What is gypsum board? How to choose good quality gypsum board?

What is the difference between gypsum board and ordinary gypsum board? I believe this is a question that troubles many renovation owners. In fact, gypsum board is a common decoration material in life. It is low-priced and practical, and is deeply loved by consumers. However, most people don’t know much about gypsum board. When choosing, they are inevitably fooled by merchants.

Gypsum board is a new building material. Its greatest strengths are its low energy consumption and high production efficiency. Gypsum board consumes 78% less energy than cement to produce the same unit of material. Furthermore, its simple production process makes it suitable for large-scale production.

Gypsum board is lighter. The same thickness of gypsum board is only 1/15 of the brick wall and 1/10 of the block wall. Its sound insulation effect is also very good. Therefore, using gypsum board as partition wall can greatly reduce the load and cost of the floor, and is beneficial to the structural earthquake resistance, adding points to your safety system.

Another advantage of gypsum board is that it has excellent fire resistance. When it encounters fire, it will absorb a large amount of heat in the process of releasing chemical water, delaying the rise in the surrounding temperature. According to the National Fire Protection Testing Center, the fire resistance limit of gypsum board partitions can reach 4 hours.

Therefore, using it as a home decoration material is very safe. Gypsum board has a high porosity and a well-distributed pore structure, providing excellent air permeability and regulating indoor humidity. When the indoor humidity is high, it absorbs moisture, while when the air is dry, it releases some moisture, making your home life more comfortable and healthier.

Characteristics of gypsum board

Lightweight and easy to construct, gypsum board is used as a partition wall, weighing only 1/15 of a brick wall of the same thickness and 1/10 of a block wall. It is also beneficial for structural earthquake resistance and is widely used in suspended ceilings in home decoration.

2. Paper-faced gypsum board is fire-resistant. This is because an appropriate amount of glass fiber and other additives are added to the raw materials. When encountering fire, it will absorb a large amount of heat in the process of releasing chemical water, delaying the rise in the surrounding temperature. Therefore, it can prevent the spread of flames for a longer time in the event of a fire, thereby playing a fire prevention role.

3. Good water resistance. Because the gypsum core is waterproof, the surface is waterproof, thus solving the moisture-proof problem of gypsum board from the inside out.

4. Good sound insulation performance. The paper-faced gypsum board partition wall has a unique cavity structure, which can effectively reduce indoor noise and has good sound insulation performance.

5. Green and environmentally friendly. Paper-faced gypsum board uses natural gypsum and paper as raw materials, and does not contain asbestos which is harmful to the human body (the vast majority of calcium silicate boards and cement fiber boards use asbestos as the reinforcing material of the board).

Specifications of gypsum board

The thickness of gypsum board includes 9 mm, 9.5 mm, 12 mm, 15 mm, 18 mm, 25 mm, etc.; the length includes 2400 mm, 2500 mm, 2750 mm, 3000 mm, etc.; the board width includes 900 mm, 1200 mm, etc.

How to choose good quality gypsum board?

1. Pay attention to the smoothness of the paper-faced gypsum board: high-quality paper-faced gypsum board has a light and thin surface, high strength, a smooth surface without stains, and good toughness. Inferior paper-faced gypsum board has a very rough surface, poor strength, and a dirty surface with stains.

2. Pay attention to the purity of the gypsum board core: the main material of high-purity gypsum board core is pure gypsum, while the core of poor-quality paper-faced gypsum board contains many harmful substances. From the appearance, the core of a good gypsum board is whitish, while the core of a low-quality gypsum board is yellow and dull in color.

3. Check the adhesion of the paper: Use a wallpaper knife to draw an "X" on the surface of the gypsum board, and tear the surface in the poor areas. The high-quality paper layer will not fall off the gypsum board, while the poor-quality paper layer can be torn off, exposing the gypsum core.

4. Check the weight of the gypsum board: High-quality gypsum boards of the same size are generally lighter than low-quality ones. You can test this by soaking a small piece of board in water. The board that falls to the bottom the fastest in the same amount of time is of poor quality, while the high-quality board should float on the surface.

5. Check the inspection report of the paper gypsum board: Some gypsum board inspection reports are commissioned inspections. Commissioned inspections can produce a batch of boards for inspection, but they cannot guarantee that all boards are of qualified quality. Another inspection method is sampling inspection, and product quality can be more guaranteed with this report.