Painting help with weatherboards

Hello everyone,

I'm from the south coast near Wollongong and have bought a 90 year old house. It has weatherboard walls on the interior. I am in the process of repainting the walls and need some advice.

The walls had small gaps between the boards where the paint had cracked from the previous owners paintwork.

I read that i could use a flexible no-more-gaps between the boards and then paint over them.

PROBLEM: It looked good for a month but now it has all cracked again

How i applied: I sanded, sugar soaped and undercoated. Then i applied the flexible no more gaps, then i painted 2 finishing coats over that.
I used this: http://www.selleys.com.au/Selleys-No...e/default.aspx

Now i have just read on the website that this should not be used for weatherboards (silly me :S)

So my question before i embark on the other rooms is this:

Will using this http://www.selleys.com.au/Selleys-No...d/default.aspx solve the cracking problem, and should i undercoat/prime, then no-more-gap then final coat??

I have attached pictures showing what it looked like after i painted it and what it looks like now.

Thanks

Regards

Brendon

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G'day adsl,

I've got a weatherboard house up here in Brisbane. Have lived in Weatherboard house some 60 years now.

It appears to me that the boards you have shown as weatherboard are not what we know as weatherboards up here. To me a weatherboard goes on the outside. However I know the problem you have.

Selly's now have a huge range of no more gaps to suit just about every application, so I'd be looking for one that is for the interior, that will sustain maximum expansion and contraction.

From what you have described your method of application looks good. Don't overlook the fact that your house may be on reactive soil and your house may just be moving around according to the moisture content of the soil. If this is fairly severe there is not much you can do.

In my own place I no more gapped the ceiling - mainly to stop dirt in the roof space falling down. Did not worry about the walls for that is the area where you will get most movement. We have acouple of boards in our hallway, that after a fairly wet spell there are no gaps. At the moment - after a fairly lengthy dry spell there is about a 6mm gap. It just keeps moving around. We also notice that various doors will stick according to the weather.

That's about all I can offer:D

Regards

Colin Howkins
Graceville. Qld

I think you will be hard presssed trying to stop getting any gaps between the boards.

The timber is always going to expand and contract depending on the weather and the moisture in the air.

As Colin said doors get stuck at times and so do other timber objects if the moisture content changes. Its not possible to seal up the timber and stop movement.

In any house I've been in with board linings cracks like you have were classed as normal. As they are probably tounge and groove they should still offer some sort of a seal from the other side of the boards.

They will be less noticable if you clean out the gaps and just let the gaps show without the bridging paint across parts of the joins.

Affraid that is very common, especially in the wide lining boards. Mine are only about 140mm wide and I get the same issue. I wouldn't fill, just touch up the unpainted areas.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by adsl3897

I'm from the south coast near Wollongong and have bought a 90 year old house. It has weatherboard walls on the interior. I am in the process of repainting the walls and need some advice.

The walls had small gaps between the boards where the paint had cracked from the previous owners paintwork.

I read that i could use a flexible no-more-gaps between the boards and then paint over them.

---

They look like tongue and groove boards. Weatherboards normally overlap or shiplap so that one board is laid on top of the adjacent board, not inserted into it.

Selleys has a flexible filler "No More Gaps Weatherboard" which is more suitable for weatherboards and tongue and groove boards. I use it on the external weatherboards - it seems to be the best filler for that purpose but it is not perfect - you do get some problems. I have seen squeeze-out which cause lumps under the paint, but it is better than having water leakage or air gaps.

If you want to try again, try doing a section with No More Gaps Weatherboard, and see if it cracks.

If you do have tongue and groove boards then they should be air tight. In that case, you don't need filler to create an air seal (assuming you want to keep out the winter chills), so I'd do as someone else said and just clean out the gap with a Stanley or putty knife.

Timber expands and contracts across the grain with humidity changes. This is normally most visible on wide boards like tongue and groove, floorboards, table tops etc. You can minimise this by sealing the timber on all sides (e.g. the back of weatherboards). If you look under a table that has a timber top, you will see it has special mounts to allow the table top to move.

Good luck with whatever you try but this is a common problem usually caused by just normal movement, expansion and contraction of the boards.

Wow...thank you all for the info...i don't feel so bad now...i will try the selleys weatherboard and see how it goes i think.

Thanks Again

Regards

Brendon