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 ...

Before you do any plaster patching, rid the rooms of any residual lead. If you try to vacuum up chips or dust, you must use a special HEPA filter-equipped vacuum cleaner. Some tool rental stores rent ...

You’re proudly hanging your first picture on your new home’s antique plaster walls. A few minutes later, it’s no longer hanging. And now you now have a bent nail, a large hole and a new diagonal crack ...