[Strawbale] Fixing a crack.

[Hank Carr]

Much has been made about cracks over the past few years.  I was getting
ready to put the slate tile mosaic sill on Lily's bedroom window this
morning and decided that I had better do a bit of prep work first including
fixing a big curing crack under the window sill.  The crack is 18 inches
long and between 1/8" and 3/16" wide.
 
I made a video of the process.  You will see everything from mixing the
plaster through filling the crack, putting on the fibreglass tape, covering
the tape, to finishing the plaster.  The video runs just over four minutes
start to finish in real time.  I'm planning to put StructoLite over the area
so I didn't do a perfect job of the plaster.  I could have taken another 30
seconds and finished it up for painting.  You'll see when you watch the
video that mixing the plaster (white thinset mortar) takes a good part of
the time.  I could have done an eight foot crack in seven or eight minutes.
An entire house with the usual curing cracks around windows and door and
over structural elements can be done in under a day.
 
http://www.dna.ca/sbportal/media/fixing%20a%20crack.wmv
 
I've fixed about a dozen of these cracks over the last four years.  None
show any sign of re-opening.
 
Hank.