What sort of plaster was it then?

[PoP]

I'm curious - anyone able to suggest what the following was?

Did a small job earlier today, thought I was dealing with plasterboard. But maybe I wasn't....

Drilled a small hole for a rawlplug. The "plasterboard" was a bit crumbly. Started to screw into the rawlplug and it basically tore itself a bigger hole because the plasterboard gave way. Solved the problem with a captive bolt which has one of those expanding flippers you push thru the hole.

Not a modern house, must be 1930's or possibly much earlier (end of

19th century?).

This was a plasterboard type of arrangement because there was an airgap behind, then a wall (another plasterboard sheet) on the far side.

This wasn't lath and plaster because I can spot that a mile off. So I'm wondering what I was dealing with! Was there an early version of plasterboard before the modern stuff came out?

PoP

[Ben Schofield]

Was the plasterboard anywhere that could have been continuously wet at some point in the past? I had some plasterboard round a dormer window that had been wet regularly over a long period of time, and it had become so weak that you could basically poke your fingers through it.

Ben.

[Lee]

Possibly low density fibreboard. The 1930's house I grew up in had the crap everywhere, even a couple of the ceilings. On the plus side, it did insulate slightly better than bare plasterboard.

It wasn't fireproof either...

Lee

[Andrew Mawson]

Fibreboard was extensively used to repair war damage in the late 1940's

Andrew Mawson

[Mike]

Damn! Now I know why my head itches.

[Lee]

Ah, that would explain it.

Lee