Some of these had been filled already with some sort of Polyfilla material. It hadn’t been done well, however, and it also meant the wallpaper was difficult to remove over those parts.
I also discovered quite a big crack, which I made a bit worse by removing loose chunks. It wasn’t a good look, so I searched for a video on the internet to tell me what I could do about it.
The crack in this fellow’s video looked more or less the same as the crack in my wall, so I thought I’d see what he had to say for himself:
Another video, this time from PolyCell, showed how to fill the smaller cracks:
How to fill holes and cracks in walls
https://www.polycell.co.uk/tutorials/polycell-multi-purpose-polyfilla-ready-mixed/plastered-over cracks
I went off to Homebase, where I bought some Polyfilla in a tube, some Polyfilla in a tub, a decorating sponge, a filling knife and some sandpaper. I couldn’t find the special Polyfilla in the first video, so I got something that sounded similar. I also didn’t see any primer, so I’m hoping I won’t need it. The first video also said I needed to mix up the plaster in a tub; he said an ice-cream tub would be ideal. I didn’t have any ice-cream tubs, or similar, knocking about, so I’m afraid I had to buy some ice-cream and eat it before I could make a start on the big crack.
I can’t eat a whole tub of ice-cream in one go, so until I finish the tub, I thought I’d make a start on the small holes and cracks.
filled holes; partially-filled holes
The holes are from removing wall plugs, so they’re quite deep. They’ll need another application of Polyfilla, then I can finish them off, along with the cracks, with a bit of sanding. I forgot to wet the filling knife, so it’s perhaps not as smooth as it could have been. There are still quite a few cracks that need filling, and I need to find out if I need to anything with the hairline cracks dotted about. But that’s for another day.
