Compare gypsum fiber and drywall

Our experts in the field of con­struc­tion and repair exam­ined the prop­er­ties and fea­tures of two sim­i­lar mate­ri­als — dry­wall (gyp­sum plas­ter­board) and gyp­sum fiber (GVL), their areas of appli­ca­tion, made a com­par­a­tive analy­sis of their advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages, which will help you make a choice in favor of one or the oth­er.

Drywall

Gyp­sum board is a fin­ished pan­el of a cer­tain size, made from a thin lay­er of gyp­sum plas­ter, which is sand­wiched between two lay­ers of thick card­board. Dry­wall has suf­fi­cient strength, while being easy to process — it is cut into small­er sheets with a con­struc­tion knife, and fas­ten­ing to the sur­face to be trimmed is car­ried out using self-tap­ping screws. The gyp­sum base may include spe­cial addi­tives that give the mate­r­i­al spe­cial prop­er­ties and allow the man­u­fac­ture of dif­fer­ent types of dry­wall, which can be used to solve var­i­ous tasks in fin­ish­ing work.

Varieties of drywall and characteristics

The mate­r­i­al is divid­ed into 5 main types:

1. Reg­u­lar or Stan­dard. It is marked with three let­ters — GKL. This type can be dis­tin­guished by the gray sur­face of the sheet with blue mark­ings.

2. Mois­ture resis­tant. Mark­ing — GKLV, sur­face col­or — green with blue mark­ing;

3. Fire resis­tant. Mark­ing — GKLO, sur­face col­or — pink with red mark­ing;

4. Fire and mois­ture resis­tant — com­bines the prop­er­ties of resis­tance to fire and mois­ture. Sur­face col­or — green with red mark­ing;

5. Acoustic. Mark­ing — AKU, sur­face col­or — pur­ple.

Geo­met­ric char­ac­ter­is­tics of dry­wall sheets: the usu­al and most com­mon sheet size is 1200x2500 mm, although some man­u­fac­tur­ers pro­duce sheets of dif­fer­ent sizes — from 1500 to 4000 mm long and 625 mm wide. The thick­ness of the sheet can also vary with­in 6–12.5 mm.

Dry­wall may vary in the shape of the edges. The fol­low­ing types of prod­ucts are pro­duced, which dif­fer in the pro­file of the edges:

1. with rec­tan­gu­lar edges — mark­ing — PC;

2. with an edge that decreas­es in thick­ness on one side — mark­ing — UK;

3. with an edge hav­ing a semi­cir­cu­lar shape on one side, mark­ing — PLC;

4. simul­ta­ne­ous­ly reduced and round­ed edge on one side, mark­ing — PLUK;

5. round­ed edge, mark­ing — ЗК.

The edges are pro­filed to facil­i­tate the work on seal­ing the joints after the instal­la­tion of the sheets.

For dif­fer­ent tasks of fin­ish­ing or build­ing struc­tures, dif­fer­ent sheets with dif­fer­ent char­ac­ter­is­tics are select­ed.

Areas of application of drywall

Dry­wall is used in con­struc­tion for the fol­low­ing pur­pos­es:

1. a con­ven­tion­al gyp­sum plas­ter­board sheet, hav­ing a thick­ness of 12.5 mm, is used instead of wet plas­ter for fin­ish­ing main walls, as well as par­ti­tions in rooms with nor­mal oper­a­tion. After sheath­ing, stan­dard fin­ish­ing is per­formed;

2. ordi­nary plas­ter­board with a thick­ness of 12.5 mm is used for sheath­ing frame par­ti­tions, the frame of which is con­struct­ed from a wood­en beam or thin-walled steel pro­file in rooms with nor­mal oper­a­tion;

3. ordi­nary plas­ter­board with a thick­ness of 8 or 9.5 mm is used instead of wet plas­ter as ceil­ing cladding in rooms with nor­mal oper­a­tion. The same type of mate­r­i­al is used as a sheath­ing for sus­pend­ed and false ceil­ings on a frame made of wood­en beams or steel pro­files;

4. mois­ture-resis­tant sheet of the GKLV brand is used for fin­ish­ing walls and ceil­ings in rooms with a high humid­i­ty regime — kitchens, bath­rooms, show­ers, bath­rooms, etc. For walls — mate­r­i­al 12.5 mm thick, for ceil­ings — 8 and 9.5 mm thick;

5. fire-resis­tant mate­r­i­al of the GKLO brand is used for the instal­la­tion of fire bar­ri­ers, as well as cladding of steel and rein­forced con­crete struc­tures in order to increase sta­bil­i­ty when exposed to high tem­per­a­tures and open flames;

6. ordi­nary GKL 6.5 mm thick is used in the con­struc­tion of struc­tures of com­plex shape — arch­es, sheath­ing of round­ed walls and round columns, mul­ti-lev­el sus­pend­ed ceil­ings. Such sheets are easy to bend due to their small thick­ness after wet­ting with water, and if nec­es­sary, fac­ing sur­faces of large cur­va­ture, they are cut into seg­ments and then bent;

7. sheet GKVLO — fire-resis­tant and mois­ture-resis­tant, used for fin­ish­ing rooms in which the oper­at­ing mode is char­ac­ter­ized by increased fire haz­ard and humid­i­ty at the same time, for exam­ple, saunas or baths;

8. Acoustic sheet of the AKU brand is used in the dec­o­ra­tion of premis­es with increased require­ments for sound insu­la­tion — con­cert halls, cin­e­mas, record­ing stu­dios, etc.

Gypsum fiber sheet

Gyp­sum-fiber sheet is a thin build­ing pan­el made using the semi-dry press­ing method from a mix­ture of build­ing gyp­sum and cel­lu­lose fibers with sur­face rein­force­ment with fiber­glass mesh. GVL is much stronger than dry­wall, so a spe­cial tool is need­ed to cut it — a hack­saw, grinder, cir­cu­lar saw or elec­tric jig­saw. It is attached to the sur­face to be trimmed not with self-tap­ping screws, but with spe­cial screws designed specif­i­cal­ly for GVL. Gyp­sum fiber sheets are divid­ed into sev­er­al types that have dif­fer­ent prop­er­ties and are used for dif­fer­ent pur­pos­es.

Properties and characteristics of GVL

1. gyp­sum-fiber sheets are divid­ed into two types that can be used in rooms with dif­fer­ent humid­i­ty con­di­tions — stan­dard, marked as GVL and mois­ture resis­tant, marked — GVLV;

2. geo­met­ric char­ac­ter­is­tics: length — 1500, 2000, 2500, 2700 and 3000 mm; width — 500, 1000 and 1200 mm; thick­ness — 10, 12.5, 15, 18 and 20 mm;

3. just like dry­wall, sheets are sub­di­vid­ed accord­ing to the shape of the edge — with a rec­tan­gu­lar edge, marked — PC; with a fold­ed edge, marked — FK;

4. all prod­ucts have the same gray col­or and are marked with blue paint. For exam­ple, the stan­dard mark­ing of a GKL sheet is: GVLV-FK-2500x1200x1.5 GOST R 51829–2001, which means a mois­ture-resis­tant gyp­sum-fiber sheet with a fold­ed edge, 2500x1200 mm in size, 15 mm thick.

The scope of GVL is wall cladding or the instal­la­tion of frame par­ti­tions before fin­ish­ing in rooms for any pur­pose, since gyp­sum fiber sheets are very durable, not afraid of mois­ture and are not com­bustible. GVL sheathe walls along the frame or fas­ten with mount­ing glue. In addi­tion, with the help of GVL, they arrange prepa­ra­tions for floors, for which spe­cial plates are pro­duced with a size of 1000x1500 mm and a thick­ness of up to 20 mm.

Table of advantages and disadvantages

The main differences between materials

The main dif­fer­ences between the mate­ri­als are as fol­lows:

1. GKL is a kind of sand­wich — a lay­er of gyp­sum is enclosed between two lay­ers of card­board, GVL has a uni­form struc­ture with rein­forced sur­faces with fiber­glass mesh­es;

2. GVL is much stronger — dow­els and nails can be ham­mered into walls sheathed with GVL, it is impos­si­ble in GKL;

3. stan­dard GVL sheets are much more resis­tant to mois­ture than GKL;

4. GKL can be bent and cut into seg­ments for cladding curved struc­tures, GVL is only suit­able for cladding flat sur­faces;

5. GVL is much more resis­tant to low tem­per­a­tures — it can with­stand more than 15 freeze-thaw cycles, GKL only 4 cycles, after which cracks can form on it;

6. GVL has a large scope — with the help of GVL boards, prepa­ra­tions for floors can be arranged, unlike GKL;

7. GKL sheets are capa­ble of crum­bling on sec­tions when cut­ting, GVL sheets are not;

8. GVL is much more expen­sive than GKL.

What is the sim­i­lar­i­ty of mate­ri­als

The sim­i­lar­i­ty of mate­ri­als is as fol­lows:

1. both mate­ri­als are made on the basis of build­ing gyp­sum;

2. both mate­ri­als can be used in the premis­es of the same pur­pose;

3. and GKL and GVL have a sim­i­lar appear­ance — flat fac­ing pan­els or sheets;

4. both mate­ri­als belong to the same group G‑1 — low com­bustible mate­ri­als for fire safe­ty.

Con­clu­sions: It is impos­si­ble to make an unam­bigu­ous con­clu­sion that one mate­r­i­al is bet­ter than anoth­er, each of them has its own advan­tages and dis­ad­van­tages. The choice should be made based on the task that must be solved dur­ing the fin­ish­ing work, since only GKL is suit­able for some types of work, for exam­ple, for cre­at­ing or cladding curved struc­tures. For oth­er works, only GVL can be used, as for lay­ing bases under floors. And you should also take into account finan­cial oppor­tu­ni­ties, because GVL is much more expen­sive.