I've just finished a renovation of my house. In the new half of the house, we have had problems with the paint on our cornices cracking. The cornices were brand new when installed, this was done months before painting and they seemed in good condition. Our first painter painted them at the same time as the ceiling - the cornice paint is now cracking but the ceiling paint is fine. The numerous cracks are fine and short (perhaps 3~5mm long). The only room upstairs that the paint is not cracking on is in the bathroom which was painted with mould resistant paint.
We had the same corninces installed downstairs and had a different painter paint them - they have had no problems.
Do you have any idea what may have gone wrong? Our painter swears he did everything perfectly.
Do you have any idea how to fix this? They are decrative corninces so sanding back is not really an option.
Needless to say, we've been having fights with our painter over this.
The original cornices are 90 years old and they are fine as well.