Drywall provides a commonly used material for surfacing walls in a building or home.
Go into any new home under construction, and you're going to see drywall when the walls get surfaced. The material is commonly used and replaced the old-style funny-board/plaster walling approach used until the 1950s. Drywall today can be bought in bulk from manufacturers as well as from the local box hardware store. The product creation is generally the same with different levels of quality involved, depending on the manufacturer.
Basic Material
The core material of drywall sheets involves gypsum. There is no shortage of the raw material; gypsum occurs in plenty of supply worldwide, so drywall can be produced in most developed countries with deposits. Gypsum can be composed of up to half water, but because of the properties of the rock, the moisture stays in a solid form like ice until the temperature rises to 212 degrees Fahrenheit. This makes a fairly lightweight, solid material that can dampen fire at high temperature.
Preparation
To form drywall, gypsum gets crushed and squished between two paper layers. To make such a simple product, the gypsum is mixed with other chemical products and water to form a plaster of Paris mix. However, while other ingredients are mixed in, they comprise very little of the total drywall composition. Starch is also thrown into the mix to act as a glue for the surface paper on both sides of the sheet of gypsum once it is flattened out. The entire composition is mixed until the gypsum develops into a liquid mud or slurry. Finally air and heat-resistant material is mixed in as well to make the final sheet lightweight and heat resistant.
Production
Once the mix is ready, the entire container is repositioned into a pouring position. The gypsum mix then flows out into a flat surface with the first layer of drywall paper underneath. Once the layer is poured to the right thickness, the second layer of paper is applied. Then the sandwiching process occurs, flattening out the combination. This pressure is applied through an automated belt system that moves through heavy metal rollers.
Sizing and Cutting
Drywall sheets flow out of a company production assembly anywhere from under 300 feet to as much as 800 feet long. Each flat piece needs to be cut and sized. Depending on production orders and demand, pieces are cut with automated trimmers that cut across the long sheet. Then the sheets are trimmed at the edges or beveled to avoid damage during shipping and moving of the cut pieces. The finishing also helps joining the drywall pieces later when they are installed on a wood frame. Full drywall boards frequently get sized to 4 or 4 1/2 feet wide by 8 or 12 feet long.
Finishing
The cut panels are still wet after the cutting and sizing process. Moving along on the process belt in the drywall factory, the final product goes into a heating/drying oven. The cooking temperature hits 500 degrees Fahrenheit to remove the gypsum moisture and solidify the panel. Quite a bit of measurement and adjustment is made to reduce temperature as the sheet moves through the oven. Once cooked and through the oven, the boards are checked over for quality. Finally the sides are taped over for the final shipping preparation. Then they are stacked in bundles numbering as many as 40 boards per bundle. The drywall is then ready to be shipped to sale or delivery.
Related posts
How Does Drywall Production Occur?What is Drywall?Drywall is a common material used for construction that consists of gypsum rock layered between two sheets of paper. The gypsum rock creates a stu...
Drywalling a ceiling is not complicated, but poses a physical challenge because you have to hold each 4-foot by 8-foot sheet of drywall up against the ceiling long enough to mount it with drywall...
DrywallDrywall can be a difficult thing to calculate when it comes to estimating the cost of a job. There are several factors to consider when pricing drywall material and labor. Labor and materia...
Estimate Drywall InstallationDrywall (also commonly referred to as "gypsum board") is a modern adaptation of the traditional plaster wall finish that has been used for over a century in...
Drywall is a building material used all over the world to create the smooth walls we see in almost every home in the U.S.Drywall replaced the old-fashioned plaster for covering wood framed buildin...
