Expanded metal in the context of Plaster

Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture. Stucco can be applied on construction materials such as metal, expanded metal lath, concrete, cinder block, or clay brick and adobe for decorative and structural purposes.

In English, "stucco" sometimes refers to a coating for the outside of a building and "plaster" to a coating for interiors. As described below, however, the materials themselves often have little or no difference. Other European languages, notably Italian, do not have the same distinction: In Italian, stucco means plaster, and serves for both.

A lath or slat is a thin, narrow strip of straight-grained wood used under roof shingles or tiles, on lath and plaster walls and ceilings to hold plaster, and in lattice and trellis work.

Lath has expanded to mean any type of backing material for plaster. This includes metal wire mesh or expanded metal that is applied to a wood or metal framework as matrix over which stucco or plaster is applied, as well as drywall products called gypsum or rock lath. Historically, reed mat was also used as a lath material.