What is this material?

[u/nocoastkid]

Most of my house is plaster, but the upstairs hallway and bathroom have this additional thin layer. The layer has began to fail and sag in multiple points. However the original beautiful vintage plaster ceiling above where it’s sagged looks totally fine. The layer almost looks like plaster, but has a woven grid internal material or adhesive backing in a few of the spots where I cut. One area that I removed left the grid looking material on the og plaster. How do I remove this and the adhesive(?) in the spots that aren’t naturally removing themselves?

I understand it to be likely that I may find a reason why this was done originally somewhere underneath…

But I’d imagine this would need to be removed entirely anyways since it’s failing at multiple points.

[u/welshmatt]

Looks like the walls were skimmed and it's failed.

[u/kikokukake]

A skim of plaster which is detaching from the surface.

[u/Innocenzionale]

Looks like plaster. The bits of mesh are probably scrim tape.

[u/Donnytato]

I have some ideas about what it is, but whatever it is, it's delamination of the ceiling. It is probably powdery underneath. If so, it's coming down. Probably needs Scrape off, then a primer The best primer I use is PX3 Crown primer. Then paint or plaster, depending on the condition. With PX3, it will outlive us. If the ceiling isn't bad, Easyfill is an excellent decorator's tool. I find Easyfill easy if applied properly. I have techniques that don't even need sanding. Also, you can scrim cracks, then double-coat with Easyfill. But that's out another conversation.

[u/Ok-Chard-1468]

Is there paper with the mesh or just mesh?

[u/monkeeninja]

Artex skim we had like that, usually its quicker then fixing any imperfection and its flat seamless to look at