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 ...

IF YOU LIVE in an old house, it’s highly likely that you have plaster walls and ceilings. Most people love them — they’re a good, solid surface — but they can pose problems if they’re damaged. We get ...

Dear James: We are planning a substantial room addition to our dream home. We are not on a tight budget, and we want everything done right. Should we use plaster walls or standard drywall walls? — ...

At the turn of the 20th century, plaster was the most popular interior wall covering in North America, and it remained so for the next several decades. But things have changed since then. Drywall, ...

Q: I recently moved into a house built in 1916 in Albany. Some of the house has been remodeled, but the rooms that haven't have plaster walls. I've been told that plaster cracks often due to settling.

In nearly all American homes built in recent memory, you’re probably familiar with drywall, which is by far the most popular wall material in the nation. Quickly installed, solid, and with a ...

Q: My husband and I live in a 45-year-old brick ranch home. The house was built with electric ceiling heat, but we added propane forced-air heat in 1996. We kept the electric ceiling heat intact, but ...