Prevent future cracks in concrete by following a few tips from the pros. Disclosure: BobVila. You agree that BobVila. All rights reserved. Expert advice from Bob Vila, the most trusted name in home improvement, home remodeling, home repair, and DIY. You've let these imperfections linger long enough. Here's how to fix them—easily! Mix the two parts on a scrap board using a clean putty knife; blend until you achieve a uniform gray color. Spread some sealer onto the base of one of the plastic injection ports, being careful not to plug up its hole.
Slide the port over one of the nails sticking out of the crack and press it to the wall. Install the remaining ports in a similar manner. Also, cover the entire flange of each injection port with crack sealer, leaving only the extended neck portion showing. Smooth out the sealer and feather its edges with a paintbrush dipped in mineral spirits. If the other side of the wall is accessible, see if the crack goes clean through.
If it does, seal it up with crack sealer, too. Allow the sealer to cure for 6 to 10 hours before injecting the epoxy. Thoroughly mix the LCR epoxy using the plunger rod that comes with the kit. Place the LCR cartridge into a caulk gun. Starting at the lowest injection port, dispense the epoxy into the crack.
Continue squeezing the trigger until epoxy begins to ooze out of the port directly above. Remove the gun and plug up the port you just filled. Now insert the cartridge tip into the port that's oozing and squeeze the trigger to dispense the epoxy.
We recommend a fairly elastic and fibrous plaster, like our Anti-Crack Plaster. If the wall is full of cracks , the solution is certainly to cover it all with a mesh. First, apply a narrow mesh along the crack.
Then, use cm-wide mesh bands, placing them side by side without overlapping them, covering the whole wall. In floors, the problem has several facets, but similar solutions.
When we plaster a floor, we normally either work on new screeds or old tiles. New screeds must be cured for at least 3 weeks before applying a plaster coating. Indeed, this is the period in which important withdrawals occur, which can determine the formation of cracks. In this case, the method to repair cracks on the floor is exactly the same as that we have seen for walls. First, apply a narrow mesh along the crack, and fix it to the surface using a fibrous plaster, like our Anticrack.
Then, use cm-wide mesh bands, placing them side by side without overlapping them, covering the whole floor. If the floor surface is a new screed, you can fix the wide mesh bands to the floor with the first coat of the plaster chosen for the final finish. For example, you can use our Pastellone — Venetian Plaster for floors. On the contrary, if the floor is covered by tiles or marble, you should first fix the mesh with a layer of highly fibrous and adhesive plaster, such as our Gap Levelling Plaster — GLP.
When you apply plaster over a tiled floor, you should pay particular attention to cracks. Sure enough, tiled floors often present cracks. Nevertheless, they are hardly noticeable, as the crack rarely breaks the marble or ceramic tile. Most often, the crack will follow the tiles running along their edges.
Usually, the operator does not notice it until the work is finished, when the crack appears clearly over the plaster. For this reason, it is advisable to always apply a mesh on all tiled floors before applying a coating. We especially recommend it when you work on floors located above the ground floor, which, in a building, is the most stable one.
As for walls, you should use a fiberglass or polyester mesh with a weight of about grams per square meter. The mesh bands should be one meter wide, and you have to place them side by side without overlapping them. Position the mesh over the tiles and fix it with the first coat of plaster. Both in walls and in floors we will always have to respect the possible expansion joint , which is not easy to hide under a mesh. Just place the mesh at the sides of the expansion joint, leaving it uncovered by either mesh or plaster.
For example, the crack in this fireplace hood was created by the expansion of the internal metallic hood, on which the masonry structure had been mistakenly attached. The metallic hood and the bricks have two different responses to the sudden increase of temperature in the fireplace, resulting in cracks on the brickwork when this is leaning on the hood.
The only solution we found was to cover the fireplace hood with plasterboard, gluing it with a flexible material. Then, we re-applied our Venetian Plaster over it. If you need to repair a crack on a wall before painting it or plastering it, you should use adequate products.
It is a flexible plaster for interiors and exteriors.
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