If you know the type of wood (oak, walnut, etc) I might ask the right person at a local hardware/H-Depot about what products are good, or else find out if there's a really well respected stripper guy in the neighbourhood and see what he says and if he picks up and delivers. It's a big job, so be prepared to pay.

Welcome Kelly! Beware of this site- it completely gets in the way of baking, remodeling, etc! But it sure is fun!

I have the same dilemma you have. What to do with plaster vs. drywall. To repair plaster, you can use plaster washers, secure the plaster since it sounds like the plaster keys are broken, then use drywall mud to cover over those. Only problem is if your plaster is like mine, and textured, it's hard to create the same look. And, it takes a ton of those washers. Of course the other way is just to drywall over the plaster. An easier way to prevent as much mess.

Plaster is a better sound insulator. Keep this in mind if that is a concern to you. The way I deal with it is when I have to replace mine with drywall, I use the thickest drywall I can find- it's harder to install, but it does seem to prevent sound from carrying from one room to another.

And, to your question about the woodwork. I hate to use strippers- messy and take way to long for me, as I'm a bit impatient. I'm not sure how many projects you have to do on your house, so buying a specific tool may not be what you are looking for. However, it worked for my impatience! I purchased the infrared heat stripper called "The Silent Paint Remover". I have stripped interior wood, exterior wood, exterior metal- and it works like a dream. Not too messy, quick, but it is a bit expensive. If you have a bunch of projects, it easily pays for itself. It uses infrared heat which removes the bond between the paint and the wood, allowing the paint to be gently scraped off. In fact on my house, I've not had to use a scraper, only a 5 in 1 tool to remove the paint.

I purchased my machine nearly 4 years ago and have completely stripped the exterior of my 1919 Craftsman with 90 years of paint, down to the bare cedar. The new paint job looks amazing. I also stripped all the interior fir in my kitchen and mudroom, and will be doing the upstairs next year. I'm now on my second set of bulbs- the first still work, just not quite as strong. I love my machine, it has held up well and a few of my neighbors have used it as well. I see that they now sell it on Amazon, but I bought mine from the actual company and they were great to deal with.

Here's some photos of the exterior job that I did:
Exterior paint before:

Exterior cedar, stripped and gently sanded:

Exterior new paint:

Here is a link that might be useful: The Silent Paint Remover

I live in a 1916 home, and while we didn't have to do this because the layers of paint were only 1-2 layers thick on our woodwork, I saw in a magazine that somebody's handyman had (VERY carefully) taken the flat woodwork and shaved off the topmost layer on each flat surface with some kind of saw-- removing the paint and a tiny bit of the wood in the process.

I thought that was rather brilliant, if you had the right equipment handy. (I've read lots of good things about the pricey infrared strippers oldhousegal recommends, though-- and by the way, OHG, your exterior looks fantastic!!)

You are most likely going to find, if you take the trim off, that it won't fit when you go to put it back on. Drywall isn't the same thickness as the plaster/lathe if you remove the plaster. If you add drywall over the existing plaster, your floor moldings won't match up to door frames - where the door frames are up/down.

I would try and repair the plaster and leave trim in place. You'll save yourself hassles down the road.

If you go the paint stripper route, I've used Peelaway products and love them.

Thanks everyone for the welcome and thoughtful answers!!

We've been told the trim is southern yellow pine although I think we need a second opinion b/c it doesn't seem very soft. We've stripped a couple of doorways and it was torture (gallons of stripper) so the SPS sounds like the ticket. It is expensive but if it works that well it would pay for itself. I wonder if it would work on floors, too....

I don't think I've tried Peelaway but may give that a whirl for the intricate areas of the waincoating which is original to the house!!

I think in two rooms we could repair the plaster on the walls if it's that much better of a route - we will need to find someone to do it. We will have to put sheetrock on the ceilings as the plaster is crumbling. However the room that has the paneling will more than likely need to be replaced. If it's anything like the hall/stairway, the plaster absolutely crumbed when we took down the paneling.

oldhousegal - your house looks amazing!! It's getting my wheels turning b/c I know we have wood siding beneath the current siding.

For the intricate areas....ask your dentist for some of their old teeth picks. I'm not in the dental industry so don't know the accurate name...but the very pointed tool they use to pick between your teeth is awesome for picking out paint.

Old growth southern yellow pine is hard. Don't try and compare it to new pine that you see in the big box stores. They are 2 totally different woods.

Kelly-

Thanks for the compliment on my house! It took a lot of work, but I sure saved a ton of money versus having the painting company do it- they quoted me over $20K to strip my house- no painting!

The SPR does work on floors, you just have to keep a close eye on it as the paint can catch on fire when it's in that direction. I stripped my front porch paint, and it did fine. One time I did look away for a bit, and the paint had caught fire! The machine was perfectly fine though as was the wood underneath! I think the air circulation is not as good with the machine turned upside down, but it does work. My ADHD gets me in trouble sometimes!

As for your wainscoting, I think the SPR will work on that too. This fall I did my beadboard ceiling and it took the paint right out of the grooves without any problems. A few areas were tougher than others, but it still does a great job. I had to experiment with times for the paint to come up- some areas took longer than others. The paint actually does bubble up and away from the wood- it's really cool to see!

Good luck with your decision!

Now I want a SPR!!! Great, I'll just add it to the list!
:-) good info!

I agree with Oldhouseguy, don't take the plaster out unless you absolutely have too.

We did that in one bedroom of the house we are renovating, and I learned a lesson the hard way. The plaster is very heavy and a mess. We also found tons of soot (and God knows what else) behind the plaster. I have never felt so dirty!

Be careful removing moulding in a house that old. In our house (built around 1900) they had put the baseboards up first then plastered to them. Imagine my surprise when I pulled off the first piece to find nothing behind it.

We bought a 1905 house with crumbling plaster and multiple layers of paint on fabulous wood trim nearly 18 years ago, and spent a year renovating it before moving in.

We took the plaster off. Specific reason here: you could peel it off the lath with your fingers in places, including off the ceiling: we live in an earthquake-prone area. Got it all out before we moved in, so got all the dust over with. This also allowed us to insulate better before dry walling - it was all blown-in cellulose filling only half the wall cavities.

The plaster does have a better look to it than drywall - we left the plaster on in the "addition" done only 50 years ago, so can compare. But I can live with boring walls and ceilings that I don't feel are going to drop on me any second.

Of course, we took the trim off too, or most of it. On a few inside walls, we took off just the plaster and left the lath, in those cases we could drywall over the lath up to the trim. THAT trim isn't stripped yet - and why every previous owner of this house couldn't paint without making huge drips I don't know - but boy am I sick of looking at them. However, MY CHRISTMAS PRESENT THIS YEAR WAS A SILENT PAINT STRIPPER! so that trim, and the wainscoting in the same room, will FINALLY be stripped this year. My husband being a Dec 24th shopper, it just arrived today and I am thrilled.

Of the trim we took off, which was the vast majority, we have chemically stripped and reinstalled about half... maybe three quarters. My chemical stripper of choice is EZWay, available at trade shows and by mail order. It is the only chemical stripper that does not require cleanup with water or another chemical. It stinks, is not for indoor use, but is apparently less toxic than methylene chloride. Doesn't raise the grain, really great stuff for pieces you can take outdoors. I just finished doing a whole door with it this summer. Not cheap either - I expect to save money with the SPR!

And yes, when we reinstall the trim, it doesn't always (hardly ever!) fit. So things are quirky, and require some fiddling to work at all. That makes up for the too-perfect walls :-)

Oh and about every surface being green once- here too! But it was a specific shade of aqua/jade. Must have been on sale...

Good luck!

KarinL

On plaster vs. drywall: I elected to have three bedrooms and a dining room in our 1920s foursquare stripped to the studs, then finished with drywall and veneer plaster (we're in New England). With the walls open we could upgrade the wiring, run TV cable and phone, and, most importantly, insulate. I can't see how saving the old crumbling plaster could have had such advantages. This was not DIY. Removing the mess was the contractor's job. I removed, stripped, and repaired the woodwork myself. In an historic house maybe old plaster should be saved, but for a vernacular building of no particular distinction it's hard to see why you'd bother.