Repairing split antique painted wall panel
Dave321
| Posted in General Discussion on
We have a house built in the late 1700’s with original wood paneling. Over the fireplace, we have a large panel that is 24” tall by 47” wide. It is painted. There is a horizontal crack that goes across the entire panel. I would like to repair the crack and paint it so that it doesn’t continue to crack with seasonal wood movement. What would be the best way to do this? Thank
Replies
A picture paints a thousand words.
Here is a photo of part of the split.
Looks like a joint separation ,at least on the left side, not a split. The crack on the right I don't know but maybe the same thing. Clean out any paint or debris from the crack. If you can get a clamp top and bottom drive them together with a little white glue or maybe just tap them back together with a mallet. Can't really see what needs to be done without the bigger picture. 200+ year old house- call it character and leave it alone....
I agree with Pantalones868. You could try cleaning, pasting and clamping just to see what it looks like or just accept it as character.
An overview would help.
This is a challenging crack to fix.
It is likely to be in a joint as it is very straight - from the design, it is also possible that this is a butt joint between two panels. As others have said, a bigger picture would help you get better advice.
If you can remove the panel easily then the best solution is probably to do so - look from behind. If you can see the crack then you have a few choices - disassemble the panel and re-make it, Glue a thin plywood backer panel in place, or (probably best) rout a slot about halfway through the timber and about 3/4" either side of the crack. Caulk fill the crack with epoxy from behind, then glue a sound piece of wood in to the slot. Plane to flush.
When you put the boards back up, you should be able to fill with wood putty and expect it to stay good.
If you can't access the back then you have two choices. The best is simply to caulk the crack with a flexible filler and call it good.
The hard way is to strip the panel to bare wood (might be good to do due to lead paint in that age of house anyway - use a chemical stripper) You can then either rout out a slot to take a filler piece (essential if this is a butt joint) or force filler in to the crack.
Good luck!
Definitely not removable. Wasn’t sure if there is an epoxy that could work. Crack goes across entire panel
I blew the large photo up and here's what I see. It appears that the large panel is made up of a number of wide boards running horizontally, and the crack is a joint between those boards. The center section looks to be composed of 2 nice wide boards. It appears that part between the astragal molding and th border may be separate boards, with the joint offset from the one in the main panel.
I doubt there is any good way to repair this, as the panels are certainly nailed to studs. I would bet the crack closes somewhat in warmer weather.
Beautiful fireplace, BTW.
How about filling with drywall mud or even spackle? They do make a drywall crack patching compound that has some stretch to it, that's related to settlement or seasonal movement.
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