# Forum Home Renovation Rendering  covering crack in rendered internal wall

## Jo West

I have a double brick house with rendered internal walls built in 1959. There is a crack in the lounge room wall that goes from the top corner of a doorway up to the ceiling. I dont think there is a huge structural problem or anything like that - it just doesnt look very attractive.  
I have tried filling the crack with filler products when I have painted the room, but it just re-appears. This time I am thinking of covering the crack by covering the wall with 5mm plasterboard glued to the rendered wall behind. However, I am in two-minds about this because I am wondering whether the plaster board will just crack too.... Does anyone have any advice or suggestions ?

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## Batpig

Dear Jo, 
Any idea of how wide the crack(s) is/are? At any rate, I would avoid the Plasterboard-solution you have muted as being Way-Too-Hard a job just to achieve a surface finish that was less-tough, and no-more-crack-resistant, than your current rendered surface... 
I reckon you should just fill the cracks up. In a thread I ran a while back on the subject of "What was the best Filla" to use, a product sold at the BigB called Nordsjo "Super Filler" seemed to have what sounded like the best combination of Flexibility and Sandability of any of the Spakfilla-type fillers. So that's what I'd use if the cracks aren't too wide... 
Regarding how to apply it, if your wall has a textured finish (and the crack is not too wide - say 1mm or less...) apply it to the crack as neat as you can with a small scraper, and then use your finger to rub the crack from side to side as you progress along it's length, in order to end up with a perfectly blended result that wont require sanding. If you've got a smooth finish, just trowel it on as neat and as thin as you can along the crack with a small scraper, and you shouldn't have much trouble sanding back to the true wall surface later on with a block or electric sander. The new coat of paint will do the rest... 
If the crack is wider than 1mm, and the wall surface is smooth, the same stuff applied in the same manner as above will still do the job. But if the wall surface is textured, and the crack is wide-_ish_, you might have to start thinking about mixing up a little bit of mortar (you could buy a small 5kg bag of it pre-mixed from the hardware shop for probably about $6...) and fill the crack with that using a small scraper, and then sponge it off from side to side (within about half-an-hour) with a small wet sponge that has been well-wrung and regularly rinsed-out. 
Good Luck with it...
Batpig.

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## Rod Dyson

Read the info here. http://www.how2plaster.com/restlath.html 
Cheers Rod

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## racingtadpole

The render will continue to crack until you repair the underlying brickwork.  From the sound of it you need to get a bricky in to put a control joint in above the door then replaster adding a control joint.  Not the most aesthetic of looks but it will fix your problem.  Also a lot less work than cladding with plasterboard.  Shouldnt be that costly either.  If you get a good old school bricky he should be able to reapply the render and set the joint into the render for you.  Might take a bit of digging to find a bricky thats a one stop shop though.

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