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 ...

Dear James: My parents' older house had plaster walls, but most builders now use drywall. I'm making a room addition. Which interior wall material is best to use? — Melanie N. Dear Melanie: From the ...

Q: The walls of our 1938 San Francisco home are lath and plaster, with a canvas-like fabric over the plaster. There are cracks in the plaster, which can be seen through the paint as raised creases in ...

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 ...

A worker is applying a finishing coat to the drywall on a ceiling while standing on a platform. - Virrage Images/Shutterstock When it comes to finishing a wall, homeowners have a ton of options to ...

Plaster walls were the universal standard in American homes before the 1950s, requiring skilled tradesmen and weeks of curing time to produce a surface far denser than modern drywall. The postwar ...

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 that I tried to patch with a hard-setting Spackle that did not work, ...