Internal walls

Lime plasters were used up to the 1950s and are common in Victorian and Edwardian buildings. It was common in the early 1900s to cover blown plaster with heavy paper in an attempt to hold it together and disguise uneven finishes (hence 'papering over the cracks'). Blown plaster is the delamination of the plaster coats from the wall.

The origins of the timber stud wall can be traced back to the 1400s. Today's system-built dry-lined partition wall is merely a descendant of earlier forms. The desire to pare down the number of structural components within a low-rise domestic property has led to the continued use and proliferation of non-load-bearing walls, with many loads being transferred to the external shell via long span composite joists. Coupled with the designing out of wet trades, the dry-lined wall and partition play major roles in dividing up the spaces of homes. See Defective stud partition walls.