How to fix MASSIVE gaps between stairs and wall?

[Hazel Wood]

Our house is almost 200 years old and the stairs is the original with a lot of repairs. As you can see in the picture there are massive gaps between the wall and the stairs. How do I fix this?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Google "Fossa caulk saver". Shove that in the gaps, repair the damaged plasterwork with a filler (eg Polyfilla) then when dry use decorators caulk with a silicone finger to complete the task

 

[foxhole]

If you repair the wall should leave little by way of gaps.

 

[Hazel Wood]

Google "Fossa caulk saver". Shove that in the gaps, repair the damaged plasterwork with a filler (eg Polyfilla) then when dry use decorators caulk with a silicone finger to complete the task

So chalk saver only in the staircase gaps and filler for the wall? Do I put anything else to repair the damaged wall, it would take a lot of filler.

 

[Hazel Wood]

If you repair the wall should leave little by way of gaps.

How would you repair the wall? The wall gaps are quite big, I'm wondering should I put anything in it to reduce the size and then cover with filler or plaster. Sorry I'm a complete noobie

 

[Deleted member 174758]

So chalk saver...

It's called CAULK saver - a form of closed cell polyethylene piping which is used to fill gaps between skirtings, door frames, sub floors, stair stringers, etc and walls where the gap is too big to be filled by decorators caulk alone. It provides support for whatever material you decide to use to fill the gap

Do I put anything else to repair the damaged wall, it would take a lot of filler.

Filler can be bought in bags of up to 25kg from builders merchants and mixed with water as required. An alternative might be patching plaster, again bought dry (as a powder) and mixed with water as required. You will need something like a gsugingbyrowel and a bucket to mix the stuff and either a plasterers float or a large stopping knife/dry liners "paddle" to apply the filling material which may need to be built up in several coats to get the required depth without cracking. I'd advise finishing slightly shy of the woodwork and caulking the last few millimetres in order to get a flexible joint which is less likely to crack

When the plaster/filler has set any remaining small gaps between woodwork and plasterwork are filled with a decorators caulk and smoothed off with a silicone finger to get a neat, smooth joint

 

[Hazel Wood]

It's called CAULK saver - a form of closed cell polyethylene piping which is used to fill gaps between skirtings, door frames, sub floors, stair stringers, etc and walls where the gap is too big to be filled by decorators caulk alone. It provides support for whatever material you decide to use to fill the gap


Filler can be bought in bags of up to 25kg from builders merchants and mixed with water as required. An alternative might be patching plaster, again bought dry (as a powder) and mixed with water as required. You will need something like a gsugingbyrowel and a bucket to mix the stuff and either a plasterers float or a large stopping knife/dry liners "paddle" to apply the filling material which may need to be built up in several coats to get the required depth without cracking. I'd advise finishing slightly shy of the woodwork and caulking the last few millimetres in order to get a flexible joint which is less likely to crack

When the plaster/filler has set any remaining small gaps between woodwork and plasterwork are filled with a decorators caulk and smoothed off with a silicone finger to get a neat, smooth joint

Great, thank you!! Realised I said chalk instead of caulk oops

 

[cdbe]

Looks like the wall needs replastering.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

With the age of the house that is probably lime plaster. Like to tell the OP how much work that"ll be and how much mess that is going to make?

 

[Hazel Wood]

With the age of the house that is probably lime plaster. Like to tell the OP how much work that"ll be and how much mess that is going to make?

There is wallpaper underneath the paint and in places up the wall there is visible orangish plaster(is that gypsum plaster?) There's a part further up on the wall where it's all orange underneath but it's crumbling and flaky. Does it look like I have to replaster the whole wall? Our family that lived here previously definitely used lime in the sheds so I'd assume it's also in the house.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Pinkish colour generally indicates gypsum plaster. Lime plaster is generally white to grey to dirty cream in colour. There will often be tufts of animal hair in lime plaster (used as a binder). If the house was plastered before WWII, it is almost certainly lime plaster (use of which petered out in the 1930s AFAIK)

In terms of the wall I'd suggest a repair rather than repeater. The only time I'd normally want to replaster is when the plaster sounded hollow when tapped and was cracked and obviously coming away from the wall

 

[Hazel Wood]

Pinkish colour generally indicates gypsum plaster. Lime plaster is generally white to grey to dirty cream in colour. There will often be tufts of animal hair in lime plaster (used as a binder). If the house was plastered before WWII, it is almost certainly lime plaster (use of which petered out in the 1930s AFAIK)

In terms of the wall I'd suggest a repair rather than repeater. The only time I'd normally want to replaster is when the plaster sounded hollow when tapped and was cracked and obviously coming away from the wall

So I'm better off just going with the caulk saving stuff and polyfilla instead of replastering this section. What should I do with the gypsum plaster that's crumbling. I think it was put ontop of the lime plaster.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Part of the problem comes when you attempt to repair lime plaster with gypsum plaster. This is because the lime naturally sucks the. Moisture out of the gypsum, causing thinner skins to adhere badly. For small repair areas you can make up a mixture of lime putty and gypsum plaster in the ratio of 3:1 (lime putty:gypsum) with 0.5 measures of water added. Used that a few times on my current Victorian house and it seems to work OK but gives a better surface finish than lime plaster

 

[Hazel Wood]

Part of the problem comes when you attempt to repair lime plaster with gypsum plaster. This is because the lime naturally sucks the. Moisture out of the gypsum, causing thinner skins to adhere badly. For small repair areas you can make up a mixture of lime putty and gypsum plaster in the ratio of 3:1 (lime putty:gypsum) with 0.5 measures of water added. Used that a few times on my current Victorian house and it seems to work OK but gives a better surface finish than lime plaster

Brilliant, thank you for all your help. I'm going to have to take the wallpaper off so I'm just hoping the whole wall doesn't come with it haha.