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 ...

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., ...

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

Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 4 of this story. So you live in an older home with plaster walls and ceilings, and you need to renovate. You need to run new electric lines, or repair plumbing, or perhaps ...

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 ...

Q: We live in an older home — say, built around 1905 — that has the old horsehair plaster on the walls and ceiling. We would like to do over the ceilings and paint the walls. Would it be best to just ...

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 ...