The Gypsum Files

From an article about business innovation and climate change:

Synthetic gypsum has been used to make wallboard in the United States for more than 20 years. Electric power plants that burn coal are required to have scrubbers that trap emissions. The result is a very pure synthetic gypsum that is being used to create wallboard. Since 2000, enough gypsum to finish the interior of more than 7 million American homes has come from this waste product.The future belongs to the innovators and the clever and the bold.

via John Friedman: Climate Change: Good for Business?.

Ninety-seven homeowners in four states have joined lawsuits against U.S. drywall manufacturers in the past year, claiming that their drywall is releasing enough sulfur gas to corrode wiring and appliances and cause headaches, nosebleeds, labored breathing and irritated eyes—complaints that until now have been mostly associated with Chinese drywall. Many families have abandoned their homes, fearing long-term health problems. Some are facing foreclosure, or even bankruptcy.

via American-Made Drywall Emerges as Potential Danger – ProPublica.

According to a report in Hanley-Wood’s ProSales Online, USG’s Nov. 3 announcement of a price increase was followed by similar announcements by CertainTeed Corp. in Valley Forge, National Gypsum Co., Lafarge, and Temple-Inland Inc.

USG, which reported $297 million in profit in the boom year of 2006, sustained huge losses in 2010′s first three quarters – including $100 million in the third quarter, reflecting “continued weak market conditions and extraordinarily low shipping volumes,” said chairman and chief executive officer William C. Foote.

In 2009, production of drywall industrywide was almost half that of 2006.

via Hike in drywall costs expected to hammer builders | Philadelphia Inquirer | 11/15/2010.

Photo by Mike Fitzpatrick

Today I discovered a wonderful slide show of the US Gypsum mine and board plant in Shoals, Indiana. The photos date from 1978 — check out that Farrah Fawcett poster in the mine lounge! If you look at the photos individually, there are notes explaining the context.

I was still attending Shoals High School in 1978. Every year USG graciously hosted the local eighth grade class for a tour of the board plant, introducing them to the town’s largest industry.

Wonderful photo — looks like a steampunk rollercoaster.

via National Gypsum Factory | NJ.com.

One of two gypsum plants in Shoals, and the one where my dad worked for many years. This picture must date from around 1955. Plant construction started in 1954 and production began in 1955.  The road running across the photo is US 50.

From the Consumer Product Safety Commission:

HUD and CPSC’s two-step guidance requires a visual inspection that must show blackening of copper electrical wiring and/or air conditioning evaporator coils; and the installation of new drywall (for new construction or renovations) between 2001 and 2008. To view the full text of this guidance, visit HUD’s website or CPSC’s website (both documents PDF).

The guidance also describes obtaining additional corroborating evidence of problem drywall, since it is possible that corrosion of metal in homes can occur for other reasons. For example, homes with new drywall installed between 2005 and 2008 … must meet at least two additional criteria related to: the chemical analysis of metal corrosion in the home; elemental markers in the drywall; markings on the drywall; or specific chemical emissions from the drywall. Homes with new drywall installed between 2001 and 2004 must meet a total of at least four of those criteria. Collecting evidence of these corroborating conditions may require professional assistance and analysis.

Be sure to check the timeline on the right side of this site for more gypsum-related events and news.

From the first chapter of What Things are Made Of by Richard Gibson:

You’ve got gypsum!

Virtually every home in America contains a great volume of one mineral: gypsum, the primary constituent of wallboard.

Gypsum (chemically, calcium sulfate) crystallizes from supersaturated sea or lake water when the water evaporates, much like common salt precipitates from such water. In the United States, Oklahoma is the leading producer of gypsum—nearly 3,500,000 tons of it, worth more than $26 million in 2007….

via Richard Gibson: You’ve got gypsum!.

If you look over to the right side of this blog, you’ll see a selection of videos I’ve been collecting related to gypsum and the gypsum industry. Today I found a couple of gems via the Internet Archive (aka The Wayback Machine). One is a training video from the Gypsum Association. You might not be interested in the safety tips, but you do get to see a lot of hunky quarry workers and big machines.

The second video features the 1965 Parade of Homes in Birmingham, Alabama. But these aren’t just any homes — they’re Quiet Homes, which have been “quietized” with such space-age materials as Gold Bond Deciban, gypsum board, and caulk. Now mom and dad can watch Gunsmoke in peace while the kids play their rock ‘n’ roll records on the hi-fi upstairs.  Also features hunky drywallers.

I found this old episode of a Canadian show from around 1999 called How It’s Made online at Youtube. The segment about drywall begins about a minute in: