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 ...

You say you’ve stopped napping on the sofa because of that ominous-looking crack in the ceiling? You can’t take down that 20-year-old paint-by-number sunset in the dining room because of the gaping ...

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 ...