Hi All.
My husband and I will soon be moving from our rented 70's apartment into a new home, and have some wall repairs to do. When we moved into the apartment, we hammered small nails into the wall for pictures, only to find out that they were plaster (they sure didn't look it!). Now, since the walls have small chips/holes from the nails, I would love to have some suggestions on how to repair or patch the walls. Also, any advice so that I don't have to paint the walls from top to bottom, again, before we move? Help! Thanks for all your input!
Danigirl.
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Thank you dustbunny diva ,I was worried about the weight of the plaster considering it was already a repaired wall.i didn't do the repair.
I will try t send the picture ,Then you can see the mess I have to deal with.
Petal
I had a very old house with very old plaster with some nice sized cracks. Most of the compounds flex a bit (get a premixed one, they are so much easier to deal with) but the real trick is the tape. It won't matter what you use if you don't tape (a mesh self adhesive type for plaster... easy to find at hardware stores) the crack will just come back in short order.
I learned the hard way. Some long hairline cracks I didn't tape reappeared within a year, the taped ones never did show again .
You have to clean out the loose/chipping plaster, just no way around it. One of those pointy can openers (that you use to make holes in large juice tins) is a good tool to use to scrape out the loose bits. If you think you have a large piece of wall that is loose (you can tell when you push on it as there might be some give), you can screw it back onto the lath and there are special screws for that. It's not hard, just a bit tedious but the end result is worth the work.
I had spots so big I had to fill them with filler and paper before taping. You do what you need to do to get the crack filled amost flush, then tape, then add more filler and feather it out so it looks even. If you can, get an electric sander and be ready to take a day or two as you need to wait between layers for things to dry. I found I often needed to sand a little more after I primed because the primer made rough spots a little more easy to see.
BTW don't use a damp rag or sponge to smooth out the filler, sand it. Someone told me to use the rag and it made for some very visible repairs as the filler was much smoother/shinier than the rest of the wall.
to resize pics
right click on the pic you want
open it with paint
then when you are in paint
click on stretch/skew
then change the first 2 options to 20% (both of them)
save it
and re-attach it
Hi I too have plastering problems . I know i should open up the crack but Im worried that it won't be flexable . Im afraid that it is a stress area and it needs to move . Is ther a flexing compound on the market I could use as fill?
I tried to sent the picture but it said it was too large,could some one tell me the right wayto sen pic's please.
Thank You Petal
Thanks Junebug. Appreciate the much needed reply.
you can fill the holes with polyfill, sand the spot and prime then paint that area - hopefully your have the same paint colours left over...if not, just patch the holes and hope the next tenant changes the wall colours :)
hope that helps...