Hello,
recently bought my first condominium, and just became a member here.
I was thinking about doing a little renovation on a wall in the living room of my new apartment. The wall to be redone is a concrete wall that has a door, which the previous occupant had sealed. However, I noticed that the wallpaper had cracked just above the hidden door. I therefore wanted to redo everything, tear down the wallpaper, apply a skim coat to the entire wall* and in this way cover the door again. In the door, I plan to install 3*5 glass blocks that will be illuminated with some colored lighting to create a cool effect.
* I chose skim coating as a first step because I had never done anything like it and felt it could be useful to try.
After my skim coating of the entire wall, about 4.5*2.75m2, I discovered after a couple of days that the wall had again cracked at the same place above, as well as along the doorframe all the way down to the floor.
I have read and understood that concrete tends to crack when you do this, and I am considering what is the best solution to get rid of the problem.
Should one use 6mm renovation gypsum over the entire wall? How would you have done it? Would you install the gypsum in a special way? Like making sure to cover the entire door with two boards on top of each other horizontally, if you know what I mean. How would you seal the door? Remove the doorframe (which I think sticks out a few mm from the wall)?
I'm really bad at everything related to construction and materials, so I hope you'll bear with me and be willing to give me some tips. Thank you in advance!
ps. I was thinking of painting the wall black afterwards and doing a mural. Therefore, I want a very smooth surface.
recently bought my first condominium, and just became a member here.
I was thinking about doing a little renovation on a wall in the living room of my new apartment. The wall to be redone is a concrete wall that has a door, which the previous occupant had sealed. However, I noticed that the wallpaper had cracked just above the hidden door. I therefore wanted to redo everything, tear down the wallpaper, apply a skim coat to the entire wall* and in this way cover the door again. In the door, I plan to install 3*5 glass blocks that will be illuminated with some colored lighting to create a cool effect.
* I chose skim coating as a first step because I had never done anything like it and felt it could be useful to try.
After my skim coating of the entire wall, about 4.5*2.75m2, I discovered after a couple of days that the wall had again cracked at the same place above, as well as along the doorframe all the way down to the floor.
I have read and understood that concrete tends to crack when you do this, and I am considering what is the best solution to get rid of the problem.
Should one use 6mm renovation gypsum over the entire wall? How would you have done it? Would you install the gypsum in a special way? Like making sure to cover the entire door with two boards on top of each other horizontally, if you know what I mean. How would you seal the door? Remove the doorframe (which I think sticks out a few mm from the wall)?
I'm really bad at everything related to construction and materials, so I hope you'll bear with me and be willing to give me some tips. Thank you in advance!
ps. I was thinking of painting the wall black afterwards and doing a mural. Therefore, I want a very smooth surface.
You have likely tried to combine materials that behave differently in changes of moisture content.
The easiest way to avoid moisture movements is to brick up the opening.
Remove all the wood and then brick.
The easiest way to avoid moisture movements is to brick up the opening.
Remove all the wood and then brick.
Since I did such a great job with the broad-spackling... 
.... I can't quite see exactly where it has cracked. However, if I look on the other side of the door, I see that it has cracked a bit, just like anaitis writes, between wood and concrete. So it's probably the same on the "front" as well, that is, between the wood and concrete and not between the concrete and the panel in the door, which isn't plasterboard but a wooden board (why they didn't use plasterboard instead, I don't know).
I don't know, but bricking up the door? Isn't that a lot of work? Sounds a bit tricky for a novice like me. Is there no easier way? Isn't renovation plaster an option, that you glue it over the entire wall including the spackled door? Or will this just cause the crack to sort of move to a plasterboard somewhere... if you know what I mean?
If I were to do what I thought, that I should make a hole about 60x100 cm in the "door" where I will place glass blocks, and that I knock out the door frame and put a plasterboard for the entire door opening, can I thereby perhaps "move down" the crack to vary around the glass block/plasterboard edge, if you know what I mean... haha. Bleh, so hard to find words for something you don't know at all.
Grateful for any help I can get!
.... I can't quite see exactly where it has cracked. However, if I look on the other side of the door, I see that it has cracked a bit, just like anaitis writes, between wood and concrete. So it's probably the same on the "front" as well, that is, between the wood and concrete and not between the concrete and the panel in the door, which isn't plasterboard but a wooden board (why they didn't use plasterboard instead, I don't know).I don't know, but bricking up the door? Isn't that a lot of work? Sounds a bit tricky for a novice like me. Is there no easier way? Isn't renovation plaster an option, that you glue it over the entire wall including the spackled door? Or will this just cause the crack to sort of move to a plasterboard somewhere... if you know what I mean?
If I were to do what I thought, that I should make a hole about 60x100 cm in the "door" where I will place glass blocks, and that I knock out the door frame and put a plasterboard for the entire door opening, can I thereby perhaps "move down" the crack to vary around the glass block/plasterboard edge, if you know what I mean... haha. Bleh, so hard to find words for something you don't know at all.
Grateful for any help I can get!
My experience is that if you fill doorways in stone/concrete houses using wooden studs and boards (regardless of board material), it will crack. I believe the problem is the wooden studs, not the boards. Masonry the hole with stone of the same width as the wall and plaster it, and it won't crack.
Steel studs help somewhat, but it doesn't become truly dead until it's bricked up. Even thin plate moves somewhat, especially differently from concrete. Personally, I would probably settle for a steel stud and gypsum with proper fiber reinforcement at the joints, but I also think it causes cracks over the seasons
// Mats
// Mats
Correct, just got to learn masonrymyrstack said:
in principle, it's probably easier to stack stones on top of each other with mortar in between than to attach studs and screw panels actually Cracks will occur in any case if you mix materials like sheet metal/wood/stone in one hole.