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Repairing cracks and holes is simple. Most of us are busy trying to make ends meet.When you are unable to move little things begins to bother you. One of those things is the cosmetic look of your home. A simple repair of a crack can make a whole world of difference in your home. I was very fortunate, that I grew up with a father who taught me these simple tricks.

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When a crack develops on a flat wall or ceiling, the repair is rather simple. You cover it with a strip of paper tape (if indoors) or mesh tape (indoors or out), skim over it with your putty knife and the appropriate interior or exterior patching compound in three thin coats (each one wider than the last to float it out with the surrounding surface as smoothly as possible) and sand it just enough to remove any edges.

Smooth plastering like this is easy to achieve with some practice once you’ve grasped these fundamentals. And while you’re practicing, there are no errors that can’t be easily fixed with either a little more plaster or a little more sanding. The most common mistake is in applying the compound too thick. This creates excessive sanding and bulgy looking patches.

But what about the crack on a textured surface? Obviously you can’t just tape, skim coat and sand it. The result would be a long flat patch in the middle of a textured profile (which I’ve seen far too many homeowners stuck with in my career). It stands out like a bad rash and adds insult to injury. You can’t undo or fix a repair like this. The only way to get rid of a bad stucco repair is to remove all the textured material on the entire surface and replace it with new. That’s a costly venture and can be avoided if the repair was done properly the first time.

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Sometimes created by sudden impact, sometimes by the long (or short) natural process of shifting and settling and often by water leaks, the crack is a break in the solid substrate. And through the laws of weight and gravity, the crack can only shift, grind and grow. It never gets smaller and it rarely stays the same. No matter how you repair the crack, you’ll only mask it from eye while it continues to thrive below the surface waiting for its chance to reappear. That is, unless you want to go through the costly and messy process of replacing the entire substrate. But who wants to do that if there’s an easier way?

Here is a list of things you will need: putty, putty knife, paper tape, Spackle and in some cases mesh.

  • Putty fills in the hole
  • Putty knife smothes the putty out
  • Paper tape helps close cracks
  • Spackle
  • Sandpaper

Here are simple steps

Step 1 smooth out the area with the sanpaper

Step 2 look at surface decide if  there is a hole or trench. If so fill in with putty

Step 3 use mesh if area needs to be close. apply spackle  over mesh

step 4 smooth out area

step 5 wait for area to dry

step 6 paint over.

Tell me how it works out for you?

How To Repair Small Cracks & Holes In Your Wall Cheaply  was originally published on elev8.com