How to fix my damaged bedroom wall?

5 years ago

60 yr old single-story home in coastal town in Honolulu, HI. The wall in question is East-facing, plaster & cement block (hollow tile) w/an old style glass jalousie window & AC unit.

Several large paint blisters were found low on this wall, filled with unconstituted(?) plaster. I cleaned up the loose material (separated/peeling paint, the soft or crumbled plaster, & some gray gritty stuff - mortar?), with a scraper, then smoothed out with a power sander. Note, I did mist wall before sanding since it is an older home (for lead safety).

To me it seems like water damage, & rain doesn’t hit this window so I guess its from clumsily watering the plants I hang here. Is that likely? Would water splashed on the surface really be able to get beneath 60 yr worth of paint layers this easily?

My questions:

1. The cleanup revealed this vertical crack [photo*] (https://imgur.com/wUmKSd7), is this the “seam” btwn cement blocks or a structural crack? Can I proceed or is this serious?

*this is a “panoramic” pic stitch, please mind the slight misalignment.

2. I also found what looks to a few more vertical cracks coming up from under the paint [photo] (https://imgur.com/wDfnSOR). Is this any concern?

3. Is this black stain in the wood floor under the big crack mold [photo] (https://imgur.com/UuAzr0Y)? Do I need to do anything to it? Also, the nearby corner of the room, behind furniture, smells a bit mildewy but idk what I’m looking at, do you [photo] (https://imgur.com/Ua1c2Xe)?

4. Lots of debris fell behind the baseboard so now it’s not flush with the wall. Do I pry the whole board off & replace or what?

5. What is the best way to finish repairing the wall from here [photo] (https://imgur.com/NTMqM4a)? My best guess would be to sand smooth, wipe w/bleach solution, fully dry, spackle area with joint compound, sand flat, then prime and paint the whole wall?

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Comments (3)

kudzu9
5 years ago
I can't give you answers to all of your questions, but I can answer a couple.

1. That vertical crack looks like a crack in the foundation caused by settling. It happens in a lot of older homes and I don't think it is super serious, but it could settle more over time, so you might have to re-do a repair at some future point due to additional movement.

2. That looks like normal cracking in old plaster...not an indication of anything worse.

3. The black stain is not mold. It is stain damage caused by water sitting on top of the oak parquet, either from watering plants sloppily and not cleaning up, or from a leak coming through the wall from outside. There are various ways to try to clean this up (just Google), but in my experience it's not possible to make them disappear completely as it's not just on the surface, but has penetrated down into the wood a bit. I once had to deal with this and finally used a power sander to physically remove the stains, and then refinished the surface to match the surrounding area as much as possible. I probably had to remove 1/16" of oak to get to undamaged wood.

4. How did you get debris behind a baseboard in the first place? In any case, the easiest thing would be to pry it off, clean behind it, and reinstall....and maybe cauld the top edge with latex, paintable caulk.

5. If I were repairing that wall, which looks like concrete with patches of spackle or a plaster skim coat. I would sand only enough to remove anything that is loose, and then use a 12" wide joint knife to flatten the surface with joint compound.
ci_lantro
5 years ago
The wall in question is East-facing, plaster & cement block (hollow tile) w/an old style glass jalousie window & AC unit.

Is the AC a window unit?

Anyway, it is possible that the water source is from condensation from the AC. Make sure the drain hole isn't plugged & that the unit is correctly installed and that the condensation all drains to the outside.
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cat_ky
5 years ago
Since the window is an old style jalousie window, could this possibly be a leak from the window?