plaster ceiling repair

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Hello...

I have a house that was built in the late '40's. Some plaster (about a 2'x2' area, plus other cracks) had peeled away from my ceiling due to a roof leak, which was repaired a couple months ago. There doesn't appear to be any more leaking, so I am ready to repair the ceiling.

The layer of smooth plaster, not even 1/4 inch thick, had peeled away. This is what I want to repair. The moisture from the leak caused it to separate from the structure it was adhered to. The plaster also "bubbled up", cracked and flaked away in some other areas as well.

The plaster is adhered to an underlying surface, some sort of hard, rough, cement-like material. It's not as hard as cement because I can depress it with my fingernail, but it's pretty hard and intact. I see no other wood structure (lath?), only this grayish-brown, porous material. (This stuff is a little stained from the previous moisture problem, which was never a really bad leak, I caught it before it got to be a real problem.)

Any suggestions on where to begin? My plan was to chisel away the rest of the loose plaster layer that hadn't yet peeled off and build it back up (with perlited plaster?) to fill the area. Then I would sand, prime and repaint. As far as the cracks, I was going to dig them out and re-mud them as well.

Am I on the right track?
Jennifer