Q: I want to do some interior repainting, but the ceilings have dark stripes on them that I was told are caused by burning candles and my wood stove. The stripes don’t seem to wash off. The stripes ...

Q Am I right that when sections of plaster break away from the lath, an accepted repair technique is to roughly fill in those gaps with drywall and then drywall over the whole wall or ceiling? — M.H., ...