The Gypsum Files

With respect to building materials, gypsum prices continue to be the main driver for residential construction cost increases in 2012, rising 2.2 percent in March, after increases of 5.9 percent and 5.1 percent in January and February, raising gypsum prices 17.7 percent above the most recent low in February of 2011.

via Producer Prices in March – Gypsum Continues to Rise « Eye on Housing.

• ‘Not good timing’: Drywall prices rising – Finance and Commerce (gypsumfiles.com)
• Producer Prices in January – Watch Gypsum (woodonfire.wordpress.com)

Plaster grown in the lab

10 April 2012, by Adele Rackley

New research could be the first step towards a much cheaper and more efficient way to make plaster.

Scientists have reproduced the early stages of gypsum crystals in their laboratory, a process which could lead to a cheap way to manufacture the plaster of Paris that’s used by builders, artists and medical practitioners.

Chances are it’s on the walls and ceiling of the room you’re in now – 100 million tons of plaster of Paris, are manufactured every year from the naturally occurring mineral gypsum. As well as in the building industry, it’s widely used by artists and in medicine.

Plaster is made by first quarrying the gypsum, then driving out its water content to leave a powder made up of mineral called bassanite. It’s an energy-hungry process with a large carbon footprint.

But now researchers have documented the first steps that could lead to turning this process around.

Scientists from the University of Leeds and the CSIC-University of Granada in Spain, experimented with supersaturated gypsum solutions to try to figure out how gypsum crystals form – something that is not well understood. To their surprise they found that the first phase to form in the solution were bassanite nanoparticles – but under those chemical conditions bassanite should not have formed at all.

By taking a series of high resolution images they watched these tiny particles growing into rods and joining up into strings that eventually transform into gypsum crystals.

And this all happened at room temperature, so in principle this could become a low-energy way of producing the raw material for plaster of Paris.

via Plaster could be grown lab. | Chem.Info.

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Domestic manufacturers are quick to point out that gypsum board manufactured in the U.S. has not been linked to indoor air quality problems, but potential leaching of heavy metals and biocides included for mold resistance are among the issues that need to be addressed more thoroughly by the gypsum board industry.

via Gypsum Board: Are Our Walls Leaching Toxins? | GreenSpec.

National Gypsum – 85 and Still Growing – YouTube.

For Nina First, the science fair meant more than just another school project. It was an investigation into the claims made by a drywall company.

The 13-year-old lives on Green Street in Harrisburg, which meant her house was one of the ones inundated by flood waters during Tropical Storm Lee in September. In the process of rebuilding the basement, there was a question about the best drywall to use.

Now that water was clearly an issue, water-resistance became an important factor in choosing, and by October, Nina knew what she wanted to test.“My mother was looking at drywall, and there was a fiberglass option that said it was moisture-resistant,” Nina said. “I wanted to see if that was true.”

So the student at The Silver Academy in Harrisburg decided to focus her science fair project on testing three types of drywall, including her main drywall panel – the Gold Bond e2XP Interior Extreme Gypsum panel from The National Gypsum Company.

After soaking the Gold Bond, as well as green and yellow drywall panels, and then waiting 40 hours to put weights on them, Nina found that the advertised qualities were, in fact, true.“A couple of the green boards broke, almost all of the yellow boards broke, but none of the Gold Bond did,” Nina said.

via Cumberlink.com: Personal motivation plays key role in science fair.

Federal data released Thursday show that prices are climbing for a variety of construction materials including drywall products, which are heavily used in homebuilding.Last fall, suppliers of gypsum products said they intended to raise prices 35 percent on Jan. 1, and some local builders say they have seen drywall prices increase between 20 percent and 30 percent in 2012. Manufacturers said the poor economy necessitated price increases in gypsum. But local builders say the price hikes are problematic for a residential construction industry still struggling to regain its footing.

via ‘Not good timing’: Drywall prices rising – Finance & Commerce.

Related articles

• Sharp Rise in Gypsum Prices Likely in New Year (eyeonhousing.wordpress.com)
• Top 2011 Posts:Sharp Rise in Gypsum Prices Likely in New Year (eyeonhousing.wordpress.com)

In support of the study, primary life cycle inventory (LCI) data were collected for three major gate-to-gate processes in the production of gypsum wallboard (natural or crude gypsum ore extraction, gypsum paper manufacture, and gypsum wallboard production) for the reference year 2010. The manufacturing plant study sample included all Gypsum Association member companies and represented about 30% of all gypsum wallboard produced in the USA. To ensure representativeness, the manufacturing plant study also considered the scale of operations including a mix of small, medium and large facilities, their geographical location in each US census region and their source of gypsum (adjacent quarry, mine, or imported gypsum ore) as well as their use of flue gas desulphurization (FGD) gypsum.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/business/press-releases/article/Gypsum-Association-Commissions-Athena-Institute-3335326.php#ixzz1maHsKygW

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.

Lowe’s Companies Inc. has dramatically increased the amount of money [1] it is prepared to offer customers whose health or homes were harmed by defective drywall they bought from its stores. Those customers are now eligible for up to $100,000 in cash, instead of the maximum $4,500 in cash and gift cards that was previously agreed upon in a class action lawsuit that is being negotiated in a Georgia state court.

via Lowe’s Amends Settlement to Get Drywall Victims More Money – ProPublica.