Finishing a new wall or room with plaster or joint compound takes practice. If you have no experience with plaster or its near relative, joint compound, don’t learn in your living room. Experiment ...

A: It depends on the type and size of the crack. Hairline cracks take only a little patching plaster. Larger cracks require reinforcement with mesh tape. Cracks larger still, where the plaster keys ...

Dear James: I have an old house with plaster walls and many cracks that need to be repaired. How can I fix these so they stay fixed and are invisible? — Julianne T. Dear Julianne: Many older houses ...

Plaster was the construction standard up until the 1940s, when drywall burst onto the market. Before then, it was a popular choice for wall construction given its pliability, fitting around corners ...

Q: My wife and I removed beadboard wainscoting in a house we just bought. The beadboard was glued on, and when it came down, so did a thin coat of something. I think it’s plaster. How do I repair the ...

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 ...

Plasterboard isn’t as strong as brick and plaster, so you need to ensure that when drilling into plasterboard, you’re doing it correctly. Get it wrong and you could be left with the contents of ...

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 ...