Hairline cracks in newly plastered walls

[pavuluru]

Hi All,
We have used 53 grade for plastering external walls. We didn't know that it shouldn't be used. It has been one month the walls have been plastered. We are able to see hairline calls on the external walls. Some of these cracks are running vertical and horizontal. Please suggest what should we do now. Should we put any white cement or any kind of putty before painting.

[Chandu]

usually 43 grade / PPC grade is used for plastering .
Myself used 43 grade cement - and can still see some cracks in my house.
plan to ask painter to fill that up - if any one have faced and overcome this issue already - please suggest .

[pavuluru]

Thanks Chandu for reply. Please someone suggest what can be done to avoid getting this hairline cracks turning bigger.

[KVS Setty]

Hello,
Please post a close-up photo of the plastered wall,so that some one can provide a suitable solution.
the common defects in a plastered wall are of many types and can be for many reasons , so it needs to be known what exactly is the defect and based on that some solution can be found.
Some type of defects are as follows.

Plastic shrinkage cracks: Plastic Shrinkage cracking results when an
excessive amount of water is lost from the
plaster in the first few hours after application.
Drying shrinkage cracks:These cracks are normally stable and can be
filled with a proprietary filler and painted over.
Crazing:Crazing is a network of fine cracks, usually in a hexagonal
pattern, which measure between 5 and 75 mm across each
hexagon.
They are usually very fine and shallow and do not extend
through the whole depth of the plaster.
and some other defects are,like
Grinning
Lack of hardness
De-bonding
Structural Crack
Blistering
Expansion

So take a snap and post it, it will help the members to find some remedy to it.

I am not an expert, I am just like you trying to learn the A B C D of construction,to ensure my dream house construction to be as good as possible in all respects.

[pavuluru]

Thanks very much Shetty for the reply. I'm attaching the images of the crack(highlighted in red)

. Please let us know what can be done.

[KVS Setty]

Hello pavuluru,

Please visit this site and download the available pdf help files ,which gives lot info on good practices on civil construction.
http://www.acchelp.in/civil_con_archite ... tices.html

particularly vol-3 and vol-4 addresses you plastering issues and may help you a lot.

here i have just attached vol-3 and i could not attach vol-4 because its bigger in size than the allowed limit here.so better you download the files from the above site if not possible send your email or PM me ,i will send the files

[pavuluru]

Thanks so much for the documents. I guess ours is of drying shrinkage cracks bcos of over smoothness of sand. But, for now none of them are open so cant fill it with crack filler. One option our painter suggested is to use textured so that these cracks don't look ugly and the other is to check for any hollow sound around this cracks, if so to open it and fill it with crack filler.

[tendlu]

got some hairline cracks in plastered internal walls.

what kind of crack would this be and what can be done to fix it? any pointers guys? (read through the ACC documents on best practices, but not sure what this would be classified and the remedy for this)

[sreekbda]

Tendlu,

Was this photograph taken before application of putty?

I am asking because even my house has many such cracks in internal plastering and as of now only lime finish is done. I am really worried whether these cracks will show up even after putty finish:-(

I have used Zuari 43 and good curing has been done for around 2 weeks. Only reason i can think of is that the sand we used was very smooth and probably contained a bit of silt.

[tendlu]

sreekbda,

this is after applying primer and NOT putty.

acc 43 was used and curing for 10 days or so...

not sure whether these will show up after putty -- engineer says it will disappear after putty:-)