I have been living in rented top floor flat for 8+ years (block of 40-50 rented flats in total). Approximately 50 year old building but was renovated 10 years ago. Landlords agency have never caused any problems and they let everyone get on with living peacefully. On each floor while climbing the communal stairs I notice 3-4 meter long hairline cracks running parallel to the stairs. It's one of those cracks that no one will notice unless they are really looking for it. The crack has not broken the wall paper but must have shifted the plaster/cement/concrete behind it to cause the ridge on the wallpaper.
Does not look dangerous to a novice like me and my guess would be minor tremors of past might be the cause or maybe general growing up pain of the building? I spoke to my neighbour about it and if we should contact the agency. She shrugged it off as no biggie and said that it had been there for many years.
I have 2-3 similar cracks inside my flat so I decided to fix them to a cosmetic level as I will be spending few more years here. Please look at attached image as it shows how the overall crack looked originally
(img1). I gently hit the crack area with the hammer to hear the sound. It felt hollow on the surface so I decided to take off all the hollow sounding parts. Result was
img2 (img3 is close up of area
A). I think I have taken all the hollow sounding parts away. I think I still see a kind of crack on the concrete area so technically I could keep hammering away till I end up in my neighbours bedroom or till the ceiling falls on me
Tapping on the area with hammer does not sound hollow any more.
So that is the background now my 2 questions-
1- What is a good quality wall filler I should be asking for at the DIY store to patch it up before I repaint he wall? What would it be called in German?
2- I am going to install some IKEA wall cabinets in that general area. The wall cabinet screws won't fall on the crack but the closest would fall 6 inches away and furthest around 2 feet away. You reckon I will be ok with it? Only light items would be placed inside it.
Thanks for reading.