Gypsum industry news

US: Rhino Linings Corporation has acquired the assets of Expo Industries Inc, a San Diego-based manufacturer of Expo Stucco™ interior and exterior stucco products, sealers, bonders, patch products and plaster mixes.

The acquisition expands Rhino Linings line of building products, which already include waterproofing products, spray polyurethane foam insulation, decorative concrete and epoxy flooring systems.

"Expo Stucco is a well-respected and recognised leader in the building industry," said Pierre Gagnon, president and CEO of Rhino Linings Corporation. "Since Expo Stucco blended and packaged our Concrete Solutions bag mixes, we are now able to bring product packaging in-house and expand our line of building products. We are also excited about the opportunity to expand name recognition and sales for the Expo Stucco brand."

US: A US$24m settlement has been reached between owners of Villa Lago, a collection of private residences in Boynton Beach, South Florida and Coastal Construction regarding 'defective' Chinese wallboard.

A two-tower condominium complex was constructed by RCR Holdings II LLC at Villa Lago using Chinese wallboard. Once the residents became aware of the 'defective' wallboard they formed a class action and sued RCR Holdings. However, since RCR kept equity in the property, the two sides soon joined forces against the general contractor, Coastal Construction and other defendants.

RCR Holdings maintained that Coastal Construction and the other defendants knew the wallboard was defective when it was being installed. They further alleged that Coastal's conduct fell below the duty of care owed the class. The defendants denied knowingly using defective wallboard, although a settlement was eventually reached after six mediations.

Coastal agreed to pay US$24m, which was preliminarily approved by US District Judge Eldon Fallon on 24 April 2013. The Villa Lago owners are using the funds to remove the 'defective'wallboard.

New Zealand: Fletcher Building, New Zealand's largest building company, has spent US$4m and taken almost two months to replace the roof of its Christchurch wallboard factory that contained asbestos.

The Winstone Wallboards factory in Christchurch was reopened on 21 October 2013 following its closure on 27 August 2013 after traces of asbestos were found during preparations for the roof replacement. The new roof is expected to be completed by 8 December 2013.

Staff were transferred to the distribution centre or to Auckland during the closure and remained on full pay. Dispatch operations at Christchurch were down for three days, with wallboard supplied from Fletcher's Auckland plant during that time.

UK: A range of British Gypsum plaster and plasterboard solutions have been used in a contemporary housing complex developed by Taylor Wimpey's North Thames regional business in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, to help the house-builder meet thermal and acoustic requirements. The large-scale new-build development includes 159 apartments and 50 three-storey terraced houses.

"Due to the size of the project and the strict timescales we were working to, we needed a solution that required as little labour as possible. Drylyner TL was easy to use and really simplified the installation process from start to finish," said Tony Butcher, senior project manager at Taylor Wimpey North Thames.

For ease of application and speed, British Gypsum DriLyner Thermal Laminate (TL), a wallboard masonry lining system, was used on partitions and separating walls. The system offers a quick and easy solution to drylining brick, block and concrete walls by utilising adhesive dabs to bond the wallboard onto the walls. This meets the acoustic performance requirements in accordance with Part E of the UK Building Regulations, to provide superior sound insulation.

For further acoustic performance, Gyproc Soundcoat Plus was used on the partition walls in both the apartments and terrace houses. This coat is a gypsum based compound that is designed to seal masonry walls prior to drylining, was used to minimise air leakage through cracks and unfilled joints, improving energy efficiency and limiting noise pollution.

In keeping with the sustainability focus of the project, Taylor Wimpey took advantage of the British Gypsum Plasterboard Recycling Service in order to minimise the environmental impact of the project.

"The Plasterboard Recycling Service was a great help. It was a cost-effective recycling option that not only saved us a lot of time and effort, but also helped us meet our sustainability objectives. British Gypsum supplied the skips we needed for the waste products and took them away to be recycled at its onsite recycling facility," said Butcher.

US/Canada: Georgia-Pacific plans to 'idle' one wallboard plant in Caledonia, Ontario and one wallboard plant in West Memphis, Tennessee in early 2014. Eric Abercrombie, a spokesperson for Georgia-Pacific, attributed the decision to production optimisation and a slow recovery in the building materials market.

"We are doing this because of market conditions and the fact we've just acquired new capacity through a merger," stated Abercrombie to local media. 60 employees will be affected at the Caledonia plant and 39 employees at the West Memphis plant.

In early 2013, Georgia-Pacific acquired four new gypsum wallboard plants when it took over Memphis-based Temple-Inland Building Products from International Paper. That deal, worth US$750m, added 1800 employees to Georgia-Pacific and 16 production facilities.