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. We're buying a house that is probably close to 100 years old. It has been vacant for the past several years and needs a good amount of cleaning up and fixing up. One thing we're concerned about is ...

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. 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 ...

Repairing a plaster ceiling with plaster is the best way to maintain an older home’s integrity. Step 1: Plastering is a messy job. Prepare the work space by removing furniture and covering everything ...

Popular in 19th century homes, plaster ceiling medallions offer a visual transition and seat for a light fixture in important rooms. Their elaborate bas-relief designs also helped hide soot from oil ...

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 ...

Q: Our plumber has had to cut two holes in our dining room ceiling and remove a section of original cast-plaster crown molding to assess, access and repair the second-floor bathroom plumbing above.

Plaster lasted a century. We traded it for something that dents in a decade.

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 ...