Plaster coming off walls at studs

bowsie casey

I am having a small, but annoying problem in my house (2005 build). In several of the rooms, the plaster has come away at a screw in the plasterboard, giving a hole of diameter ~1 inch. Several of the walls have 2 or 3 of these "bullet holes" in them and look pretty shoddy.

Can anyone tell me is this a common phenomenon ? What is the cause - shoddy plastering ?

Should I just go ahead and patch them up ? Or is it an issue which could escalate in years to come, and I should tell the builder ?

Triangle

I've noticed the same thing in my recent attic conversion.
Could this be a standard issue?

I'd also like to hear views on this one...

ardara1

Your fixing has moved.

Is there insulation behind the plasterboard, sandwiched betweeen the stud and the plasterboard? - on sloped parts od the ceiling in a dormer there should be to meet the regs.

I've found that nails used will loossen or the insulation compress - making the plasterboard 'bounce' and chipping off the skim above the nail.

Plasterboard should be creww fixed to timber with 'bugle headed' drylining screws.

armchairninja

We had this problem aswell,

as was said by ardara1, your fixed(most likely a nail) has moved or "popped", causing the plaster to fall away from the area over the fixing head.
I found the easiest way to remedy it was to used a drywall screw and screw the plasterboard to the stud either above or below the original fixing, which should pull the board back in to line, in some cases you my want to fix both above and below the original fixing.

then its just a case of filling the holes, possibly chip back some of the surrounding the original and apply a plasterers scrim to prevent the filler cracking, but that mite not be necessary unless in an area of excessive movement or unless its a particularly big hole

hope this helps

bowsie casey

Thanks for feedback on this.

I don't think in my case the issue is due to movement, as screws are already used, not nails. In any case, I will patch up over the next days.

Wertz

IMO this is simply your house drying out and settling; even well sunken screws will budge when the timbers and slabs completely dry out and the skimcoat will crack and holes will pop.

If it were me, I'd check for more that are waiting to pop, pull the skim out of them as well and fill the whole lot (twice to allow for shrinkage), sand and repaint. Houses completed in wintertime seem to suffer from this a lot more; I've seen drying out cracks between ceilings and walls that you could get your fingers into, all because clients couldn't wait to get into their new home and so pushed builders to have everything ready.

Mellor

I'd agree with Wertz, this can happen at any location. Insulation or not, movement or not. And while you are filling damaged area, do a good check up on all problems.

game4it70

as a painter & decorator i would not be bothered about this as its very common. all you have 2 do is tighten the screws up if needed and fill twice.if the boards have movement u can use more slab screws to tighten the board up.