Q:We are getting ready to repaint our home office. The walls and ceiling were cracked during the 1989 quake and poorly patched before we moved in. We had the roof redone this summer, and the banging ...

Q. I’d appreciate your guidance with regard to the need to repair/replace a plaster ceiling in a bedroom in a 1910 house. A big chunk of the ceiling fell down and there are cracks in the rest of the ...

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 ...

If you live in a house with lath and plaster ceilings, make sure you understand how they are constructed and the steps to ...

There are two kinds of cracks in old lath and plaster walls. Both can be repaired, but one is a much more serious problem. By Ronda Kaysen Q: Our Gramercy co-op was built in 1929. The thick plaster ...

Save the plaster! This might have been the rallying cry of Julia Child, were she a preservationist rather than a chef. “Preserving nice plaster work, if possible, is always worth it,” reBUILD Workshop ...

Dear Julianne: Many older houses were built before drywall panels existed, so plaster was one of the few interior wall options. Since your house obviously is old, it has probably settled as much as it ...

Q. In the 1840 section of our house, we thought the staircase walls might be the old horsehair plaster because the wall is quite wavy. I discovered (the wrong way) that there was an air-pocket defect ...