History
You really can't talk about the history of veneer plaster without also talking about the development of plaster products that inspired the evolution of the product. Many people still discover in remodeling and renovation the remains of wooden laths in plaster walls dating well back to the 18th and early part of the 19th century. Wood lath was installed in narrow strips and positioned approximately 3/8" apart to provide a mechanical key for the fresh plaster. The fact that these walls still stand today is a testament to the durability of plaster. Perhaps due to the tedious nature of installing these narrow wooden laths, manufacturers started experimenting with plaster bases that could be installed faster over a larger area. You might even say that drywall can date its roots back to this period in time when a gypsum board sandwiched between layers of paper began appearing. Invented in 1894 by Augustine Sackett, "Sackett Board" as it was known, had too rough a surface to be used as a wall treatment by itself, although it proved to be an adequate base for the application of gypsum plaster.¹

Technically perhaps not what we think of as a veneer plaster base, the invention of the Sackett board must still be credited as the discovery which led to improvements that were made to make gypsum lath plaster boards lighter and more accommodating to plaster installation. The Sackett Plaster Board Company was soon bought out in 1909 by a group of gypsum manufacturers calling themselves the United States Gypsum Company. By 1928 Sackett Board had largely been replaced in the plastering industry by a larger more efficiently installed plaster board known as "board lath" or more commonly referred to by the USG proprietary name "rock lath." Sold in both a plain surfaced and perforated, to promote a mechanical key, the lath is faced with a multi-layer paper surface treated with gypsum crystals to provide proper absorption of the gypsum plaster.

Immediately after World War II, the nation was faced with the largest building boom in construction history. Demand for qualified plasterers exceeded the supply. And with the need for quicker more economical construction methods, it was realized that conventional plastering methods had become cumbersome. If the general contractor was lucky enough to find a plasterer whose schedule matched his own, it was not unusual for the dry out of new plaster walls to hold up the laying of wood floors and trim by several weeks. For this reason, many upstart contractors realized the economic value of drywall in getting a building completed within a reasonable time frame. So, once the trend towards drywall started in the late 1940's it continued to escalate through the 50's, 60's and 70's.²

By the late 1950's some concerned individuals in the plastering industry began to realize their lost market share. It was reasoned that an improved high strength thin plaster system that could assimilate many of the good features of traditional plaster, yet do so faster and compete economically with drywall was viable. As a matter of fact, veneer plaster had already been used to great extent in Britain where it had been developed. Veneer plaster provided for a flat monolithic surface as compared to the shortcomings of drywall, which by comparison, nail pops were common and taped board joints oftentimes telegraphed through final decoration. Unfortunately, and slow to any change in methods that have been forged for centuries, the plastering industry did not embrace this new system, that was seen as both a vast improvement but also a salvation for the industry.