I can't believe I was able to find the photo. Here is what ours looked like. I made the photo public, let me know if it doesn't work. Detail of the plaster stamped tile https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7TaVMTvOs_1Qm5nYUpGMFBFS1E/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-SFo9cRl93-HHUi-iDbICgg How it looked in the bathroom. When the bathroom was remodeled in the 60s, most of the tile was covered with mastic and yellow plastic tiles (see behind the toilet). However part of the plaster scoring was preserved behind a vanity at that time. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7TaVMTvOs_1R0w3MDZlS21QaVE/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-uEzilpmw4U8DHczlmnW3KA

Oh wow! That must have been a shocker. My 1890s plaster bedroom ceiling did that to me when I was a child, Mom had the bridge club that day, so my sister and I were upstairs sitting at our table, coloring. Mom heard a huge rumble and a bunch of thuds and NO NOISE from us as a cloud of plaster dust rolled down the stairs and out of the vents.. That really panicked her, so she and the bridge club thundered up the stairs and found us, frozen in terror, totally white with plaster dust, in a sea of plaster chunks. The dust is more of a mechanical irritant than a long-term hazard - this is a 1-time exposure. You fall in the area of "homeowner remediation" (the EPS finally came to their senses and realized that treating every speck of asbestos as if it were a WMD was silly. Go to Home DEPOT and get some GOOD dust masks, rated for concrete and rock dust. (the cheap ones for lawn mowing don't block it enough). And some smallish but HEAVY DUTY trash bags. Wear gloves and a long-sleeved snug shirt (or one of those paper painter's coveralls) ... stash clean clothes in the garage. Have shampoo and shower gel outside. You are the "dirty" person. You stay in the dirty zone. Outside the debris field you need a "clean" person who can take clean objects to a clean area. If you start moving back and forth from dusty to clean, you'll drag all the dust with you. 1 - Seal off the air vents in the living room. Just close them and tape a sheet of plastic over them. 2 - Remove any really large pieces intact if you can. Bag them and hand them to the clean person. 3 - Working top to bottom in the debris field, pick up smaller pieces that are big enough to pick up and put them in trash bags. When one is getting bulgy, twist it shut, tie it, gooseneck the surplus and twist-tie it again. Give it to the clean person and start a new bag. 4 - When you are done with the larger stuff, start removing decor, again top to bottom, and wiping it down to get the dust off. Hand the clean things to the clean person. You can use a vacuum cleaner for this, but start with a clean bag and change them often. The dust clogs the bags quickly and damages the motor. If you have a shop vac, put in a "drywall filter". 5 - when you are down to bare walls and large furniture, vacuum the walls, the shelves, the furniture and the floor. Leave the plastic sheets until you have the repair done - drywall is a dirty, dusty job. Personal cleanup: Vacuum the worst of the dust off yourself periodically as you work, so you don't become a dust source. 6 - Go outside where the hose and soap is, strip to your undies and hose off, wash off, and wash your hair. Here is a link that might be useful:

"You could use old-style lime mortar as well (horsehair plaster) but this is heavier and has a very long cure time. " Lime-plaster cures reasonably quickly. Lime plaster takes months to cure. higher lime-plaster was normally restricted to the finish coat (the longer setting time allowed plenty of working time (troweling)for a smooth hard finish) with the base coats having other 'stretchers' (sand) or strength (fiber) additions along with retarder to slow setting. Lime putty makes a decent retarder if other types are not available though. This post was edited by brickeyee on Sun, Dec 30, 12 at 11:28

Yes remove all the wet wall board before mold starts growing. Might not hurt if you sprayed a bleack solution on the walls after you remove the damp stuff just to make sure mold is gone. It all depends on what you want to place on the wall. If it is tile, then a 1/2" concrete backer board is necessary. If you decide on a surround,perhaps a green board rock will be sufficient. Decide what you want for the wall and then check with your local supplier for the best solution.