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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11Drywall’s rise was gradual: Augustine Sackett patented an early layered wall panel in 1894, USG refined it into modern gypsum wallboard and marketed it as Sheetrock by 1917, and wartime building, commercial construction and postwar housing helped make the system common in North America. Gypsum itself is ancient; manufactured drywall is not. The available history documents this North American arc, not a quantified claim that drywall dominates construction worldwide.
What was used before drywall?
Gypsum has been used in construction for far longer than manufactured wallboard. The Gypsum Association’s 2010 North American industry brochure describes gypsum’s ancient building history and explains that plaster of Paris is made by heating gypsum to remove some of its water, then rehydrating it for use as plaster. That history concerns gypsum and plaster, not modern drywall.
Before manufactured panels became common, interior walls were often made by applying plaster in layers over lath. USG describes plaster as a wet process that required drying between coats. The later appeal of wallboard was practical: panels could be installed and finished without building each wall from successive wet plaster layers. The change was gradual, and its pace varied by building type and place.
When was drywall invented, and who invented it?
Augustine Sackett is associated with the nineteenth-century precursor known as Sackett Board. According to the Association of the Wall and Ceiling Industry’s technical history of Sackett Board, Sackett filed a patent application for an “Inside-Wall Covering” on May 23, 1890. U.S. Patent No. 520,123 was issued on May 22, 1894.
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AWCI describes the patented panel as thin layers of gypsum plaster separated by manila paper. It was intended to replace conventional wood lath and plaster or to serve as a plaster base. The Gypsum Association’s 2010 brochure describes Sackett Board more broadly as thin plaster layers between four plies of wool-felt paper, calling it a predecessor to modern gypsum board. These accounts differ in their descriptions of the paper and layers, so they should not be combined into a single definitive specification.
Sackett Board was an important precursor, not the fully refined gypsum-core board familiar today. Its significance was that it brought plaster into panel form, offering a way to reduce the time needed to build an interior wall.
How did Sackett Board become modern wallboard?
USG formed in 1902 through the merger of 30 independent gypsum companies, according to the company’s company history. It acquired the Sackett Plaster Board Company in 1909, bringing the product into USG’s development and distribution history.
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USG’s Sheetrock brand history traces a series of changes that made the board more like current wallboard:
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- By 1913: Interior paper plies had been removed, leaving a gypsum core between outer sheets.
- 1916: Square edges allowed panels to meet at a flush joint.
- 1917: USG was marketing the early modern wallboard as Sheetrock.
USG’s history says the Sheetrock name was suggested by sales representative D. L. Hunter. Sheetrock is a USG brand name, not the generic name for every drywall product, even though people sometimes use it colloquially for wallboard.
Why did drywall replace plaster in many buildings?
Drywall offered a different construction method: a manufactured panel could be mounted and finished rather than forming the wall through successive wet plaster coats. That distinction could save construction time, particularly when builders needed to cover many rooms efficiently. It does not establish a universal cost advantage for every project, and the historical transition was neither immediate nor uniform.
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Adoption grew through several channels rather than one breakthrough. USG’s history says Sheetrock panels were used in government buildings after World War I and that the company supplied materials for military bases and war-production plants during World War II. A government-hosted preservation glossary, citing the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2000), says gypsum board completely replaced metal lath and plaster walls in new construction during World War II. It attributes the change to faster assembly of prefabricated boards and wartime steel restrictions; this statement is about new construction in that period, not every existing building or every country.
USG also identifies the 1933–34 Chicago World’s Fair as a showcase for the product. The company reports that 65% of the gypsum wallboard used in the fair’s exhibits was Sheetrock brand. That figure applies to the exhibits described in USG’s account, not to all buildings or all wallboard in the period.
After the war, large building programs gave wallboard further momentum. USG says postwar tract housing drove high demand for its products in the late 1940s and that gypsum wallboard gained widespread acceptance in commercial construction in the following years. Standardized panels suited both housing construction and commercial projects, while refinements to the broader wall system helped expand its uses.
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How did drywall become part of fire- and sound-control systems?
Gypsum board’s role in fire and sound performance depends on the full wall or ceiling assembly, not on an unspecified sheet considered by itself. The Gypsum Association’s institutional timeline records a one-hour fire-rated system milestone in 1947. The wording matters: the milestone was a system, not a blanket rating for every board or installation.
The same timeline says use in apartment and office buildings had grown substantially by the early 1970s, in large part because of fire resistance and sound attenuation. It also notes that all model building codes referenced the Association’s Fire Resistance Data Design Manual in 1973. USG credits drywall screws and metal C-studs with helping create a fire-resistant system for high-rise construction. These details point to the importance of assembly design alongside the board itself.
A fire-resistance rating applies to a specified, tested assembly. The result depends on factors such as board type and layers, framing and fasteners; current requirements also depend on jurisdiction and the applicable design. The historical milestones are not installation or code guidance. The Gypsum Association says it updated its GA-600 fire-resistance and sound-control manual and GA-216 application and finishing publication in 2024.
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What does the history show—and what does it not?
The North American history shows how a much older material, gypsum, became part of a modern manufactured wall system. Sackett’s patented panel supplied an early step; USG’s refinements brought the board closer to its modern form; and military, government, commercial and postwar housing construction supported its wider use.
The sources do not establish a current global market share or prove that drywall dominates construction worldwide. They support a documented North American adoption story, not a worldwide percentage or a single-cause explanation.
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