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I really don't like drywall, I think its cheap crap. Lathe and plaster imo is a far superior material. I know drywall didn't come into common use until relatively recently. Do most older, pre-war homes still retain their plaster walls, or have they been replaced with drywall? I've only lived in one pre-war home, built in the 1920s, and it had drywall throughout.
Plaster was used because it was one of the only options at that time, drywall wasn’t around at the time. Lath and plaster walls are a primitive wall finish since it is difficult to remove a section or patch, poor acoustically and it is considered a wet trade which creates additional construction difficulties.
If you really prefer a plaster finish, you can purchase a type of drywall (USG as well as other manufacturers) that is intended to be finished with a hard plaster surface so there’s no need to revert back to the 1800’s technique to get that surface if it’s something you’d really like to have.
Plaster/lathe walls in a new built house in my area disappeared sometime in the mid 1950's. I don't know exactly how and when gypsum wallboard actually became the acceptable alternative, but I do remember that flat wall paint become the "norm" starting in the late 1950's - the reason for that style change not understood at the time. This came about because paint other than flat will more likely show the imperfections of seams in a drywalled wall, and those are large scale imperfections, easily spotted.
My dad was appalled by drywall walls in the early 1960's and refused to buy up to a new house in the 'burbs as a result. A wet plastered house today would cost double - at least. Stick to flat paint good drywallers, and 1/2" board, and you'll never know the difference.
The 1950s were just about the last era of quality home building in America, imo.
Drywall was invented in 1916. The United States Gypsum Corporation, a company that vertically integrated 30 different gypsum and plaster manufacturing companies 14 years prior, created it to protect homes from urban fires and marketed it as the poor man's answer to plaster walls.
Drywall didn’t catch on right away, but in the 1940s, sales grew rapidly thanks to the baby boom. People wanted white bread and confectioner’s sugar. They wanted a neat, tidy little white-boxed world in the 1950s after the war. It made perfect sense then.
Like white bread in the 1950s, drywall became the de facto consumer substance with the promise of a better, cleaner, easier life. White bread sales are now declining, but drywall is doing better than ever. Maybe that’s because drywall really is the best way to create affordable housing for millions. But it may just be easier to change America’s eating habits than its living habits.
Drywall is much cheaper than plaster, not eco-friendly, either. But its quick and easy to install. Builders love it but I hate it, too!
Sadly, cheap rules!
"As Hurricane Katrina raged through New Orleans in 2005, neighborhood after neighborhood collapsed from flooding. Of the houses that stood, many still had to be bulldozed due to mold within the walls. But one building, a plantation-home-turned-museum on Moss Street built two centuries before the disaster, was left almost entirely unscathed.
The Pitot house was built the old way, with plaster walls. When the flood came, the museum moved the furniture upstairs. Afterwards, they simply hosed the walls -no harm done. The other houses weren’t built the old way. All the homes around the Pitot house were lost because they were built with drywall. https://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...rywall/493502/
Nuff said...
Widespread drywall use seems to be a product of mass produced housing- everything needs to be built as cheaply and quickly as possible. Quality and durability are neglected for speed and efficiency.
All the homes...were lost because they were built with drywall.
ROFLMAO!
Yes, the fundemental purpose of drywall was for fire protection- a "by-product" was a relatively inexpensive manufacturing process that resulted in wallcoverings being fast, and reasonably priced compared to plaster/lath walls. But "drywall" isn't a reason for a total loss of a house.
My 1959-built home has all plaster walls, but they are not plaster and lath. Instead they are either plaster on plasterboard, which is a structural component, or plaster on brick. I do have one room, the first floor bathroom, where the walls are simply plaster alone, with no substrate, at least on two walls. I will say that this is the quietest home I have ever had, and it also holds temperatures well, both heat and cold.
BTW, my last home, built in 1927, still had all its original interior walls of Homasote, which was the precursor to drywall. Homasote was used during WWI to build medical facilities in France due to its sound-deadening qualities, plus it was very effective at wicking up moisture. It had a unique surface texture as well. I'm grateful that house didn't have plaster walls as the shock waves from weapons testing at the adjacent Naval base would have caused constant cracking of all the surfaces - the Homasote was practically crack-free.
My family were plastering contractors, starting in the 1920's. I remember in the 50's my Grandfather had a sign on his truck that said "Knock on the wall" meaning you could tell the difference between plaster and drywall. Drywall was an inferior product according to my Grandfather and father, but of course it was a competing product.
They continued to plaster homes (interior as well as stucco exteriors) into the early 80's when they retired. I don't remember them using wood lathe when I was around job sites (1950's - 1960's), it was all button board by then. They also used a metal lath in some applications. I'm a little fuzzy on all the applications since its been 50-60 years since I was around it.
Our 1775 home still has its original plaster walls. Below the chair rail is wood paneling--I believe it was used to keep the walls from bowing out as the weight of the plaster migrated down. I would love to strip away decades of paint and reveal the original wood, but who knows how much lead paint is under there.
We have a 1,500 foot addition that was built in 2000. Obviously drywall. I much prefer the plaster. I love the character, love the history, and I actually love the acoustics. I can have one kid practicing the piano in one room and one kid practicing the violin in the next room and they don't interfere with each other. More importantly, I can be in the kitchen, which is adjacent to both, and so long as the doors are shut, I can listen to a podcast or watch TV and not have to turn it up loud while the simultaneous practicing is happening.
The house I'm in was built in the early 1950's and has plaster walls.
I'll second the part about picture hanging becoming more problematic.
Wive had some framed movie posters she hung in the hallway. She decided to use those 3M strips for heavier items. They were stuck to the wall for a fair amount of time; only problem was the paint in that spot eventually didn't and the posters fell down. They are currently on the ground leaning against a wall now.
Guess it could have been the quality of the paint and/or priimer.
Plaster walls were usually covered with Anaglypta wallpaper in the U.K. , still is popular, it can be painted over many times , covers up bumps too ! Ceilings were done too in Anaglypta as well .
I grew up in a plaster house built in 1955. It had copper radiant heat in the ceiling which would occasionally have a solder joint leak so the ceilings were patched with plaster and re-painted pretty frequently. My dad bought the house next to it. Civil war era with horse hair in the plaster lath.
My house was completely gutted over four winters. I didn't consider plaster due to the cost. The sheet rock is skim coated but that's way lower labor cost than plaster-lath.
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