Q: Last spring, my roof sprang a leak and water stained the ceiling in my daughter’s second-floor bedroom. We fixed the leak and repainted the ceiling. Now the new paint is cracked and, looking closer ...

Q Am I right that when sections of plaster break away from the lath, an accepted repair technique is to roughly fill in those gaps with drywall and then drywall over the whole wall or ceiling? — M.H., ...

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 ...

The ceiling in the front room on our third floor brownstone is noticeably sagging — we’ve determined that the joists are sagging (the plaster has not detached from the lath). Any recommendations for ...

Q: Last spring, my roof sprang a leak and water stained the ceiling in my daughter’s second-floor bedroom. We fixed the leak and repainted the ceiling. However, now the new paint is cracked and, ...

Building codes governing framed floors include an allowance for sagging, which sounds bad. But the allowable limit is 1/360 of the span, which isn’t much. Spread over a 45-foot-long joist — if you ...

Q: We lived in our home for 22 years and recently noticed a hump in a floor between the kitchen and the living room. The home has a basement where we can see the floors, and I cannot see anything like ...