Hi!
I'm in the process of renovating a room in my apartment. The building is from '64 with lightweight concrete walls. The idea is to strip the room's walls of wallpaper, fill and smooth them, and then just paint them (it's going to be a child's room).
However, the problem is that at the window in the room there are normal trims above and below, but on the sides, there are ~20cm wide trims, and it looks extremely ugly. The reason for this is that the association replaced the windows about 8 years ago and presumably installed a narrower window, and the cavity was covered with mega-trims.
The plan was to fix this during the room's renovation so that we could have normal trims around the window. So today I removed the trims to see what was underneath. From the wall, there was: stone wall, 10mm wide joint (exterior joint), 45mm wooden rule, 20mm wide joint (exterior joint), window.
The rule is about 1mm recessed from the wall line, as are the joints. There are no visible screws in the rule, so I don't know how it's attached.
I probably won't worry about the joint between the rule and window since it'll be covered by the new trims, but the question is, how do I create a seamless transition from the stone wall over the joint and rule? The joint feels spongy in some places and hard in others.
Can I use wood filler directly on the rule without it cracking?
Is it safe to use wood filler over the joint as well? Can the joint be reinforced somehow?
I'm considering possibly cutting away the old joint and applying foam sealant instead, and then wood filler over the foam and rule?
Any other suggestions are warmly welcome...
//Zeb
I'm in the process of renovating a room in my apartment. The building is from '64 with lightweight concrete walls. The idea is to strip the room's walls of wallpaper, fill and smooth them, and then just paint them (it's going to be a child's room).
However, the problem is that at the window in the room there are normal trims above and below, but on the sides, there are ~20cm wide trims, and it looks extremely ugly. The reason for this is that the association replaced the windows about 8 years ago and presumably installed a narrower window, and the cavity was covered with mega-trims.
The plan was to fix this during the room's renovation so that we could have normal trims around the window. So today I removed the trims to see what was underneath. From the wall, there was: stone wall, 10mm wide joint (exterior joint), 45mm wooden rule, 20mm wide joint (exterior joint), window.
The rule is about 1mm recessed from the wall line, as are the joints. There are no visible screws in the rule, so I don't know how it's attached.
I probably won't worry about the joint between the rule and window since it'll be covered by the new trims, but the question is, how do I create a seamless transition from the stone wall over the joint and rule? The joint feels spongy in some places and hard in others.
Can I use wood filler directly on the rule without it cracking?
Is it safe to use wood filler over the joint as well? Can the joint be reinforced somehow?
I'm considering possibly cutting away the old joint and applying foam sealant instead, and then wood filler over the foam and rule?
Any other suggestions are warmly welcome...
//Zeb
There are "reinforcement mesh" for joint compound seams that can be used. It significantly strengthens the compound. If the rule is only 45, it probably won't crack from movements in the wood, but if you compound over the soft seam, you never know what might happen. The compound there will be sensitive to force, something that is bad in a child's room:
remove some of the seam. Saw a thin strip and press it in, then compound over everything. It will probably be fine. The advantage of just painting is that it's easy to redo when it doesn't hold.
remove some of the seam. Saw a thin strip and press it in, then compound over everything. It will probably be fine. The advantage of just painting is that it's easy to redo when it doesn't hold.
ok, thanks for the help. however, I'm skeptical about having a stone->wood edge that is filled over, I feel like it's going to crack at the seam.
I removed some of the grout, and there appears to be a 10mm gap underneath. I think if I fill this space with foam sealant instead, I'll get a durable base and a joint that can move the fractions of a millimeter as the wood shifts.
if I use fiberglass reinforcement for the filler, do I even need to use wood filler? or can I just as well use regular sand filler? (I find wood filler a bit difficult to work with).
//Zeb
I removed some of the grout, and there appears to be a 10mm gap underneath. I think if I fill this space with foam sealant instead, I'll get a durable base and a joint that can move the fractions of a millimeter as the wood shifts.
if I use fiberglass reinforcement for the filler, do I even need to use wood filler? or can I just as well use regular sand filler? (I find wood filler a bit difficult to work with).
//Zeb
I filled a masonite-plaster joint with reinforcement tape and sand putty. It has held up so far (about 1 year). If you are very worried, put a strip in the joint but leave 1 mm and fill it with latex sealant. That way it can move. Personally, I find it hard to see that a 45 mm stud would move enough to crack.
ok, thanks for the help... I'll try with sandspackel+reinforcement and we'll see... I have 5 layers of wallpaper to tear down, so that will take a couple of weeks. I can start with the window so it can move for a couple of weeks at least. If it cracks, I can scrape up the crack and fill it with latex before I paint, making it almost invisible...
//Zeb
//Zeb