When wondering what materials to coat your interior walls in Naples, Florida with before decorating them, you might be weighing up your options and struggling to choose whether drywall or plaster is best. When making your choice between drywall and plaster, the main factors are to choose the finish which best suits the look and feel of the rest of the building; if it’s traditional, possibly plaster would look best and in a new home often drywall is favorable. You also need to weigh up what’s most important to you. For saving time and cost, drywall might be your type, or are you looking for something more hardwearing, durable, shiny and smooth?

We’re looking at the cost and insulation properties of plaster vs drywall. Which is cheaper? Which is quicker? Which will keep the heat in better? Here at Smith Plastering, we will tell you which of these two suits your design.

Plaster

The traditional form of plastering, the kind that’s been practiced for hundred of years. Wet plasters build up layers of strong, hard wearing materials – traditionally lime, gypsum or cement – to create a strong, durable finish. The layers can create a texture, sound resistance, and air tightness that aren’t replicated by drywall; however, they can also require a lot more labor and specialized skill.

Drywall

The streamlined way to plaster, drywall are essentially big chunks of pre-rendered material that you can stick directly to the wall. It’s like wallpapering instead of painting the design on to the wall. You still need to cover the drywall with another few coats, one to fill all the gaps that might have been created, a skim coat to cover it, and paint to provide the color, but it’s a still a whole lot more convenient than wet plaster. The main advantage is that it can be thrown up quickly and easily, with relatively little mess. This can result in much lower labor costs.

Which is cheaper?

For materials alone, wet plaster tends to be cheaper than drywall.

However, unless you’re doing the work yourself, this is not what will cost you the money. The real cost of plastering comes from the labor, and the labor costs vary hugely between drywall and plaster.

When using drywall, the labor is minimal. A wall plastered in this way can be boarded up and plastered over in a matter of days, possibly even hours. With traditional wet plastering, however, each layer must be applied by a skilled drywall contractor in Naples, taking several times longer than just whacking up some drywall. The wet plaster must then be left to dry before the next coat can go on, meaning another day of labor.

Which has better insulation?

With regard to the materials themselves, there’s not a large difference that separates the two in terms of insulation values. There are high-quality clay plaster options and special insulated plasterboards on the market, but when you’re looking at standard plasterboard drywall and traditional wet render, there’s not all that much variance. The composition of the wall itself is much more important.

One advantage that should be noted with regards to insulation, however, is the opportunity to install insulation behind drywall. While this can be very effective, it will limit the space inside the room, which something that should be fully considered before committing to it. All of that said, there is one other factor with regards to keeping your house warm that is affected by your choice of plaster. The thermal envelope of the house can be seriously altered by choosing either drywall or wet plaster.

Whereas drywall requires cutting at the bottom to make room for a skirting board, and may not necessarily reach the top of the wall perfectly, a wet render can reach everywhere and ensures that the thermal envelope of the room or building is fully intact. This can save you a significant amount of money on your heating bills.

If you are looking for a drywall company in Naples or in Collier and Lee counties, Smith Plastering is the right company for you! We provide help for builders to finish the job on time and with satisfaction guaranteed. Call us at 239-594-7537 today for a FREE quote on your upcoming project.