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The wonder of modern drywall

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Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#161

Post by bombcar »

MisterTea wrote: post #95
jf___ wrote: post #41

A huge share of the gypsum used in drywall is *synthetic gypsum* — a byproduct of flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) at coal-fired power plants. When SO₂ is scrubbed from exhaust using limestone, the reaction produces calcium sulfate dihydrate, chemically identical to mined gypsum. In the US, FGD gypsum has accounted for roughly half of all gypsum consumed by the wallboard industry at its peak. The "cheap, uniform, and f…

> the "wonder" of drywall is entangled with the fossil fuel economy in a way that makes earth-based construction methods look increasingly attractive as that supply chain unwinds. I keep thinking of that scene in Brazil where the hero, Harry Tuttle, opens a modular wall panel in Sam's apartment. We standardized on 16 inch stud spacing here in the US a long time ago when we likely still used cement with a plaster skim…

We have exactly what you want - it's called shiplap or car siding.

It's wood that is nailed up in such a way that you can pretty easily remove and repair something and replace it.

However, inside wall things get done so rarely that the cost savings by using drywall more than covers paying someone to patch the drywall after a repair.

A middle ground is to run all utilities at the bottom or top of the wall, and use large baseboards/crown molding to cover it up.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#162

Post by loandbehold »

ragall wrote: post #153
loandbehold wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In places like Boston there are many 100+ years old stick frame houses. They hold up just fine. Properly built wooden houses don't get any mold.

Very few are properly built, especially in the last decades. Asymptotically to zero.

I have many friends who own houses built in the last 10 to 30 years ago. None of them have any issues with mold.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#163

Post by turtlebits »

Drywall is pretty amazing, but I don't agree with all the points in the article.

It cheap to buy and cheap to install, easy to cut and installs fast. It's tolerant with imperfect walls and is surprisingly flexible. It can also be seamlessly repaired.

It can also act as a primary air barrier.

I do not like moisture resistant drywall, moisture control is more important as well as using proper materials in high humidity areas.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#164

Post by CyLith »

nkrisc wrote: post #108
elendee wrote: post #105

But the noise.. this has been a huge factor in my quality of life, having lived in both buildings. That issue trumps any advantage drywall has, and I spent about 10 years working with it as well. I think the market forces have simply dominated our natural, economically inefficient, home-dwelling instincts. I think this article means well, but it is written from the perspective of a landlord basically.

It's not really a drywall problem, but a drawback of the usual construction method. If you insulate the interior walls then noise isn't really a problem. Of course, most builders are not insulating or noise-proofing interior walls, so there you have it. I suppose with other building materials (bricks, concrete blocks) you get the solution "for free", so to speak.

My house is plastered, and it is substantially more soundproofed than drywalled houses in the neighborhood. It is not a function of the construction method, since my house is stick framed just like my neighbors.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#165

Post by bombcar »

grebc wrote: post #13
esseph wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the question is: why are they behind anything to begin with? Conduit all the things and paint to match?

Probably not legal.

It's legal and done quite often in industrial installations - look around the next time the lights are up at your favorite restaurant, for example.

It is more expensive, by more than you'd think, and so it's rarely done.

It also allows all of the trades save the drywaller/painter to be rough and tumble with what they're doing; it doesn't have to look nice behind the walls.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#166

Post by hettygreen »

jf___ wrote: post #41

A huge share of the gypsum used in drywall is *synthetic gypsum* — a byproduct of flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) at coal-fired power plants. When SO₂ is scrubbed from exhaust using limestone, the reaction produces calcium sulfate dihydrate, chemically identical to mined gypsum. In the US, FGD gypsum has accounted for roughly half of all gypsum consumed by the wallboard industry at its peak. The "cheap, uniform, and f…

Question: Would this process of creating synthethic gypsum leave any toxic chemicals from the scrubbing process at the coal power plant exhaust?

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#167

Post by quokwok »

Works In Progress have an odd antipathy to picture rails. Actually, picture rails are good. You don't have to fill any holes if you wish to move or remove a picture. To put up a picture rail, you can drill multiple holes laterally until you find a stud. The unused holes will be covered by the rail.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#168

Post by stevekemp »

rootusrootus wrote: post #130
ragall wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stick frame buildings are prone to dry rot, very susceptible to molding, and the addition of drywalls* make them objectively inferior for any building that's expected to last more than ~40-50 years. It used to be, 100 years ago, that the big cities like NYC, Chicago, Cincinnati, etc... were so dynamic that entire neighbourhoods were expected to be rebuilt every ~50 years or so. That's no longer the case. Over a lifes…

I may be biased, because I live in a city filled with houses over 100 years old, and we get incessant rain. They seem to hold up fine. Not sure how long they’ll last but there hasn’t been any push to replace them.

100 years is nothing! I mean my local pub, for many years, was built in the 17th century.

This is probably one of the European vs. American divides though.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#169

Post by willis936 »

idiotsecant wrote: post #155
willis936 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would heightened electricity demand increase the use of the most expensive energy source?

Coal is expensive, but it's still cheaper than nuke and peaker thermal. If you want power fast and your state and federal government aren't worried about a few pesky environmental regulations you might see coal come back. Part of coals attraction is that it takes a lot of people to run a coal plant, and people need jobs. Those people vote and politicians like votes.

Then you would plunk down a gas turbine like everyone else. It's so much cheaper than coal to operate and uses mostly the same high capex / long-lead machinery. I could see the jobs program angle, but these are shitty jobs. It's not like working in an air conditioned mcdonald's. Workers die in mines a lot and when they don't they live shorter, less comfortable lives with disease.

I'm fine with arguing against coal for environmental reasons, but that won't convince anyone who isn't already convinced. It's always worth pointing out that gas turbines put out a lot less pollutants than coal.

Re: The wonder of modern drywall

#170

Post by encom »

ragall wrote: post #102
MisterTea wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the "wonder" of drywall is entangled with the fossil fuel economy in a way that makes earth-based construction methods look increasingly attractive as that supply chain unwinds. I keep thinking of that scene in Brazil where the hero, Harry Tuttle, opens a modular wall panel in Sam's apartment. We standardized on 16 inch stud spacing here in the US a long time ago when we likely still used cement with a plaster skim…

> You have to break open the wall to fix things The best is to build in such a way as to not have to fix them in the first place. European standards mandate passing all wiring through corrugated tubes. Builders add spare empty ones for future expansion, which makes it unnecessary to open the walls in most cases.

>European standards mandate passing all wiring through corrugated tubes.

Incorrect. It's usually done, because it's a good idea, but nobody says you have to.

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