The board that is manufactured from gypsum and covered with paper on both sides to be used in construction of walls or suspended floor, is generally known as “drywall” in daily language. Gypsum board, which is a light, fire-resistant and sound insulating material, is widely used in construction and decoration works since it is easy to give the desired shape and it is easy and fast to apply it.
Gypsum boards are installed by screwing down and fastening the boards on a bearing frame produced from 5×5 – 10×10 cm wooden bars or special galvanized steel plate profiles. They may be glued with a special gypsum mixture on the wall in wall cladding applications.
Construction and Areas of Use
The thickness of gypsum boards varies between 6 and 18 mm depending on the area of application. These boards that are available in different thicknesses may be produced in different sizes such as with 120 or 125 cm width and 200 to 450 cm length. The shorter edges of the gypsum boards may be shaped to be blunt, beveled, half round or beveled half round. Gypsum boards with 6 mm thickness are used in construction of decorative elements since they are easy to bend, in suspended ceilings since they are relatively lighter than those having a thickness of 7.5 mm and 9.5 mm whereas the thicker ones are used to construct walls or in other special applications. There are also special type of gypsum boards produced and used, and these offer increased water resistance with chemical additives in wet environments, fire resistance in environments that require resistance to fire and physical resistance with the fibers added into the gypsum.
