Hi, First off, it's natural for the white coat of plaster to have spiderweb cracks all over the surface. These are only in the white coat and are very closely spaced and interconnected. By closely I mean 1/4" apart. _Those_ are nothing to fix or worry about. Cracks that extend into the base coat, and have movement that you can see by pressing, and seem "broken" are something to fix. I like to spray the cracks with bonding agent (garden sprayer) and sponge the stuff in (don't leave any drips of bonding agent; hard to skim over them). It seems to stop any movement for some time. Then add fiberglass mesh tape and the durabond routine, as you have read. The closet area, maybe sand the mess a little smoother to take off any high spots, the prime and then tape. We always use an oil primer around unknown/unforeseeable problem areas, because it really seals anything "bad" like wallpaper glue and prevents problems in the future, and durabond or regular mud sticks to the primer. Regular mud is not optimal for plaster repair in areas where is has to build up thickness; that's where you run into drying cracks (plus it takes lots of time for all the water to evaporate) and when/if it ever gets wet again it falls off lime plaster in sheets. It won't fall off if you oil prime first, and use it sparingly. Use brown coat plaster like Structolite (or Gypsolite), on top of a bonding agent like Link or Plasterweld if down to the lath, use durabond or easysand when the white coat is damaged or missing, use regular mud only for small imperfections and the final touchups, and you'll be fine. Casey

We too had bad wallpaper covering plaster in our entire house. In one room, the wallpaper was a "pre-pasted" removable kind and came off easily. It would have been dumb to paint over this paper because it was so easy to remove. However, in all the other rooms, the wallpaper was VERY difficult to remove because it was the old variety that came off only in one inch strips. We got several quotes from professionals who refused to touch the wallpaper. At least one professional recommended that we paint the wallpaper. We then tried three different solutions. First, my husband removed the flocked wallpaper in one room. It was very difficult to remove because it was not "removeable" wallpaper but older, heavily pasted paper. He tried every tool for removal, including steaming, scoring, etc. The only tool that worked was a 4 inch razor blade scraper (not 3 in or 5 in according to him!). That was a long process and the walls were in such poor shape that we had to wallpaper over the plaster when we were done. Second Approach: In two other rooms we painted over the wallpaper. In one room, a bedroom, the paint looked great. The painted wallpaper has held up fine for 20 years. Just last year we painted it again with no problems. The second room where we painted over wallpaper was the bathroom. It bothered me to paint the wallpaper in this room because it was poorly wallpapered in the first place. There were several corners where the wallpaper was not flush with the corners, but "wrinkled", for lack of a better term. Because every inch of the room, including the ceiling, was covered with wallpaper, we just painted it. It too has lasted 20 years, but it does not look as good. The paint made the wrinkles more obvious to me. Also, we must have had a leak, because the wallpaper on the ceiling is beginning to bulge. It will have to be redone soon. I am not sure any outsider would have noticed the flaws in this room, but I did. It was a second floor bath, though, so I just lived with it. Third approach: In our dining room, I think we again stripped the wallpaper, but then my husband attempted to plaster the walls himself. BAD IDEA. Although he is very handy, this was a job that he could never get to look good, no matter how many coats he used and how many times he sanded it. (By the way, the sanding made the entire house a mess!) After weeks of trying , he finally gave up. Instead of hiring a professional plasterer, he applied a special wallpaper that was meant to be painted. This wallpaper was like canvas and smoothed out any irregularities and made the wall ready for paint. It still looks great. My advice to you would be to look into the cost of hiring a professional to either plaster or apply the coat of the substance named above and sand it. I am not sure if we ever got a quote for plastering and sanding. If it is cost prohibitive, get the wallpaper that is intended to be used on plaster walls and then paint it.

"I don't think you can get a nice finish coat directly on top of the bonding agent. At least I had a difficult time, although perhaps a pro would know how. For me, everything slid around too much while you were trying to work it smooth." Sounds like you are not leaving enough material on the wall, possibly using too much water in the mix, and did not allow the bonding agent to dry enough. The layer is about 1/16 to 1.8 inch thick. The mix for skim coating should be about like peanut butter in consistency. This allows it to be pushed out easily but has enough body to be workable. Bonding agents need to set up to tacky before applying the plaster. The water in the plaster will help it soften again and grab. Use of drywall knives also makes covering large areas even more of a chore than it needs to be. A plasterer's trowel makes short work of covering large areas and produces a smooth finish. It takes some practice to barealy raise the leading edge to obtain a good finish. The trowels with the tiny (3/4 inch diameter) handle are not as good as ones with a decent (~1.5 inch) grip diameter.

"Skim coating with drywall knives is a nighmare." Yes, we learned this the hard way. A trowel would be easier, although it takes some time to get used to using it. "3. has anyone tried this "Dustless Drywall Hand Sanding System" (see link below) from Home Depot? It attaches to a shop vac and uses a 5 gal tank of water to trap the plastet dust." We rented this machine from HD. We were pleased with the results. It sanded large surfaces smooth with very little effort and kept dust to a minimum as long as the bag is not full and the hose attachments are properly connected. If we should tackle this project again in another room we will use the trowel method or perhaps slightly thinning the compound and rolling it on with a paint roller.