Q:We have a small 1924 cottage in the El Cerrito flatlands a little east of the El Cerrito Mall. Our lot has a minor slope, and we have a high water table. Our house continues to shift and settle, ...

Q: The walls of our 1938 San Francisco home are lath and plaster, with a canvas-like fabric over the plaster. There are cracks in the plaster, which can be seen through the paint as raised creases in ...

Lath-and-plaster walls are common in older houses (built late 18th Century until the early 1950’s, when drywall became standard). Whether you want to hang a picture, mirror or kitchen cabinet, ...

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? — ...

They are healthier, they last longer, and they look better, too. After the recent flooding in the Carolinas I wrote that "the typical North American house is not designed to get wet." This is mostly a ...

Drywall is common and ubiquitous in commercial and residential buildings today. Many of us barely think about it until we have to repair a hole smashed in it. However, drywall has not been around ...

In most homes, it completely surrounds us side to side and overhead. We take for granted the wonderful finish, texture and surface it provides every day for decades on end. “It” is what we commonly ...

Q. My wife and I removed beadboard wainscoting in a house we just bought. In the process we destroyed the wall. The beadboard was glued on, and when it came down, so did a thin coat of something. I ...

I just bought my first house and am getting ready to run cat5e jacks to the rooms. I have experience crimping and punching things down, but my experience is limited ...

Unless something goes wrong, or you’re in the middle of a renovation project, it’s pretty easy to ignore your walls. Sure, they’re integral to the structure and layout of your home, but play more of a ...