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Hello, fellow professionals and general contractors and renovators! I haven’t visited for some time. Happy New Year to all.
For a few months now, my plasterer has been skim coating our blueboard. It took a while to reel him in and get him to produce to our level of satisfaction. (That is, slow down, apply it thicker, polish it smoother, have it ready for primer without a lot of prep by the painter).
He had been on his own, doing the smaller walls and ceilings on the 3rd and 2nd floors until about 6 weeks ago. He was getting into the bigger rooms and so we found another person to work side by side with him and handle these bigger areas so that the plaster doesn’t dry out while its being worked. It’s taken us a lot longer to reel in the new guy because he was more set in his ways (he rushed more, polished less, had more trowel gouges). We think we’ve got them on the same page with us now.
Anyway, none of the stuff the first guy did has cracked. Our drywall installer is METICULOUS about installing the blueboard- the joints are tight, the screws are plentiful, the taping is good, the corner beads are perfect….everyone who sees it says its the best job they have EVER seen.
As a result, the plasterers don’t have to do any repairs….they just skim coat away. Because its a rehab/renovation and we aren’t living there yet, we keep the heat at 60 degrees F, but put it up to 76 or so the day before they plaster so the walls and the plaster are workable and we leave it there for a couple of days after they’re done.
Now, with both of them working together, and the first guy doing the final polishing (he is stronger), we are suddenly seeing cracks along several joints in various rooms’ walls and ceilings that were done in the last 4 to 6 weeks, and when the cracks show up, they show up within 12 to 24 hours of the skim coat being applied. We have no cracks in any walls and ceilings that were done more than 6 weeks ago (aka by the first guy by himself). We are dumbfounded by the development of cracks.
So what could now be causing the cracks? The gradual change of seasons? The plasterers’ workmanship? We have a third guy that does all the mixing and has been mixing it to the consistency of joint compund. Maybe its too thin of a coat when the 3rd guy is not there to do the mixing? Air temp too hot, too cold? Settling of studs? The latter doesn’t seem feasible, because all stud walls have been in place for over two years – so they finished drying and warping a long time ago.
Any advice or suggestions are appreciated. Maybe we are being too picky and we should be happy we have only a few cracks. But maybe there should be none!
Thanks,
Diane
Replies
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Diane,
We had a skim coat plaster job done about 7 years ago and also discovered a few hairline cracks within weeks of the job. The plastering was done about 6 months after the framing but during the first winter of our addition. In our case, I suspected that contraction of studs and joists during the first heating season was the culprit. The cracks were few and pretty tiny and we just live with them. After all, the original full coat plaster job on our 1880 house has a few cracks as well.
I'm a bit surprised that your crew was assembled in such an ad hoc fashion. The guys (3-4) who worked on our house had been together for years and did nothing but plastering. As you know, plaster is very time sensitive and these guys seemed to know exactly when the plaster was ready for each step in the process.
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Hello, fellow professionals and general contractors and renovators! I haven't visited for some time. Happy New Year to all.
For a few months now, my plasterer has been skim coating our blueboard. It took a while to reel him in and get him to produce to our level of satisfaction. (That is, slow down, apply it thicker, polish it smoother, have it ready for primer without a lot of prep by the painter).
He had been on his own, doing the smaller walls and ceilings on the 3rd and 2nd floors until about 6 weeks ago. He was getting into the bigger rooms and so we found another person to work side by side with him and handle these bigger areas so that the plaster doesn't dry out while its being worked. It's taken us a lot longer to reel in the new guy because he was more set in his ways (he rushed more, polished less, had more trowel gouges). We think we've got them on the same page with us now.
Anyway, none of the stuff the first guy did has cracked. Our drywall installer is METICULOUS about installing the blueboard- the joints are tight, the screws are plentiful, the taping is good, the corner beads are perfect....everyone who sees it says its the best job they have EVER seen.
As a result, the plasterers don't have to do any repairs....they just skim coat away. Because its a rehab/renovation and we aren't living there yet, we keep the heat at 60 degrees F, but put it up to 76 or so the day before they plaster so the walls and the plaster are workable and we leave it there for a couple of days after they're done.
Now, with both of them working together, and the first guy doing the final polishing (he is stronger), we are suddenly seeing cracks along several joints in various rooms' walls and ceilings that were done in the last 4 to 6 weeks, and when the cracks show up, they show up within 12 to 24 hours of the skim coat being applied. We have no cracks in any walls and ceilings that were done more than 6 weeks ago (aka by the first guy by himself). We are dumbfounded by the development of cracks.
So what could now be causing the cracks? The gradual change of seasons? The plasterers' workmanship? We have a third guy that does all the mixing and has been mixing it to the consistency of joint compund. Maybe its too thin of a coat when the 3rd guy is not there to do the mixing? Air temp too hot, too cold? Settling of studs? The latter doesn't seem feasible, because all stud walls have been in place for over two years - so they finished drying and warping a long time ago.
Any advice or suggestions are appreciated. Maybe we are being too picky and we should be happy we have only a few cracks. But maybe there should be none!
Thanks,
Diane