Drywall manufacturer identification FAQs.

Questions & answers about decoding the identifying stamps, labeling, paper imprints, and other details that can help identify specific drywall or gypsum board products.

This article series discusses the identification and history of both modern and older interior building surface materials such plaster and lath, Beaverboard, and Drywall - materials that were used to form the (usually) non-structural surface of building interior ceilings and walls.

Drywall Manufacturers' Identification Stamp & Code FAQs

Questions and answers about individual drywall (gypsum board) manufacturers' identification stamps, end tapes, and other markings that identify brands of drywall or gypsum board, listed alphabetically by manufacturer.

These questions and answers about decoding the stamps, imprints, or end tape text on gypsum board or drywall were posted originally

at DRYWALL MANUFACTURER IDENTIFICATION STAMPS & DATE CODES be sure to check out the drywall manufacturer identification decoding and suggestions on that page.

Does this 1/2" thick Gypsum Wallboard Type FSW-1 fire-resistance classified drywall contain asbestos?

Hello - I was wondering if anyone could please let me know if this has asbestos as well?

On 2023-10-30 by Elijah

by InspectApedia Publisher - generic drywall stamps simply identify the type and the standard of compliance

@Elijah,

Those look like generic drywall stamps that's simply identify the type and the standard with which it complied. I don't see any indication that addresses in asbestos question in that data.

If you can see the end tapes on the edges of the drywall that often can identify the manufacturer and may also contain patent numbers that help determine its age.

Knowing the country and city of building location and in the building age help guests at the drywall age which can tell you whether it was manufactured before or after asbestos was discontinued in that use in your country..

More details that will help you answer this question are at

ASBESTOS in DRYWALL

 

Can I identify the manufacture year of this USG drywall from the barcode?

Is it possible to identify the year this USG board was manufactured from the barcode here?

On 2023-10-07 by Ian

I believe this is gold bond. Any way to tell the age?

For the gold bond one I found some patent numbers. The ones from Canada were issued in the mid 90’s so I would think that would confirm it was made well after asbestos would be common in drywall.

Any second opinions on that? Still not sure about the USG board.

You can see this kind of blue and red end paper on the USG that goes with the barcode I posted earlier. I’m assuming this would mean it is more modern. Anyone have any additional details?

Reply by InspectApedia DF (mod) - Factory Mutual Research Corporation Audit stamp for Gypsum Wallboard

@Ian,

From just that Factory Mutual Research Corporation Audit stamp for Gypsum Wallboard I can't know with confidence the drywall's age.

ASTM E119 is a drywall standard that dates all the way back to 1917

It's possible that FMRC have changed the appearance of their certification stamps over the years, so that company might be able to look at a stamp and tell us the years during which that exact stamp layout and text were used.

Factory Mutual, now FMglobal offers a contact page mglobal.com/report-contact-page/general-contact-form but no simple email or telephone number for curious consumers.

As we often remind readers in questions like this one, it is very helpful when guessing at the age of a building component, to include contextual data: what do we know about the building, its country, city of location and the building age and remodeling history.

Often then we can compare what we know about a building with information at

DRYWALL & GYPSUM BOARD COMPOSITION & HISTORY https://inspectapedia.com/interiors/Drywall-Composition-History.php

Also finding patent numbers on drywall stamps or on end tapes on the drywall can tell us the bounds of years during which that drywall could have been manufactured.

More by InspectApedia DF (mod) - modern Gold-Bond product bar code.

@Ian,

That's a modern Gold-Bond product bar code. The *earliest* that that type of bar code was used in North America was 1974.

As you've found patent numbers, do post a list of all of them.

Continuing: I can't read most of the patent numbers in your photo but if you can spot the oldest (lowest number) such as

Nichols, Jr Peter L. "Polyurethane propellant." U.S. Patent 3,870,578, issued March 11, 1975.

and the highest number - that can give us the probable age range for your drywall.

such as

White, George H., and Donald J. Petersen. "Hard-edge wallboard." U.S. Patent 4,279,673, issued July 21, 1981.

If that's the highest patent number on your drywall then we'd know that it was made some time after 1981 and probably before Gold-Bond began putting subsequent patent numbers on the product.

Again: what is the information about the surrounding building? Location, age, remodeling history?

by Ian

@InspectApedia DF,

I’m guessing the USG is pretty much impossible to tell just based on the barcode alone.

For the Golf Bond I thought I had found patents dating from the 90s but I guess that isn’t correct on a second look.

The lowest number I see is a U.S. patent: 3870538

The highest is a Canadian patent: 1095233

The house is in St. Paul, MN. It was build in 1903 so there is a wide range of possible materials in the building. I don’t know about renovation history. It seems like there was work done in the early to mid 90s but I don’t really have a guess at to when the drywall would have been put up.

I guess I will have to have it tested for asbestos. I already pulled some of it off from around windows a couple years back. Sort of regretting that decision. I didn’t think drywall would have asbestos in it until I started doing research.

Also, on the Gold Bond there are some more patents numbers after that Canadian patent but I can’t make them out.

by InspectApedia DF (mod) - Canadian drywall patent number leads to a patent issue date of 1981

@Ian,

The Canadian drywall patent number you cite is for

Nowick, Chester R., and DeFranza, Alfred, U.S.A., METHOD of DRYING GYPSUM WALLBOARD and APPARATUS THEREFOR, Canadian Patent No. 1095233, Issued 810210, granted to National Gypsum Company, U.S.A.

note the issue date is 1981, the patent was filed almost a decade earlier.

copy also here at

https://inspectapedia.com/interiors/Canadian-Drywall-Patent-1095233.pdf

Cited in our article ASBESTOS in CANADIAN DRYWALL

though to be clear, this particular Canadian patent discusses methods for drying drywall board or gypsum board and isn't concerned with asbestos nor the composition of the drywall itself.
In a 1903 St. Paul MN home (just down the road from our own Minnesota editorial offices) all sorts of interior-use materials may have contained asbestos.

For drywall, if it's intact and undisturbed there's no meaningful asbestos hazard.

For drywall that must be or has been demolished creating a dusty mess, one would treat the material as presumed to contain asbestos (or have samples tested).

For drywall testing in such a case you'd need to be sure to test not just the board material itself but also joint compound used at drywall joints and at screws or nails - as the greater asbestos content was usually in the joint compound.

by Ian

@InspectApedia DF,

Thanks for all the info. Still curious as I dig into these boards. I see on the Gold Bond one that there are clearly white fibers sticking out of the end. Makes me think the board is likely to be more modern with some type of fiberglass reinforcement.

You can sort of see the fibers in the attached picture. It probably doesn’t give a definitive answer but I thought it might be helpful to others researching this topic to know if that is likely.

Also interesting. I called USG to see if they could identify the Sheetrock branded board. According to the then they never used asbestos in the Sheetrock boards. Maybe only in the joint compound?

Any way, thanks again. I’ll circle back if I find out anything definite.

0 by InspectApedia DF (mod) - shiny fibers are likely to be fiberglass, not asbestos

@Ian,

Yes if you see shiny fibers it's likely to be fiberglass; it's much more difficult to "see" individual asbestos fibers without a microscope.

Bottom line: even if the manufacturer is confident that they never used asbestos in their drywall, unless you can determine the installation date and thus the probable date of manufacture of the joint compound, the drywall producer can't assure you that the installer did not use asbestos-containing joint compound.

However, as I've said several times, if the material is undamaged and left alone there's not likely to be a measurable asbestos dust hazard.

Worth a read:

HAZARD vs RISK - what's the difference ?

https://inspectapedia.com/hazmat/Hazard-vs-Risk.php

 

Identify drywall in a 2002 home in Florida, stamped: "Palatka, FL" with a date mark of "040402".

Greetings, wondering if you could help me identify some drywall I keep finding in the house I just purchased. Was built in 2002, in SW Florida. Markings are simple, they say: "Palatka, FL" with a date mark of "040402".

Would be nice to know if this drywall was made in the USA or not. The only drywall plant in Palatka FL in 2002 was a giant factory that was owned by LaFarge at the time. In 2023 the building is still there and is now owned by Saint Gobain I believe. Still has green and white LaFarge colors on the building. Would be nice to know who actually manufactured it. Thank you - On 2023-10-03 by Teddy

by InspectApedia DF (mod) - Saint Gobain CertainTeed drywall was made in Palatka FL

@Teddy,


Saint Gobain has a drywall manufacturing plant in Palatka, Florida, since 2001, producing under the sub-brand CertainTeed LLC (a subsidiary drywall brand) so most likely your CertainTeed drywall was made in the Palatka drywall plant on 04 April 2002.

Thank you for the photo and helpful drywall identification question.

The image below is from a news release by Saint-Gobain about upgrading their Palatka Florida gypsum plant in April 2022.

Below is an excerpt from the news release, giving more details about the manufacture of your drywall.

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August 23, 2022 | Palatka, FL United States
SAINT-GOBAIN TO UPGRADE TECHNOLOGY AT ITS PALATKA, FLORIDA GYPSUM PLANT, INCREASING RECYCLED CONTENT OF WALLBOARD AND REDUCING CARBON EMISSIONS

Saint-Gobain, through its building products subsidiary CertainTeed LLC, will install recycling technology at its gypsum plant in Palatka, Florida, increasing the recycled content in its wallboard products manufactured in Palatka by 18,000 tons/year while also reducing the site’s carbon dioxide emissions by 2,260 tons/year.

The project represents a $1.1 Million investment from CertainTeed and comes as Saint-Gobain continues to roll out its new global Grow and Impact strategy, which includes reducing waste and increasing recycling efforts at its manufacturing sites.

Gypsum wallboard is made from a gypsum slurry that is poured and dries between two sheets of paper. Some scrap materials, consisting of gypsum and paper, are normally created every time a production line is started up or shut down, or when production equipment is changed to manufacture different sizes of wallboard.

The new recycling technology in Palatka will work by grinding the waste gypsum and waste paper down into fine particles, allowing the plant to capture and internally recycle the materials, which are sorted and then reintroduced to the production process at the plant.

Today, each wallboard produced at CertainTeed’s Palatka facility includes recycled content. The upgraded technology, which the company plans to take online later this year, will increase the amount of recycled material in wallboard manufactured in Palatka.

The new equipment is powered by electricity and replaces older equipment currently powered by diesel, lowering the plant’s Scope 1 Emissions from its operations. Additionally, by consuming more recycled gypsum, the plant is less reliant on feedstock that is shipped to Palatka from external sources, allowing the site to also reduce Scope 3 Emissions associated with transporting the feedstock.

The investment in Palatka follows similar investments that will increase the recycled content of wallboard made at CertainTeed’s gypsum plants in Silver Grove, Kentucky and Nashville, Arkansas.

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Read the entire news release at

SAINT-GOBAIN UPGRADES PALATKA FL GYPSUM PLANT [PDF] Saint-Gobain, retrieved 2023/10/03, original source: .saint-gobain-northamerica [dot] com/company/newsroom/news-releases/saint-gobain-upgrade-technology-its-palatka-florida-gypsum-plant

I think this is old drywall that may contain asbestos: when was it made?

I was told this was newer drywall where I work, and to take it out. So I started cutting and tearing it off the metal studs. Then I noticed this stamp. Which to me, looks very old. Can anyone tell me if this contained asbestos or even what year it was from?

On 2023-08-19 by Kevin

by InspectApedia Publisher - asbestos in USG Sheetrock?

@Kevin,

You can read about the stamp found on your drywall, including the classification F-1319, at

US GYPSUM SHEETROCK ASBESTOS

Start by telling us the country and city of location of your building and the building's age.

by Kevin

@InspectApedia Publisher, it is United States. Wayne county, NY. Town is Newark. It is a nursing home. However I am unaware of the building age. Tried looking up R1319 and found it on a UL website, but no information about date or additives.

by InspectApedia Publisher - might need to have drywall sample tested for asbestos

@Kevin,

None of us likes throwing other people's money at risk, but in my OPINION if nobody can document that age of the drywall in a nursing home where one would expect extra caution about potential health hazards, nor even the age of the building, it may be appropriate to have a sample tested for asbestos before making a dusty mess, or treat the drywall as if it contained asbestos, using appropriate dust control, etc.

Decoding a Truroc Drywall Stamp - 1970

Have drywall house built in 1970. Drywall stamped Truroc and then a postal code I am assuming…

On 2023-08-19 by Kevin

On 2022-05-04 by Inspectapedia Com Moderator

@Laura,

Our original discussion and more details are

at ASBESTOS HAZARDS in CANADIAN TruRoc DRYWALL - RESEARCH

Where we will add your photo (do post a sharper image if you can - thanks in advance) and question, as that will be helpful to other readers and may invite further comment on the history of TruRoc Canadian drywall.

...

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Continue reading at DRYWALL MANUFACTURER IDENTIFICATION STAMPS & DATE CODES - topic home, or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

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