Why does drywall exist? What purpose does it serve?
In: Engineering
Adding to other comments:
It’s a much more economical way of getting a finish analogous to plaster. But with plaster you need a skilled tradesperson there for an extended period of time to install multiple layers of somewhat expensive material on a somewhat labor intensive backing material nailed to the studs.
It’s less durable than plaster, by a fair way, but its day to day performance meets most people’s requirements at a fraction of the cost.
As others have pointed out, it’s just a very economical and versatile way to cover up the ugly. That’s really most of it. A fully insulated garage could be more or less just as effective as a finished one in terms of keeping out the elements and insulating the space. It just won’t look as nice.
More things than you’d expect follow the principle of “absolute mess on the inside, with a pretty cover thrown on top to hide the ugly”.
1. It’s a barrier between the exterior and interior walls to hide everything run inside the walls and the insulation.
2. The substance it is made from helps prevent heat loss and gain working along with the insulation. And exterior walls to form a thermal barrier.
3. Drywall is extremley affordable and easily modified for how ever you need to use it. Ex: odd shapes, outlet locations patches and repairs. Most can be done with simple hand tools.
4. Paints easily due to the paper coating on it vs many types of wood panning. And is easily smoothed and finished with experience.
Tldr; drywall essentially is stupidly affordable thermal barrier that hides the ugly inside your walls and can be fixed for cheap.
And tastes terrible.
It covers up all the wires, pipes, and studs in the wall. It’s faster to install and smoother than other solutions. It also doesn’t require the skill of plastering.
In construction there is a difference between “rough” and “finish” work.
For walls you build the rough part which is the studs, and then put in the wires and if needed the insulation. There the rough part of the wall is done. Except no one wants to look at that for the inside of a house. Therefore, the need of “finish” work. This is the surface that you actually see.
So, most people want to see a finish on the wall. Now we are getting into the area of looks and cost. You could put up wood panels, and that looks very nice and is very expensive. On the other side you could put up paper or cloth only to cover the wall. Very inexpensive but most agree does not look nice.
Drywall fits that sweet spot of a relatively inexpensive product that provides a nice flat and level finish look upon which you can paint over it or put on wall paper.
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