Q Am I right that when sections of plaster break away from the lath, an accepted repair technique is to roughly fill in those gaps with drywall and then drywall over the whole wall or ceiling? — M.H., ...

Q. How important is it to repair plaster before repainting? Our ceilings have peeling paint that we’re pretty sure was caused by past water damage. Since the water problem is no longer an issue, can ...

In an otherwise charming older home, a sagging plaster ceiling can be an eyesore, especially when it’s a hodgepodge of cracks and crevices. To repair the entire surface requires mastering the fine art ...

Q. We just bought our first house, an American Foursquare, dated 1917. It has been vacant for several years and the interior is not in the best condition. We'd like to gut it to get rid of the sagging ...

Q My house was built in 1887 and is still in good shape except for the ceilings. They are all horsehair plaster, with many cracks I tried to patch with a hard-setting Spackle that did not work, and ...

Question: The plaster ceiling in my condominium in a 1920 building is sagging. I bought ceiling buttons to try to get the ceiling plaster back up, but I am not sure how to use them. Are they driven ...

Ken Wildes crouches next to a cardboard box and plucks out a rose hand-formed from clay. He holds the rose in his fingertips and points out the flaws. See how the petals are pressed together? A ...

Before the arrival of prefabricated wallboard or “drywall” in the 1940s and ’50s, plaster was the material of choice for interior walls and ceilings in American homes. Portland cement plaster was ...