On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 14:30:29 +0100, Chris Bacon
wrote:

MM wrote:
I have several fine drying out cracks in the plaster of my house,
which is now about 18 months old. Several walls are affected. I shall
short;ly be placing the property on the market. I don't want to go to
all the hassle of painting all the walls, which are currently
magnolia.

My aim is to repair the cracks and dust over them with a fine brush
with magnolia so that the cracks are invisible. In other words, the
kind of repair done to Old Masters.

Possible?

Moving again?

'Fraid so. This house, while in itself a nice enough property, is too
characterless. I had always promised myself a new house. Now that I
have one, I yearn for an older house with draughts, a loft you can
walk around in, and the souls of past inhabitants perhaps. Plus, the
garden here is tiny. I'm not complaining, as I did sell my other
house, which was the big challenge of 2004.

I should fill the cracks and paint the whole of
whichever walls are affected. It's really not a lot of "hassle".

But it is a LOT of hassle! For a start, the wall leading up the stairs
is inaccessible in parts because it is so high. I'd have to employ a
professional painter, or try to manhandle a roller on a long (very
long) pole. Or build some kind of scaffolding to support a ladder.
Then there's all the masking off to be done. This house has very nice
wood skirting, so I'd need to take care that none of that became
spattered with paint. Ditto the wall-to-wall fitted carpet. I'd say
it's a huge task.

The "quick fixes" will be likely to stick out like a sore thumb,
and cracks will draw unwanted attention.

But cracks that have been filled and are shown not to have opened up
again? They might draw attention, but be shrugged off as unimportant
(which is indeed what they are, structurally speaking). Also, if I
paint the walls, there's no guarantee that other cracks won't open up
in the time it takes to sell the house, as houses are simply not
shifting at the moment. (I'm not going to put it on the market until
the spring.) Latest rumours from RightMove do suggest a slight
increase in optimism, however.

MM