Anyone out there still know anything about repairing plaster walls?
I have a 1920s home that had and still has in some other places cracks
running up the walls and branching out. I've already had the
foundation checked and it's ok, but inside they look terrible.
Apparently just old settling.
We just bought the home and the prior owners had tried to patch the
cracks by it looks like putting one of the mesh drywall tape all over
the cracks and spackling either drywall putty or plaster all over it.
So it not only looks bad, but basically, the cracks were just covered
over by about 1/2 inch thick compound that is bulged out from teh
wall, that only draws your attention to where the cracks were and
looks terrible, and in some of the repairs, the cracks are just coming
back through the repair.
I had our general contractor look at it and his solution was to tear
the whole wall out and sheetrock it, which seems to be the only thing
that most construction guys know these days, but it won't match the
texture of the other walls, and I would like to keep the lath and
plaster where ever possible in the house.
My questions a
1. If I sand the repair job off, how do I do a lasting repair that
won't crack again and will look good? Someone suggested that I dig out
the plaster along the crack after sanding, use drywall tape (solid
tape, not mesh) and treat it like a normal gap in drywall.
2. Should I just bite the bullet and drywall the entire wall and
forget about the plaster?
Thanks so much for any information.
Best Regards,
David