Hello, my dear readers. Welcome back to my journal. For those of you who wanted to know about my very first project as a contractor, here is a little glimpse of that day. I was called by my uncle to his beautiful home in Edinburgh where he was almost having a nightmare. The plaster on one of his outer walls was in shambles. It was chipped, cracked, and broken along a branch that had found its way into the wall. The white surface was giving way under the pressure of the overgrown foliage, and he had no clue how to stop it.
So, Here Is How The Entire Day Unfolded
He called me in the morning and told me about the whole situation. Upon arriving, I found out that the damage was due to overgrown branches from his grapevines. “This was going to be a long day,” I thought to myself.
But to my surprise, half my work was already in the process of being completed. My uncle had already called the local tree surgeon in Edinburgh, Harvey, who was on his way. He got to work without wasting any time. All the while, he kept telling us both how we should always keep an eye on the growth of any trees that we have on our property. It is also important to prune them regularly to avoid any similar situations. If you have any trees close to a wall or any structure, do not let their branches reach the building as this may lead to what we had in front of us. Once he was done removing the overgrown branches from the wall, it was my job to take over from there.
What I needed to repair that crack in the wall were:
- Blade
- Patching material
- Painting brush
- Scrapper
- Putty knife
- Sandpaper
- I began by preparing the patching material /putty to fill up the crack
- Once the material was ready, I used the sandpaper to even out the cracked surface
- I decided to enlarge the broken area a little by removing the crooked pieces of plaster so that it will give the patching material more surface to hold
- Then I began dampening the surface with the help of the brush and made sure that the water reached the far ends of the crack
- The next thing I had to do was the most crucial bit; fill the crack /opening with the putty using the flexible knife
- As I smoothed out the surface, I kept on removing the excess out for a flatter finish
- Then I let the putty dry up nicely and prepared my fine grade sandpaper
- The next step was to rub the sandpaper to level the repaired area and the surrounding surface as well so that there was no gap between the repaired section and the original structure
- I also leveled out any cracks and unevenness in the wall as a result of regular wear and tear
Note: In some cases, you may require to apply a second filling of the patching material and then let it dry as well. The same sandpaper routine is going to follow hereafter.
Once the patch was dried and repaired completely, I applied a prime coat over the repaired surface. This was the final touch, and it gave the entire surface a smooth and seamless finish and the best part is that this approach can be taken for both interior and exterior repair projects.