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TeaLeaf

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#284209 7-Apr-2021 16:33
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I get one thats 2mm wide. The crack internal is about 2mm wide in summer, then in winter it comes together like too plates shifting creating a raised edge if you put traditional plaster/spakfilla in it now.

Its annoying as its caused by extreme weather conditions based upon reactive clay foundations.

I have a few other cracks just in corners of the plaster in one room, not major, just the foundation in extreme drought shifting a degree or so.

Is there a plaster filla that has some form of latex/stretch that I could use just a little to cover and paint over? Id rather a ridge in winter than a crack in summer when selling the house. Maybe Dap elastopatch?

I also have a fair few cracks along the plaster board seams/tape, at the top of the tape there is just a ridge line, Im thinking I can just sand that down flat and paint back over it? I have one that the tape is old and lifted and will replace with something like fiberglass mesh tape and fill, sand, paint etc.

Does resene have an elastic paints that can be used? In the bathroom I believe it is a hard bord not plaster, but between them they form hair line cracks, where an elastic paint would stretch. I can see where they have just rolled paint over it in the past to fill the hairline cracks.


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elpenguino
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  #2687949 7-Apr-2021 17:05
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I'm not sure about elastic fillings etc.

 

The 'real' way to deal with (i.e. prevent) cracks is to apply the linings in accordance with the instructions givens by GIB. Look at the way panels are cut and fixed in the instructions and see if your panels meet those requirements.

 

If you want to conceal cracks in incorrectly applied panels then paint may be a poor way to do that. Maybe wall paper would be more forgiving.





Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21




Handle9
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  #2687963 7-Apr-2021 17:12
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elpenguino:

 

I'm not sure about elastic fillings etc.

 

The 'real' way to deal with (i.e. prevent) cracks is to apply the linings in accordance with the instructions givens by GIB. Look at the way panels are cut and fixed in the instructions and see if your panels meet those requirements.

 

If you want to conceal cracks in incorrectly applied panels then paint may be a poor way to do that. Maybe wall paper would be more forgiving.

 

 

Wall paper is just as bad. Our first house had massive tree next to it. We wallpapered in winter, in summer there were big creases in the wallpaper.


elpenguino
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  #2687973 7-Apr-2021 17:35
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I read that to say you wallpapered a tree ..... :-)

 

I think the thing about wallpaper is that then your room can look equally baggy all over.

 

I'm sure some types of wallpaper are better at absorbing humidity better than others. Or maybe the pros have tricks to make sure it is stretched when applied.

 

Wallpaper is definitely a sticky plaster-type solution. Unless you actually want wallpaper.





Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21




Handle9
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  #2687979 7-Apr-2021 17:53
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elpenguino:

 

I read that to say you wallpapered a tree ..... :-)

 

I think the thing about wallpaper is that then your room can look equally baggy all over.

 

I'm sure some types of wallpaper are better at absorbing humidity better than others. Or maybe the pros have tricks to make sure it is stretched when applied.

 

Wallpaper is definitely a sticky plaster-type solution. Unless you actually want wallpaper.

 

 

The problem is that houses don't just move horizontally they also move vertically. There's no way around it that I know of.


TeaLeaf

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  #2687997 7-Apr-2021 18:51
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Yeah its definitely not  wallpaper house haha. Expansion to extreme weather patterns can cause plaster board to crack in all shapes. Luckily ours is a maintenance issue. It might not happen again for 10 years, nobody knows but the weather god.


chez
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  #2687998 7-Apr-2021 18:58
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We have the same foundation and problem. But I'm not selling my house so what I did one day was I took a multi-tool and cut the wall where the crack was. Yep, I got tired patching it every time so I built a recessed cabinet with a decorative door.  


TeaLeaf

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  #2688007 7-Apr-2021 19:12
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chez:

 

Yep, I got tired patching it every time so I built a recessed cabinet with a decorative door.  

 



Chez that is a flappn ripper idea. I have a cool piece of art work, I wonder how that would look recessed into the wall. Although if their are studs behind it?

I looked at what my mate a builder was jabbering on about, he said to use a flexi filler in the first instance, he said Resene paints have some that are elastometric, is what I was looking for haha.

What I might do is wait for the rain to come back and it to start closing and apply the filler once the gap is half way closed, that way it should stretch again and if applied correctly the mound should be minimal and hopefully not noticeable. Was only due to prior owners using actual plaster generesouly it looked so bad.

Common problem supposedly as Auck is built mostly on clays with a mixture of volcanic rock areas and blends, foundation types can help but will not eliminate it happening in dramatic whether changes.

Last year was very very dry for the entire season not just summer. 


 
 
 

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pih

pih
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  #2688026 7-Apr-2021 20:37
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Another (harebrained?) band-aid idea: make the crack wider, and fill that gap instead. Hear me out here:

If the crack is horizontal or vertical this will probably work better than a diagonal crack, but if you cut it wider now (say, 5-7mm, score it and cut neatly with a craft knife and ruler). Clean it well and fill with the flexible filler your builder has suggested - but keep in mind that some fillers are unsuitable for larger gaps as they don't cure well or will sag out of larger gaps before curing. Paint over it as recommended.

All going well, the larger gap will still close by 2mm, but the percentage compression will be ~30% rather than ~90%, and the bulge should be noticeably smaller, require less elasticity and be less likely to damage the paint covering it. And it should handle occasional larger shifts.

In theory.

Full disclosure: I had this problem but ended up going the route of relining the section of wall, so never got to test it out. Would be thrilled if you gave it a shot and let me know if it works 😂

K8Toledo
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  #2688077 8-Apr-2021 01:58
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Same issues here  - a friends home (I just moved out of).

 

Clay foundation 1.5yr old house, there are cracks in all walls, cracks in framing cracks in concrete cracks in cladding MAJOR cracks in lawn, cracks in ceiling cracks in framing cracked cracks cracking in cracked cracked cracks cracking. 

 

The house was on the market for a year, in that time I suspect the builder/developer had been filling in gaps on an as needed basis because there seems to be about as much polyfilla in the walls as there is gib.

 

 

 

Even so, all that filla hasn't contained the problem , in some rooms cracks are wide enough to hold my drivers license.

 

 

 

 

 

 


pih

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  #2688080 8-Apr-2021 06:05
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K8Toledo:

Same issues here  - a friends home (I just moved out of).


Clay foundation 1.5yr old house, there are cracks in all walls, cracks in framing cracks in concrete cracks in cladding MAJOR cracks in lawn, cracks in ceiling cracks in framing cracked cracks cracking in cracked cracked cracks cracking. 


The house was on the market for a year, in that time I suspect the builder/developer had been filling in gaps on an as needed basis because there seems to be about as much polyfilla in the walls as there is gib.


 


Even so, all that filla hasn't contained the problem , in some rooms cracks are wide enough to hold my drivers license.


 


 


 


Ouch. Sorry to hear that. Man, that really sucks, especially on such a new house.

Fred99
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  #2688153 8-Apr-2021 09:26
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Using Fiberfuse instead of paper tape on joins might be a solution.  Winstones/Gib used to refuse to guarantee their systems if Fiberfuse was used.  I think that may have changed as post Chch quakes where aftershocks and ongoing ground settlement caused many problems with plaster cracking on repaired homes and new builds, plasterers I spoke to were convinced that Fiberfuse was far superior and used it anyway.  Probably because on balance, they thought the chance of getting call-backs to repair plaster cracks was reduced - and the chance of Gib paying out against a claim for cracks was close to zero - as it would almost always be attributed to workmanship or building faults - not a product fault.

 

I used it when I repaired our house , but on fibrous plasterboard sheet (not Gib) - which was never taped originally,  5 or six years down the track, it's all good, whether repaired cracks on old boards that I re-fixed and stopped, or new boards I put up.  Comes with a warning though, it's a skin irritant - like old style fibreglass batts - but several degrees worse, so not nice stuff to work with.

 

Putting a flexible sealant in the cracks won't work and will look terrible.  Covering the crack with an elastomeric coating also probably won't work and will also end up looking terrible.


Handsomedan
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  #2688183 8-Apr-2021 09:58
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My house is a shocker for this. I dread the day we decide to sell...some wag will come in and look at the state of the walls and just go, "That all needs to be repiled!!"...

 

 

 

Gotta love piled houses on clay. 





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Bung
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  #2688231 8-Apr-2021 10:23
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The tape usually warned against compared with paper is the adhesive backed mesh tape looking like fly screen.

Fred99
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  #2688239 8-Apr-2021 10:32
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Handsomedan:

 

My house is a shocker for this. I dread the day we decide to sell...some wag will come in and look at the state of the walls and just go, "That all needs to be repiled!!"...

 

Gotta love piled houses on clay. 

 

 

After the first quake here which caused us almost no damage apart from plaster cracks (which annoyed me so much I fixed them all just in time for the big quake to spectacularly undo those repairs) a geologist friend from Sydney visited, he was somewhat underwhelmed.  According to him, every house in the suburb he lived in had worse plaster cracks from clay soils expanding and contracting.

 

I do think that after quakes here and subsequent repairs, some people may have been prone to "notice" things that they'd ignored for decades.


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