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.

Veneer plaster is made for skim coating. Mix it with 90 minute compound mix -- 3 parts compound to 1 part plaster. Don't use plaster of paris as it will harden up so fast you'll end up throwing most of it away before you get it on the wall. You can try the above suggested mix and/or work with the veneer plaster mix alone or experiment. Use a large, wide trowel to smooth it on and make up your own "darby" with a 2 x 4 about 2' long and attempt your final smoothing with that, wait and then sand and then fill your dips again until you get a reasonably decent surface. Try to work fast, working slowly and methodically will cause more errors and you will lose sight of the "big picture" and with this kind of work you want to focus on the whole wall -- the whole job and not just a line or a lump here or there. Also, irregularities that you can't get rid of can be feathered out and a fool the eye effect can be achieved by spreading the lump or problem over a larger surface so as to remove focus on one problem area.

I would do the repairs /hole patches prior to priming - but lathe and plaster surfaces must be washed & scrubbed clean and free of loose debris, and you should use a bonding agent made to adhere new plaster to old. (I like pro-bond which is sold as a concrete bonder but says in tiny print can be used on plaster). Someone else can speak to the skim coat question - are you proposing to cover entire wall or just uneven areas? If the latter, then I would just paint on bonding agent + finish plaster to level out - and then prime entire surface - Gardz for "problem surfaces" like calcimine, wall paper - although with wallpaper and paste if its the old wheat paste that stuff comes off easily with hot water and a scrub brush - really should get off anyting loose thats easy to take off. Hope yer enjoying the journey - it can be long and tiring but the destination is worth it!