This excerpt has been taken from “The green house Creative Homeowner Green Remodeling Your start toward an Eco- friendly home” by “John D. Wagner”. Green drywall, also known as moisture-resistant drywall, has a green covering that makes it more resistant to moisture than regular drywall. “Drywall repair Washington DC“, educates you on the drywall & its different types.
Green Drywall
Drywall
Drywall is nothing more than paper- faced gypsum. Like other building products that look simple- such as insulation and paint- drywall has been remarkably improved since it first rolled onto the market decades ago to replace plaster and lath. Today’s drywall choices are expanding. What used to be a simple product you screwed onto stud walls is now an integral part of indoor air quality and sound attenuation. Even drywall joint compound has improved and a new version has been engineered to produce dust that is heavier than the dust found in traditional joint compound. This cuts down on airborne dust during sanding.
Drywall plays a role in the indoor air quality of a home. Here’s why: mold is huge concern now with tighter homes, and the paper face on drywall offers, so it makes sense that it would like the same food source in the form of paper. As the mold grows, it contributes to poor indoor air quality. So, in this section we cover paperless drywall products that are engineered to prevent mold by depriving it of food.
Additionally, the quality of life inside a finished home is an important aspect of green building. A quiet home that is a pleasure to live in is a healthy home. Therefore, drywall that deadens sound is a green product in many respects, and we will look at this as one more option to green up your home.
Let’s look at the basics of hanging drywall and- as we have done in other chapters- review Your Green Choices, where appropriate, because even the purchase of something as simple as drywall can be step toward achieving a green home.
Paperless drywall
Indoor air quality is a very green feature for homes because it improves the health of the occupants; mold is one reason for poor indoor air quality. Mold is fueled by what it eats, and the paper face of drywall is ideal food for mold. So, to hit mold where it lives, some manufacturers, notably Georgia Pacific, offer paperless gypsum board products. These offer excellent mold resistance because the facing is fiberglass, not paper, and that means there is no potential food source for mold or termites. The gypsum itself is reinforced with glass fiber to add to its moisture resistance. Long used as under-layment for tile, this paperless technology has been adapted for walls and can be finished and painted like traditional drywall.
Gasketed or sealed drywall
A wall covered with drywall can be made air- tight if gaskets are installed behind the drywall around its perimeter and around the perimeters of any rough openings. Gaskets are stapled in place directly to the framing before the drywall is installed. Though gaskets are preferable, silicone caulk can serve as a substitute and achieve similar airtight qualities.
Why would you want to do this? A couple of reasons. First, if your garage is attached to the house, there is a natural airflow dynamic that will pull the cooler air from the garage into the warmer air of the house. It’s called “stack affect”. If the garage air contains carbon monoxide or fumes, they could be drawn into the living area. Gaskets around the perimeter of the drywall and around rough openings can help prevent this.
Where should you ideally install the gaskets? Staple them in place so they sit between the edges of the drywall all around the two- by framing for all exterior walls. Also, staple them so they sit between the frames of windows and doors and the drywall. You also want to seal around utility penetrations or any other location where it’s obvious that air could enter.
Soundproofing Drywall
A healthy house is also a quiet house, and the quality of life of the occupants is certainly a green attribute. There are sound – dead-ending drywall products on the market; you can tell them by their Sound Transmission Class (STC) – look for an STC in the 70’s. (Search “sound-deadening drywall’ on the Internet.)
Some of the products offer the noise reduction capability of eight sheets of traditional drywall. If you live near a highway or are bothered by outdoor noises from lawnmowers or leaf blowers, or just neighborhood noise, consider installing sound- deadening drywall. It is installed, taped, and finished as traditional drywall, and panels weigh about the same.
Dust Control
Look for “dust control” joint compound. It is a product that will keep the dust sown during sanding, a notoriously messy part of any remodeling job. This type of joint compound can reduce airborne dust because it produces” heavy dust” particles that bind together and drop straight to the floor, ready to be vacuumed up. Oddly, this kind of joint compound typically weighs 35 percent less than conventional joint compounds, but it has bonding power equal to or better than traditional joint compound.
Continue reading on Plywood