Drywall or plastering: which suits your ceiling and walls

How drywall and plastering actually differ

Plasterboard (kipsplaat) is a dry system: sheets of gypsum board are screwed onto a metal or timber frame, or glued directly to a reasonably flat wall, then the joints are taped and filled. Wet plastering means applying a mineral or gypsum-based plaster in a wet, workable layer straight onto the wall or ceiling and letting it cure and dry in place.

The practical difference is what each method can do with an uneven surface. Plaster fills and follows the wall, building up thicker in the low spots. Drywall on a frame ignores the wall entirely and creates a new, perfectly flat plane in front of it, at the cost of losing a few centimetres of room.

Speed and dust during the renovation

Drywall is quicker. A stud wall or a ceiling lining can go up in a day or two, and once the joints are taped and sanded the room is close to paint-ready. The main dust comes from sanding the joint filler, which is limited and easy to sheet off.

Wet plastering takes longer because each coat needs time to dry before the next step, and a full room can be out of use for several days. It also produces more mess during application, though modern machine-applied plasters are tidier than the old hand-trowelled kind. If you are working around a young family or need the room back quickly, that difference matters.

Hiding wiring and pipes

Both methods can conceal cables and pipework, but drywall does it more easily. Chase the wall or run cables through the stud frame, screw the boards on, and everything is hidden with no wet trades needed afterwards. It also gives you a cavity for extra insulation or sound-deadening material.

Wet plastering can hide wiring too, but the cable has to be chased into the existing wall first, which means cutting a channel with a grinder, laying the cable, and then plastering over it — dustier and more work. Any rewiring is done by a qualified electrician before either finish goes on, not something to attempt yourself.

For a wall that already has plenty of new sockets, switches or a relocated radiator pipe, drywall on a frame is usually the simpler route.

Old wooden houses versus panel flats

In a 1930s wooden house, walls are rarely straight, and ceilings can have a genuine slope or dip. Wet plaster can even this out, but on old lime-and-lath walls it needs the right base coat and a plasterer who knows the substrate, or it will crack. Drywall on a frame sidesteps the unevenness completely and is often the more predictable choice here.

In a Soviet-era panel flat, the concrete walls are usually flat enough for a thin skim coat or even direct gluing of plasterboard, without a full frame. Ceilings in these flats are often the trickier surface, since panel joints and old paint layers can telegraph through a thin finish if the prep is rushed.

• Bowed or badly out-of-true wall: drywall on a frame corrects it without a thick plaster build-up
• Concrete panel wall in reasonable condition: a skim coat of plaster or directly glued board both work
• Wall needing new cable runs: drywall on a frame is faster to finish around them
• Ceiling with visible panel joints: proper filling and a skim coat before painting, whichever method is chosen
• Old lime-plastered wall in a wooden house: get the base assessed before choosing, since it affects both methods

What costs more and what lasts longer

Drywall is generally the cheaper and faster option per square metre, especially where a frame is not needed. Plasterboard work through us starts from 28 € per job, with the final price depending on wall area, whether a frame is required, and how many corners and openings there are.

Wet plastering costs more, mainly in labour and drying time, but it produces a solid, monolithic surface with no visible joints and slightly better resistance to knocks. With our 24-month guarantee on the work itself, either finish should hold up under normal conditions; what shortens the life of both is dampness getting into the wall from outside, which no finish can fix on its own.

Which one we would usually recommend

For a panel flat with reasonably flat concrete walls and no major rewiring, we would lean towards a plaster skim or directly glued board, since the base is already close to flat and a full frame adds cost for no real benefit. For an old wooden house with visible unevenness, sloped ceilings, or new wiring to hide, drywall on a frame is usually the more sensible route.

If you are unsure which applies to your room, send us photos of the wall and ceiling and we can suggest which finish fits, as part of a plasterboard job or a fuller flat renovation starting from 180 € per job. Once the surface is finished, painting and decorating from 12 € per job takes it the rest of the way.