Coving repair

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windy

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Hi all coving not really my thing but lady just sent me this.. crack in her rolled coving. She is happy to try cheaper fix 1st before trying anything else so was gonna just enlarge crack with a Stanley blade and use one strike or easifill to finish...or could you caulk it ??
Would it need a strip of fibre tape 1st ??

Tia
Screenshot_20200212-140514_Messenger.jpg
 
Movement in the ceiling mostly likley as its run institu cove rather than gyproc coving.

Yep, exactly what happened in my parents' (early 1900s) house. We had to remove a couple of metres of the coving, anyway, due to dry rot in and behind the lath wall it was attached to (caused by longterm water ingress through a small gap between window stonework and the surrounding brickwork), so that 2 metres got binned and we made a simple plywood jig to build 2 lots of 1 metre coving, which was then installed to the treated and replastered wall, using very thick water-based cartridge adhesive (Everbuild Instant Nails) and a few screws sent into the wall, through the new coving, with the heads sunk about 5mm deep, to be hidden with more plaster, afterwards. Worked a treat but the coving did shrink as it cured (over a period of several days), and we didn't fit it until then. Once fitted to the wall, we brushed more plaster on (to compensate for shrinkage) and sanded it to suit the original coving, either side, perfectly.

I know many pros who specialise in this type of work would shout and say we did it 'wrong' because it 'should' be wet-moulded onto the wall itself, not made separate and subsequently installed dry, but we felt it would be easier to do it in a jig, for our small-scale purposes, and it worked out A1, so all's well that ends well.


For the repair in the pic in windy's post, I feel there's a number of ways one coud attempt to fix it, each involving increasingly more work. I'm happy to suggest some, but I don't want to step on anyones's toes, as I'm new here, and I respect the amount of experience gathered on this forum.
 
Yep, exactly what happened in my parents' (early 1900s) house. We had to remove a couple of metres of the coving, anyway, due to dry rot in and behind the lath wall it was attached to, so that 2 metres got binned and we made a simple plywood jig to build 2 lots of 1 metre coving, which was then installed to the treated and replastered wall, using very thick water-based cartridge adhesive (Everbuild Instant Nails) and a few screws sent into the wall, through the new coving, with the heads sunk about 5mm deep, to be hidden with more plaster, afterwards. Worked a treat but the coving did shrink as it cured (over a period of several days), and we didn't fit it until then. Once fitted to the wall, we brushed more plaster on (to compensate for shrinkage) and sanded it to suit the original coving, either side, perfectly.

I know many pros who specialise in this type of work would shout and say we did it 'wrong' because it 'should' be wet-moulded onto the wall itself, not made separate and subsequently installed dry, but we felt it would be easier to do it in a jig, for our small-scale purposes, and it worked out A1, so all's well that ends well.


For the repair in the pic in windy's post, I feel there's a number of ways one coud attempt to fix it, each involving increasingly more work. I'm happy to suggest some, but I don't want to step on anyones's toes, as I'm new here, and I respect the amount of experience gathered on this forum.
Feel free to enlighten us re repair
 
Yep, exactly what happened in my parents' (early 1900s) house. We had to remove a couple of metres of the coving, anyway, due to dry rot in and behind the lath wall it was attached to (caused by longterm water ingress through a small gap between window stonework and the surrounding brickwork), so that 2 metres got binned and we made a simple plywood jig to build 2 lots of 1 metre coving, which was then installed to the treated and replastered wall, using very thick water-based cartridge adhesive (Everbuild Instant Nails) and a few screws sent into the wall, through the new coving, with the heads sunk about 5mm deep, to be hidden with more plaster, afterwards. Worked a treat but the coving did shrink as it cured (over a period of several days), and we didn't fit it until then. Once fitted to the wall, we brushed more plaster on (to compensate for shrinkage) and sanded it to suit the original coving, either side, perfectly.

I know many pros who specialise in this type of work would shout and say we did it 'wrong' because it 'should' be wet-moulded onto the wall itself, not made separate and subsequently installed dry, but we felt it would be easier to do it in a jig, for our small-scale purposes, and it worked out A1, so all's well that ends well.


For the repair in the pic in windy's post, I feel there's a number of ways one coud attempt to fix it, each involving increasingly more work. I'm happy to suggest some, but I don't want to step on anyones's toes, as I'm new here, and I respect the amount of experience gathered on this forum.
Mate , your possibly madder than me ,
 
Hi all coving not really my thing but lady just sent me this.. crack in her rolled coving. She is happy to try cheaper fix 1st before trying anything else so was gonna just enlarge crack with a Stanley blade and use one strike or easifill to finish...or could you caulk it ??
Would it need a strip of fibre tape 1st ??

Tia
View attachment 44878



For the repair in the pic in windy's post, I feel there's a number of ways one coud attempt to fix it, each involving increasingly more work. I'm happy to suggest some, but I don't want to step on anyones's toes, as I'm new here, and I respect the amount of experience gathered on this forum.
Feel free to enlighten us re repair




OK... others may disagree with some of my suggestions, but that's OK. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

I'll just suggest one for now, though, and keep schtum about the others in my mind.


You could open up ('V') the crack (fairly deeply), as you suggested, to (eventually) allow you to get some plaster of paris or Polyfila into the crack, but don't fill it just yet.

Then, using an oscillating multi-tool (i.e. like a Fein Supercut) and a fine-toothed blade (preferably a cheap blade, as plaster of paris will rapidly blunt the teeth), you could cut slots about 5mm thick (I mean like 5mm 'kerf', so-to-speak) and about 2 inches long, to the left and right of the crack, at multiple points along the length of the crack (but not closer than 2.5 inches to each other, or you'll weaken the chunks of coving in between the slots). To put it another way, you'd end up with mutiple 5mm thick slots, 4 inches long, across the length of the crack, looking a bit like a wound does when it's stitched by a doctor.

Thoroughly vacuum all dust out of the slots.

Then you could cut a number of 4-inch long strips of metal mesh, about an inch wide (you could cut this from some plasterers' corner beading, using tin snips, if you like - depending on how tight the radius of the coving is, you might decide to cut a slight concave curve into one side of the strips). These strips could be thoroughly smothered in plaster of paris, Polyfila, or Everbuild Instant Nails (this specific product works well with plaster, in my experience). Then apply the same plaster of paris, Polyfila, or Everbuild Instant Nails to the slots in the coving, covering the inside surfaces of the slots as comprehensively as possible.
The mesh strips could then be inserted into the slots you made in the coving, being careful to make them each sit 4mm or so deeper than the visible outside face of the coving. You'd probably need to add more plaster of paris, Polyfila, or Everbuild Instant Nails, to ensure as good a bond as possible, with no gaps, because the insertion of the mesh is, unavoidably, going to push some of it through to the void at the back of the coving.

If using Everbuild Instant Nails, you'd need to ensure that you didn't leave any near the visible surface of the coving, because you'd want to fill the uppermost 4mm or so of all the gaps (including the original crack itself) with plaster of paris or Polyfila, for a neat final job that matches the plaster coving.



As I said earlier, there are many different ways of attempting your repair, with varying levels of effort, and some may disagree with my above suggestion. The method isn't something I learned 'officially' or traditionally. It's just something I believe will work.

Do, or do not, as you wish, but whatever method you finally decide to use, I wish you every success.

One thing that is traditional good practice, is to wet the original coving plaster before applying any plaster of paris/Polyfilla, because it can dessicate the new plaster/Polyfilla on contact, rather than giving it a chance to bond properly.

Mate , your possibly madder than me ,

Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment. I don't think anyone who's read any of the threads on this forum could plausibly disagree that the forum membership is hanging on to their sanity by their fingernails!
 
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OK... others may disagree with some of my suggestions, but that's OK. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

I'll just suggest one for now, though, and keep schtum about the others in my mind.


You could open up the crack (fairly deeply), as you suggested, to (eventually) allow you to get some plaster of paris or Polyfila into the crack, but don't fill it just yet.

Then, using an oscillating multi-tool (i.e. like a Fein Supercut) and a fine-toothed blade (preferably a cheap blade, as plaster of paris will rapidly blunt the teeth), you could cut slots about 5mm thick (I mean like 5mm 'kerf', so-to-speak) and about 2 inches long, to the left and right of the crack, at multiple points along the length of the crack (but not closer than 2 inches to each other). To put it anoher way, you'd end up with mutiple 5mm thick slots, 4 inches long, across the length of the crack, looking a bit like a wound does when it's stitched by a doctor.

Thoroughly vacuum all dust out of the slots.

Then you could cut a number of 4-inch long strips of metal mesh (you could cut this from some plasterers' corner beading, using tin snips, if you like), about an inch wide, which could be thoroughly covered in plaster of paris, Polyfila, or Everbuild Instant Nails (this specific product works well with plaster, in my experience). Then apply the same plaster of paris, Polyfila, or Everbuild Instant Nails to the slots in the coving, covering the inside surfaces of the slots as comprehensively as possible.
The mesh strips could then be inserted into the slots you made in the coving, being careful to make them each sit 4mm or so deeper than the visible outside face of the coving. You'd probably need to add more plaster of paris, Polyfila, or Everbuild Instant Nails, to ensure as good a bond as possible, with no gaps, because the insertion of the mesh is, unavoidably, going to push some of it through to the void at the back of the coving.

If using Everbuild Instant Nails, you'd need to ensure that you didn't leave any near the visible surface of the coving, because you'd want to fill the uppermost 4mm or so of all the gaps (including the original crack itself) with plaster of paris or Polyfila, for a neat final job that matches the plaster coving.



As I said earlier, there are many different ways of attempting your repair, with varying levels of effort, and some may disagree with my above suggestion. The method isn't something I learned 'officially' or traditionally. It's just something I believe will work.

Do, or do not, as you wish, but whatever method you finally decide to use, I wish you every success.
Parklife.
 
That's running coving.
Make template and run new bit in.
Dig back. Fill and run plaster then smooth off. Seen it done but never tried. Information on internet
 
OK... others may disagree with some of my suggestions, but that's OK. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

I'll just suggest one for now, though, and keep schtum about the others in my mind.


You could open up ('V') the crack (fairly deeply), as you suggested, to (eventually) allow you to get some plaster of paris or Polyfila into the crack, but don't fill it just yet.

Then, using an oscillating multi-tool (i.e. like a Fein Supercut) and a fine-toothed blade (preferably a cheap blade, as plaster of paris will rapidly blunt the teeth), you could cut slots about 5mm thick (I mean like 5mm 'kerf', so-to-speak) and about 2 inches long, to the left and right of the crack, at multiple points along the length of the crack (but not closer than 2.5 inches to each other, or you'll weaken the chunks of coving in between the slots). To put it another way, you'd end up with mutiple 5mm thick slots, 4 inches long, across the length of the crack, looking a bit like a wound does when it's stitched by a doctor.

Thoroughly vacuum all dust out of the slots.

Then you could cut a number of 4-inch long strips of metal mesh, about an inch wide (you could cut this from some plasterers' corner beading, using tin snips, if you like - depending on how tight the radius of the coving is, you might decide to cut a slight concave curve into one side of the strips). These strips could be thoroughly smothered in plaster of paris, Polyfila, or Everbuild Instant Nails (this specific product works well with plaster, in my experience). Then apply the same plaster of paris, Polyfila, or Everbuild Instant Nails to the slots in the coving, covering the inside surfaces of the slots as comprehensively as possible.
The mesh strips could then be inserted into the slots you made in the coving, being careful to make them each sit 4mm or so deeper than the visible outside face of the coving. You'd probably need to add more plaster of paris, Polyfila, or Everbuild Instant Nails, to ensure as good a bond as possible, with no gaps, because the insertion of the mesh is, unavoidably, going to push some of it through to the void at the back of the coving.

If using Everbuild Instant Nails, you'd need to ensure that you didn't leave any near the visible surface of the coving, because you'd want to fill the uppermost 4mm or so of all the gaps (including the original crack itself) with plaster of paris or Polyfila, for a neat final job that matches the plaster coving.



As I said earlier, there are many different ways of attempting your repair, with varying levels of effort, and some may disagree with my above suggestion. The method isn't something I learned 'officially' or traditionally. It's just something I believe will work.

Do, or do not, as you wish, but whatever method you finally decide to use, I wish you every success.

One thing that is traditional good practice, is to wet the original coving plaster before applying any plaster of paris/Polyfilla, because it can dessicate the new plaster/Polyfilla on contact, rather than giving it a chance to bond properly.



Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment. I don't think anyone who's read any of the threads on this forum could plausibly disagree that the forum membership is hanging on to their sanity by their fingernails!
Welcome to the forum, i think we are going to get along!
 
OK... others may disagree with some of my suggestions, but that's OK. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

I'll just suggest one for now, though, and keep schtum about the others in my mind.


You could open up ('V') the crack (fairly deeply), as you suggested, to (eventually) allow you to get some plaster of paris or Polyfila into the crack, but don't fill it just yet.

Then, using an oscillating multi-tool (i.e. like a Fein Supercut) and a fine-toothed blade (preferably a cheap blade, as plaster of paris will rapidly blunt the teeth), you could cut slots about 5mm thick (I mean like 5mm 'kerf', so-to-speak) and about 2 inches long, to the left and right of the crack, at multiple points along the length of the crack (but not closer than 2.5 inches to each other, or you'll weaken the chunks of coving in between the slots). To put it another way, you'd end up with mutiple 5mm thick slots, 4 inches long, across the length of the crack, looking a bit like a wound does when it's stitched by a doctor.

Thoroughly vacuum all dust out of the slots.

Then you could cut a number of 4-inch long strips of metal mesh, about an inch wide (you could cut this from some plasterers' corner beading, using tin snips, if you like - depending on how tight the radius of the coving is, you might decide to cut a slight concave curve into one side of the strips). These strips could be thoroughly smothered in plaster of paris, Polyfila, or Everbuild Instant Nails (this specific product works well with plaster, in my experience). Then apply the same plaster of paris, Polyfila, or Everbuild Instant Nails to the slots in the coving, covering the inside surfaces of the slots as comprehensively as possible.
The mesh strips could then be inserted into the slots you made in the coving, being careful to make them each sit 4mm or so deeper than the visible outside face of the coving. You'd probably need to add more plaster of paris, Polyfila, or Everbuild Instant Nails, to ensure as good a bond as possible, with no gaps, because the insertion of the mesh is, unavoidably, going to push some of it through to the void at the back of the coving.

If using Everbuild Instant Nails, you'd need to ensure that you didn't leave any near the visible surface of the coving, because you'd want to fill the uppermost 4mm or so of all the gaps (including the original crack itself) with plaster of paris or Polyfila, for a neat final job that matches the plaster coving.



As I said earlier, there are many different ways of attempting your repair, with varying levels of effort, and some may disagree with my above suggestion. The method isn't something I learned 'officially' or traditionally. It's just something I believe will work.

Do, or do not, as you wish, but whatever method you finally decide to use, I wish you every success.

One thing that is traditional good practice, is to wet the original coving plaster before applying any plaster of paris/Polyfilla, because it can dessicate the new plaster/Polyfilla on contact, rather than giving it a chance to bond properly.



Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment. I don't think anyone who's read any of the threads on this forum could plausibly disagree that the forum membership is hanging on to their sanity by their fingernails!
Dont quite get that . Can you explain in detail
 
Just noticed I copied the wrong link from my bookmarks yesterday, re' moulding in-situ.
Here's what I should've posted:




Here's another:




I didn't mould my parents' moulding in-situ, but, as Wayners remarked, windy's repair could be done in-situ. It's just that it would require a bit more work than mesh-stitching and filling the crack. I don't deny that, ultimately, re-moulding a section in-situ is the 'correct' traditional method, provided the amount of coving damage justifies screwing a guide batten to the wall, removing chunks of the damaged coving (*not necessarily to full depth), and making an 'extruding' template.
 
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Just noticed I copied the wrong link from my bookmarks yesterday, re' moulding in-situ.
Here's what I should've posted:




Here's another:




I didn't mould my parents' moulding in-situ, but, as Wayners remarked, windy's repair could be done in-situ. It's just that it would require a bit more work than mesh-stitching and filling the crack. I don't deny that, ultimately, re-moulding a section in-situ is the 'correct' traditional method, provided the amount of coving damage justifies screwing a guide batten to the wall, removing chunks of the damaged coving (*not necessarily to full depth), and making an 'extruding' template.

I know this type of work is a art form...but this job is only a crack which the customer has asked to see if it can just be filled as a 1st resort . If it fails then she is aware it will need expert attention/ fitting
 
V the crack out a bit,damp it with water.then easifil..sand when dry :coffe:
That was my thinking. It's only a crack isn't it ??

I know replacement is a different matter but at this stage she wants to try a cheap repair and review her options if this fails
 
That was my thinking. It's only a crack isn't it ??

I know replacement is a different matter but at this stage she wants to try a cheap repair and review her options if this fails
The clue was in the thread title..."Coving repair.".
Done it many a time..ffs a decent decorator would sort it.....
Will it crack again in the future?? Mabye.?

The thread went a bit mad and over complicated.lol..:LOL: thought we were heading for a partial rebuild :X3:
 
Sigh...
shaking head whilst looking above emoticon.gif
smile  emoticon.gif
lads, I take your point, about keeping it simple. Fair enough.

But, just to be clear, I only posted the vids as supplementary info, not as a recommendation to actually proceed with the depicted methods, which, I agree, are for full-on repair of serious damage.

The method I originally described, of stitching the crack with mesh, might seem a longwinded description, but it really wouldn't take long to actually do; 20+ minutes or so.

If the OP wants to go with simply V-ing the crack and filling it, that's cool, too, but I assumed that if that was what they wanted to do, they wouldn't have bothered posting a thread.

No worries... many different ways of doing it, and everyone's entitled to their viewpoint
Thumbs-up emoticon.gif
 
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Sigh... View attachment 44935 View attachment 44938 lads, I take your point, about keeping it simple. Fair enough.

But, just to be clear, I only posted the vids as supplementary info, not as a recommendation to actually proceed with the depicted methods, which, I agree, are for full-on repair of serious damage.

The method I originally described, of stitching the crack with mesh, might seem a longwinded description, but it really wouldn't take long to actually do; 20+ minutes or so.

If the OP wants to go with simply V-ing the crack and filling it, that's cool, too, but I assumed that if that was what they wanted to do, they wouldn't have bothered posting a thread.

No worries... many different ways of doing it, and everyone's entitled to their viewpoint View attachment 44937
Some post threads on here of what they are eating for lunch, it's true i tell ya.
 
Hi all coving not really my thing but lady just sent me this.. crack in her rolled coving. She is happy to try cheaper fix 1st before trying anything else so was gonna just enlarge crack with a Stanley blade and use one strike or easifill to finish...or could you caulk it ??
Would it need a strip of fibre tape 1st ??

Tia
View attachment 44878
Cut it out like you say with a Stanley and you use two pack filler
 
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