Before drywall became widely used, building interiors were made of plaster. For hundreds of years, walls and ceilings have been constructed by placing layers of wet plaster over thousands of wooden strips called laths.
Plaster: A Traditional Approach
Plaster walls are harder and more durable than drywall, but they are also more expensive to install. In older homes, plaster was typically applied in three coats over wood or metal lath. Modern plastering methods often involve a single coat over a special drywall called a blue board.
Lath and plaster walls grace many traditional homes. Thick, substantial, and great at soundproofing, walls constructed out of lath and plaster are rarely built anew anymore. They tend only to be repaired, not built from scratch. Drywall is the wall covering of choice now.
The original product we call drywall today was Gypsum Board. The word gypsum is derived from the original Latin term gypsos, meaning plaster. A form of dry plasterboard was called gypsum.
Before drywall, installers used plaster layered between thick pieces of wool felt paper. In the mid-1920s, it was primarily replaced by drywall, which developed between 1910 and 1930. Drywall is made from calcium sulfate dihydrate, i.e., gypsum, and can contain various additives that enhance its properties.
Lath and plaster was a skilled craft and a time-consuming technique and the advent of cheaper, mass produced, pre-manufactured plasterboard meant lath and plaster largely fell out of favour by the 1930s and 1940s. Plasterboard was simply faster and less expensive to install.
Before drywall became widely used, building interiors were made of plaster. For hundreds of years, walls and ceilings have been constructed by placing layers of wet plaster over thousands of wooden strips called laths.
As mentioned earlier, plaster walls were the people's choice before World War II. Even though drywall was invented in 1916, folks didn't use it in residential construction until the 1950s. Then, it eventually stole the spotlight from plaster walls after the '60s.
Lath and plaster is an older construction technique widely used before the invention of drywall. This technique involves nailing narrow strips of wood (lath) to the framing of a building, and then applying multiple coats of a mixture of plaster and water.
Homes built before 1950 probably have plaster. Homes built between 1950 – 1969 might be plaster or drywall. Homes built after 1970 are probably drywall.
In use as early as 1900, rock lath (also known as "button board," "plaster board" or "gypsum-board lath"), is a type of gypsum wall board (essentially an early form of drywall) with holes spaced regularly to provide a 'key' for wet plaster.
“Pre-drywall” refers to a phase during the homebuilding process just after the installation of certain elements – such as the doors, windows, foundation, flooring, wall and roof components, plumbing and electrical rough-in – and right before the drywall is hung.
Before gypsum board (drywall), interior walls were finished with wood panels and planks or the were finished with “lath & plaster”. Thin strips of wood over the wall studs that are then covered with plaster.
Plaster was the preferred ceiling finish material for structures built before the 1950s. However, as drywall became more widely available and affordable, it gradually replaced plaster in new construction.
Sure, drywall is the gold standard for walls because it's fairly inexpensive, easy to repair, fire-resistant, and more. However, depending on your space's needs, drywall alternatives like plywood, plaster, shiplap, and more can be a better solution.
PVC panels are impact-resistant, whereas drywall is prone to damage. Drywall contributes to landfill waste, decomposing into a pungent-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas. On the other hand, PVC panels are eco-friendly, have a low carbon footprint and can be recycled several times.
One key difference between the two is that sheetrock is a brand name of drywall made by the United States Gypsum Corporation. Another difference lies in their production process; sheetrock has a slightly denser core than drywall due to the addition of a small amount of wood fiber to the gypsum core.
Wattle and daub plastering is still present on some of our historic buildings that are in existence in Britain today. It is also thought to have been the idea behind the lath and plaster technique used on internal walls that came later in the 18th century.
Drywall (also called plasterboard, dry lining, wallboard, sheet rock, gib board, gypsum board, buster board, turtles board, slap board, custard board, gypsum panel and gyprock) is a panel made of calcium sulfate dihydrate (gypsum), with or without additives, typically extruded between thick sheets of facer and backer ...
Hang the Ceiling First
This makes it much easier to manage and attach the panels since you will not have to fumble around with the screws, measuring tape, and so on. Screws for drywall lids should be placed no closer than 16” from the wall. This allows the drywall to have a bit of flexibility to prevent ceiling cracks.
All-purpose joint compound or mud has bonding agents that cause the drywall tape to hold better. It's commonly used as a first coat. All-purpose mud is harder to sand, so it's rarely used as a finish coat. Lightweight, all-purpose drywall mud is lighter in weight and easier to sand than all-purpose joint compound.
The purpose of the horsehair itself was to act as a bridging agent, controlling the 'shrinkage' of the plaster and helping to hold the plaster 'nibs' together, the 'nibs' being crucial to the performance and longevity of the plaster.
Homes built before the 1950s likely have some lath and plaster walls unless they were renovated sometime after the 1950s. During the 1950s, pressed gypsum or drywall became the standard for finishing interiors since it was less costly to install.
Prior to the invention of what we now know as drywall, plaster derived from the mineral gypsum was the only material used to create walls in most building construction. Unlike drywall, plaster is a wet material applied to wood lath that needs to dry completely before additional layers could be added.