I never cease to be amazed at all the bizarre things I see in our wonderful construction/remodelling industry……
I have a client who wants me to touch up their bedroom because….the BR is all drywall, but the paint has hairline cracked all over the place. Looks like if you painted a wall, then took 3 or 4″ long black human hairs and plastered it all in the wet paint randomly. Wants to know how to fix it.
First off, anyone have an explanation? Second, I propose to skim the walls fully with a layer of drywall mud to fill them all in, then repaint, but wonder if it’s in vain, if they’ll return?
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Most likely they once had wallpaper in that room and when they removed it they didn't get the glue washed off very well. Glue makes a good crackle coat. You might get it by skim coating though it is not a perfect base for a skim coat either. Stripping at this point might be pretty tough too ... I'd try skimcoating a small area first. maybe a short stub wall or something.
I agree with Clay...latex paint over glue (particularly hide glue) makes for a wondeful crackle finish. The water in the paint reactivates the glue just enough to allow it to shrink and crack as the paint dries. Once the glue is sealed from moisture, it becomes stable...similar situation to joint compound. Cover it all with a non-water based paint/primer, then repaint with whatever.Do it right, or do it twice.
Hey, never thought of any of that, but it makes great sense. I can certainly try a small area and see what happens. If testing a small area fails then I guess what will realy work for sure is to skim using Durabond powder-mix joint compound which should work...just a lot of mixing I'd rather avoid.
El Cid is probably right, if you give it a coat of oil based primer and then skim coat it you should be okay. Otherwise the glue can be reactivated by the joint compound (maybe).
Yeah it does make perfect sense. I'm game to give it a shot. Won't know for a few months, though, as I'm busy with other things and told them I can't do the job til maybe Dec.