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Lathe and plaster is fine for most part, until something goes wrong, and it will sooner or later.
With a leaking pipe or something, you just cut/tear out area damaged by water, and or needed to get to piping in question. Once repair is made, cut out a new piece of drywall, fit it in, button everything up, and paint over. Easy/peasy and can be done in about a day or two.
Getting behind lathe and plaster, and or having to repair the damaged/ripped out area afterwards is expensive, time consuming PITA. Which is why you see so many drywall patched areas on otherwise lathe/plaster.
My home, built in about 1960, is plastered, but no lath - the home is masonry (cinderblock with veneer brick), with furring strips attached to the block, no insulation, and "sheetrock" (not modern drywall) attached to the furring, and plastered over. I'm pretty sure I read that drywall tends to mold so badly if it gets wet because of the paper it is constructed with, which is what the mold feeds on. Plus the soft gypsum it is made from soaks up water, and it can literally "fall apart" when soaked with water, which plaster doesn't tend to do. That being said, I had a roof leak that bubbled the plaster on my ceiling, which I had to take off and patch after it dried out. There are several other spots I've had to patch from the plaster cracking or otherwise "bubbling", but mostly, the house is still very sound after sixty years.
There seems to be changes in thought about insulating homes now. I watched a video recently, where a newer home was built with traditional studs and exterior sheathing (they may have used "real boards" instead of plywood or chipboard for the sheathing), but they then wrapped the exterior with a vapor barrier, installed foam sheets, and then furred over the top and sided it. The interior was painted without adding drywall or other covering. They claimed it was much more energy-efficient than traditional batt insulation between the studs plus drywall. Same thing with attic spaces, the traditional "cold attic" is being replaced by insulation being placed in the rafters instead of the joists, and making the attic a "semi-conditioned" space. I'm not a builder, but keep an eye on trends like this, in case I ever get around to having a retirement home built.
My home, built in about 1960, is plastered, but no lath - the home is masonry (cinderblock with veneer brick), with furring strips attached to the block, no insulation, and "sheetrock" (not modern drywall) attached to the furring, and plastered over. I'm pretty sure I read that drywall tends to mold so badly if it gets wet because of the paper it is constructed with, which is what the mold feeds on. Plus the soft gypsum it is made from soaks up water, and it can literally "fall apart" when soaked with water, which plaster doesn't tend to do. That being said, I had a roof leak that bubbled the plaster on my ceiling, which I had to take off and patch after it dried out. There are several other spots I've had to patch from the plaster cracking or otherwise "bubbling", but mostly, the house is still very sound after sixty years.
There seems to be changes in thought about insulating homes now. I watched a video recently, where a newer home was built with traditional studs and exterior sheathing (they may have used "real boards" instead of plywood or chipboard for the sheathing), but they then wrapped the exterior with a vapor barrier, installed foam sheets, and then furred over the top and sided it. The interior was painted without adding drywall or other covering. They claimed it was much more energy-efficient than traditional batt insulation between the studs plus drywall. Same thing with attic spaces, the traditional "cold attic" is being replaced by insulation being placed in the rafters instead of the joists, and making the attic a "semi-conditioned" space. I'm not a builder, but keep an eye on trends like this, in case I ever get around to having a retirement home built.
Sheetrock is nothing more than a brand name of drywall.
Sheetrock goes up the same as drywall and has same inherent basic properties as generic drywall. There might be subtle differences, but main is likely a higher cost for buying a brand name over generic; something that a contractor can pass along.
I'm curious now about plaster. Does one need a different or special paint in order to repaint rooms in a house with plaster walls and ceilings? Can old minor stress cracks if they occur be repaired using regular spackling?
I don’t think I have ever been in a house with plaster walls. Old houses where I live usually had some kind of tongue and groove pine. Drywall started being used sometime around 1960 or so.
I'm curious now about plaster. Does one need a different or special paint in order to repaint rooms in a house with plaster walls and ceilings? Can old minor stress cracks if they occur be repaired using regular spackling?
No, and yes.
I've used screen and mud to repair larger holes my ex left from speakers.
The original owners removed wall lights and those left some largish holes. They filled it with something bright white and pretty hard, not sure what it was. 1974 or so.
You can have lath and plaster, or plaster over drywall, but the two aren't same in terms of installation.
Actually there is more to the story, since you missed two major steps in the progress from lath and plaster to drywall. At some point in time, the consuming process of nailing narrow wooden lath to the walls was replaced with metal mesh as a base for the first coat of plaster. All i can say about this idea is that anything you do to a structure with metal interior plaster lath is going to be an absolute bear, truly nasty. The stuff is brutal to patch, repair or remove. At this point in my life, I don't think you could even talk me into to demolishing a place with metal lath, since it leads to nothing but a lot of bleeding and frustration. The next step is alluded to by a few poster here, and it's called "rock lath". It is essentially 3/8" thick drywall that typically installed as 16" x 48" pieces. It was crudely nailed to all interior surfaces of the structure, using short roofing nails. I mentioned my home earlier in this thread, and any demolition I have done leads to evidence that the rock lath was apparently installed by drunken idiots who lacked most skills, including the ability to measure. After installation, rock lath was then coated with two coats of plaster. Compared to earlier rough sawn lath and horse hair plaster, from what I have seen, rock lath installs tend to be a lot more durable, with ceilings that look pretty good after 3/4s of a century, not spider cracked, loose, and ready to fall down. Finally, there is a process that is currently in use that is called "skim coat plastering" where a sheetrock base is installed and instead of doing a typical three coat "tape and mud" finish, a skilled professional plasters the sheetrocked walls with one layer of a finish coat of plaster. This is, IMHO, the best of all worlds, not cheap but as good as it gets from a modern perspective.
Sheetrock is nothing more than a brand name of drywall. https://homefixcos.com/difference-sheetrock-drywall/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drywall
Sheetrock goes up the same as drywall and has same inherent basic properties as generic drywall. There might be subtle differences, but main is likely a higher cost for buying a brand name over generic; something that a contractor can pass along.
Please forgive my unfamiliarity with the term I used - the stuff used in my walls is made from "sheets", but seemed to be harder than modern drywall when drilling for light fixtures, etc., maybe it was just the plaster coating that made the difference to me. I just went into the bathroom and opened the access panel to the bathtub fill, and there is indeed a paper-covered "drywall" attached to the studs, over which is a thick layer of troweled cement upon which the plastic tile was glued, so it appears you are correct. The next time I have occasion to stick my head into the attic, I plan to move away some of the blown insulation and confirm what it is (if it has writing on it). You cleared away a misconception for me, thank you.
My house was built in 1965 and it still has most of the plaster walls. I think there may be a few sheetrock. I know most if not all the ceilings on the second floor are sheetrock. That was done right before we moved in by our contractor because the ceilings were all cracked. I think most of the ceilings on the first floor are also sheetrock.
Cat
I thought that you bought an old house and remodeled, updated. Aren't you the one who posted videos about that?
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