has anyone heard of using Fibreglass for wall/ceiling cracks?

Soldato
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Just had a couple of quotes to do my hallway, stairs and some other areas of the house. I have a few settlement cracks here and there.

First guy just said he'd fill them all but second guy said they'd use fibreglass in the cracks then use the filler over to smooth it out.

Anyone heard of or used that technique before?
 
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Settlement cracks can be tricky because they form a permanent weakness in the wall that will take up all future movement in the house. What I mean by that is they will crack again. You can try filler but if that fails then no amount of filler will work and you are wasting your time with pretty much anything. What you need to do is pin the wall. It sounds drastic but actually its very simple and really doesn't take a lot of time, but it is a bit messy. Get 6x1 in metal plates and screw them to the wall every 1 foot or so. Literally like you are stitching the wall together. Course you need cut through the plaster to the brick for each pin and then plaster over them when they are in. Takes a day to do a floor to ceiling crack but I have never known it to fail. So if the filler doesn't work you know what to do.
 
Soldato
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Thanks, I think we need to ascertain if this is settlement cracks or if there is subsidence. I've seen paint flakes in the corner of one room where there is a crack. I am concerned this is a subsidence issue now.
 
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Anyone using fibreglass (and the resin) is going to make themselves popular in their neighbourhood.
A neighbour had their flat(ish) roofed porch done with that, and the smell was all over the place for over a week.
Have to say I was a bit surprised by the choice as I had though that any roofing materials should be somewhat flexible.
North-facing so strong sunlight wouldn't have been an issue either way. Guess north-facing also means less flex from thermal expansion.
 
Soldato
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what about using this? https://www.selcobw.com/bond-it-render-mesh-1-x-50m

An engineer came over to my place years ago and said that putting this on before a replaster can help prevent cracks from forming. I believe it helped my place out so far.
I would be tempted to use this on all future projects can't see a drawback.
That stuff is `generally`used in the first coat of k-render in my experience
or we used it in the corner of shower enclosures to stop cracking in corners/joints in the plasterboard :)
 
Soldato
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12 Jul 2005
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Just had a couple of quotes to do my hallway, stairs and some other areas of the house. I have a few settlement cracks here and there.

First guy just said he'd fill them all but second guy said they'd use fibreglass in the cracks then use the filler over to smooth it out.

Anyone heard of or used that technique before?

can you provide any photos?
Is the house solid or cavity brick?
What is it’s detachment?
How old is the house?
What is the floor construction? Solid concrete or suspended timber?
Are there any trees within close proximity?
Have any trees recently been removed?
Is there an underground drain run close to the area?
Are the cracks just internal or external too?
Are they wider at the top or bottom?
How wide are they at their widest point?
What is the subsoil? Clay? Silt? Chalk? Etc

cheers
 
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