say a 1mm or less, just repainting the ceiling would likely lose it. If there's now a height differential between the old and new ceiling, then maybe it won't.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Used plasterboard screws instead of nails Covered the joints in the plasterboard with scrim tape before plastering over

I think I'd wait a couple of months and see whether it gets any worse; if it doesn't, just use polyfilla on the crack and repaint. If it does, then go back to (a) and try again; or better yet, fit an access hatch instead - what are you going to do next time you need to do work in the roof space (and you know you will...!)

David

Reply to
Lobster

The hole was made between two timbers in the roof so I could climb through. I nailed bits of wood about 1 or 2 inches wide to the side of the timbers and then nailed the plasterboard (using plasterboard nails) to the bits of wood. The ceiling is triple layer plasterbaord. I just reskimmed the new area and then sanded and painted the whole ceiling to make it look beautiful. The ceiling really needed resanding in any case.

I don't think there is a height differential. You think paint alone might do it? I will give it a go.

Raphael

Reply to
lesshaste

Tape over the join before skimming

Hack off some plaster, tape the join and reskim? Open up the crack a little with a thin blade and fill it with decorators caulk? Splodge some paint into the crack whenever it reappears? Don't be such a perfectionist? :-)

Reply to
Rob Morley

Ah yes. You mean do it properly? :)

Thanks very much.

Raphael

Reply to
lesshaste

You're likely to find the crack re-appears regularly. Gat a squeezy bottle, and 3" of foam pipe lagging. Tie lagging tight onto the top of squeezy bottle. You may need to wrap tape around the lagging so the slit doesn't open up. Cut off the top of the lagging as flat as you can. Fill the bottle with 3:1 PVA:water. Wear a hat. Press the flat end of the lagging up to the ceiling on the crack (do NOT rake the crack out). Squeeze in the PVA. Move along crack, repeat. Sponge off drips. Allow to dry, repeat. That *may* fix it, but if not, chase off the skim coat, stick on jute scrim with PVA/plaster mix, fill, sand, paint.

Reply to
Chris Bacon

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