Wallpaper or plaster? Which is better in new construction?

I am a bit confused about how often the words "Setzungen" and "Risse" are mentioned. May I ask – maybe I missed it – how your house is founded? So shallow foundation, deep foundation, pile foundation or anchoring? What does the soil report say about possible settlements?

In our case, the soil report made very clear statements about whether, when in the construction process and with which settlements to be expected. So far no "settlement cracks" have appeared in our house and for that reason we have not dealt with the topic in depth.

Presumably, however, sand-lime brick is more susceptible to this than, for example, a perforated brick?! I would have skipped this comment if you were renovating an old building, but since you have a new build, I am quite curious. Is everything in the green regarding the statics of your house?

We are building with a developer who is constructing a large new development area.

Yes, everything is fine with the structural engineering.

I don't have any further information.

I have always only heard that cracks can occur in the first few years (which usually also happens).

That's why we are looking for something that hopefully keeps such cracks (if they occur) invisible and at most a few visible ones that will have to be repaired eventually.

Is it worth the effort to embed the reinforcing mesh? And if so, where?
Even if we then put painting fleece on the mesh?

If you are filling, yes, mainly at the transition between ceiling and wall or at the transition between different building materials (drywall - masonry).

If you only plaster the walls, i.e. fill Q3/Q4, then the wall could look like Swiss cheese after a short time, right?

Very exaggerated. It is more likely that cracks will occur running lengthwise. Joints between ceiling and wall and panel joints in drywall construction are typical weak spots. Some say it cannot be prevented at all, which is why, for example, baseboards and acrylic joints to the ceiling are only installed after a year.

Due to the drying and settling process of the house (new build) cracks will appear.
Where would the cracks appear? More small ones or fewer but larger ones?

Will the cracks appear rather in the corners or in the middle of the wall?

In my house there is still nothing (painted finished for about 8 months). In my condominium there were cracks after two to three years everywhere there were drywall walls. So mostly in the corners, also (drywall) wall to ceiling, and in one place also in the middle of the drywall wall along a plasterboard panel continuously from top to bottom. The floor has settled everywhere by at least another 5 mm, which you can nicely see on the glued baseboards.

You are not protected from cracks with roll plaster either, right? You can only remove roll plaster with great difficulty afterward, right?

As far as I know, yes, not protected from cracks and yes, hard to remove (if at all).

What are your experiences?

I have experience with lime dispersion and silicate dispersion directly on gypsum plaster and drywall, as well as dispersion and latex paint on gypsum plaster and drywall. Finally lime dispersion and silicate dispersion on painting fleece (smooth fleece).
Lime paint I cannot recommend purely in terms of application and appearance. It is heavy and difficult and emphasizes unevenness.
Silicate dispersion was the easiest to apply on all substrates, but easiest on painting fleece.

I am building for the first time and need help to make the right decision

Don’t drive yourself crazy. In case of doubt, try it out first in the least important room (e.g. utility room). Try something different on each wall.

So settlements during construction are actually unavoidable. They vary significantly from soil to soil.

Sand: settles more at the beginning, then not much happens anymore. Except in the case of groundwater lowering.
Clay: slow delayed settlements over the first years, then only due to changes in the water content in the soil.
Rock: almost nothing happens.

Through the soil survey, a foundation is recommended that reduces the settlements to an acceptable level. Above all, the soil survey determines whether there are differences in the building site. Because ideally the house should settle uniformly. Only differential settlements ultimately cause damage to the house.
If settlement-related damages appear, something was either not considered or one of the contractors did a poor job.

Ok we will then try to incorporate the fabric to reduce the cracks

We have enough filler

We also do not have extreme time pressure
and can therefore do the filling work calmly.

How would you remove textured plaster again? Would you have to sand the entire wall? (Probably not so easy)

Non-woven wallpapers can be easily peeled off completely

thanks for the info the ground here is clayey

Currently we are tending more towards non-woven wallpaper

Or does anyone have good reasons why we should rather use a type of plaster?

What would you recommend more, completely smooth or rather light to medium texture?

thanks for the info but we are already driving ourselves crazy :D we really want to make the right decision because we are investing a lot of time in the walls and also a lot of money for materials and partly painting work

We decided for time reasons to have the walls and ceilings in the stairwell and both hallways in one of our two semi-detached house halves plastered. It went much faster than filling, sanding, and applying fleece. But I wouldn’t choose it again. AND DEFINITELY NOT IN rooms. Somehow feels cold. SORRY FOR THE weird writing style, but my shift key is acting up right now.