If you are planning an extension, a renovation or a garage conversion, someone will eventually ask whether you want the walls drylined or wet plastered. The two finishes can look identical once painted, but they behave very differently in cost, drying time and repairability. Here is an honest comparison from a firm that installs both every week.
Drylining means fixing plasterboard to your walls or ceilings, then finishing the joints rather than coating the whole surface. The boards are either screwed to a timber or metal frame, fixed to metal channels, or stuck straight to masonry with adhesive dabs. The joints between boards are then taped and jointed with filler, or the whole face is given a thin skim coat of plaster, usually 2 to 3mm.
Wet plastering is the traditional alternative: a sand and cement or gypsum backing coat trowelled directly onto blockwork or brick, typically 10 to 15mm thick, followed by a finish coat. It is the method most older Devon homes were built with, particularly cob and stone properties around Mid Devon where lime plaster was standard.
Speed is the big one. A drylined room can often be boarded, jointed and ready for decoration within two or three days. Wet plaster needs to dry out properly before painting, and a full backing coat can take several weeks to release its moisture, longer in a damp winter. If you paint too soon, the finish can blister or grow mould.
Drylining also brings far less water into the building, which matters in occupied homes and refurbishments. The cavity behind a boarded wall gives you somewhere to run cables and pipework, and it is straightforward to add insulation at the same time, which is why insulated plasterboard is so common on solid-wall upgrades. On cost, drylining is usually the cheaper route per square metre for standard rooms, though the gap narrows once you add a full skim.
A properly applied wet plaster finish is harder and denser than plasterboard. It shrugs off knocks from furniture, buggies and pets that would dent a boarded wall, so it makes sense in busy hallways, rental properties and commercial corridors. It also gives slightly better airtightness and sound performance because there are no joints or voids behind the surface.
In older buildings the choice can be about breathability rather than toughness. Cob, stone and solid brick walls, common across Tiverton, Cullompton and the surrounding villages, need to release moisture. Sealing them behind standard plasterboard and foil-backed insulation can trap damp and cause real problems. Lime plaster or a breathable board system is often the right answer there, and it is worth getting advice before committing either way.
Prices move with board spec, ceiling heights and access, so treat any figure as a guide rather than a quote. As a rough range in the South West, dot and dab drylining with a tape and joint finish tends to sit somewhere around £20 to £35 per square metre supplied and fitted, with a plaster skim adding a few pounds more. Two-coat wet plastering onto blockwork is usually higher, often £30 to £45 per square metre, partly because it is slower and more skill-dependent.
The other practical difference is repair and alteration. Fixing a shelf or TV bracket to drylining needs the right anchors or a fixing into the studs, whereas wet-plastered masonry takes a simple wall plug. On the flip side, patching a damaged plasterboard wall is quick, while matching an old wet plaster finish neatly takes more care.
For most new extensions, loft conversions, stud partitions and commercial fit-outs, drylining is the sensible default: faster, cleaner, cheaper and easier to insulate. Choose wet plastering where you want maximum durability, better acoustics, or where you are working on an older solid-wall or cob building that needs a breathable finish.
Plenty of projects use both. We regularly dryline ceilings and new partitions while wet plastering high-traffic ground floor walls in the same job. The right answer depends on the building, the budget and how the space will be used, so describe all three when you ask for quotes and a good contractor will tell you where each method genuinely earns its cost.
Not quite. Tape and jointed or skimmed surfaces need a mist coat first, which is watered-down emulsion that seals the surface. Skimmed plaster must also be fully dry, usually pale pink rather than dark, before any paint goes on.
Yes, provided the right boards are used. Moisture-resistant plasterboard is standard for kitchens and bathrooms, and areas that will be tiled inside a shower enclosure should use a cement-based or fully waterproof backer board rather than ordinary plasterboard.
Not when the wall behind it is sound and the system suits the building. Problems arise when standard boards are fixed over damp masonry or breathable old walls, trapping moisture behind them. On older properties it is worth having the wall assessed before choosing a system.
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