I found this "fiberboard" behind the paneling in a house (built in 1943) I'm going to flip. It's 1/2" thick and looks like 4' X 8' sheets. It seems they panted it and wallpapered it and it has some sort of tar paper between it and the studs. They were using it instead of drywall/plaster. It reminds me of boards they used to use when I was a kid to stick thumb tacks into as a cheaper alternative to cork. It has the strength of acoustic ceiling tiles. Is there a name for it?
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Another very common material that fits the description is Homasote. It was used a lot in barns and farmhouses, especially, because it was very inexpensive and easy to work with. I've seen it used in exteriors of barns, as well as home interiors. They have been making panels out of recycled cardboard & paper longer than anybody. They are still in business.
Looking at that link, it looks more like Homasote than the Celotex. The Celotex doesn't seem to be exactly homogenous, like it has bits of longer dark fibers running through it.
The whole reason I asked this question is that I want to ask the building dept. if I can drywall over this stuff, because after I pulled off 2 layers of paneling I found the fiberboard and then it seems they have already blown in insulation. I don't see a reason to have to remove this stuff and potentially disturb what appears to be blown in cellulose. It'll be cheaper and more lung friendly just to throw up a vapor barrier and drywall. When I talk to someone at the building dept. I didn't want to sound like I didn't know what the stuff is called. At least someone should be fooled into thinking I know what I'm talking about :)
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Homasote is gray, and looks sort of like very thick shirt cardboard with one smooth side and one side having a very small "waffle" pattern from the press operation that made it. I've also seen it with both sides "waffled".
I've noticed something like that under old commercial building flat roofs. Someone mentioned exterior sheathing and that could be what it is because it would seem to have some insulating value. I've had to cut penetrations through some older flat roofs and stuff like that always shows up in one or more layers.
Why can't you drywall over it, you just need longer screws if you are trying to get to the wall studs. And why do you need to talk to a building dept just to repair walls? Unless you are moving/removing walls, I can't see how sheetrocking calls for building permits.
Probably no permits needed on the sheetrock--- but if he is flipping the house & will have the inspector wandering around anyway it is smart to ask what he thinks. It puffs up the inspector- it gets an opinion from a [hopefully] position of experience- and it covers his butt if the new owners or their house inspector want to make an issue of it.
If he simply sheetrocks over it, how'd they ever know????
And I certainly don't see any reason not to do so if there's reasonable loose insulation behind it as I gather OP said.
Certainly it's no health menace to begin with what more once it's covered w/ yet another layer.
The worst problem I'd foresee in doing that would be dealing w/ the added thickness for doors and windows, etc. to trim out w/o a lot of custom work which would tend to defeat general premise of "flipping".
"dpb" wrote in message news:he4fbv$3os$ snipped-for-privacy@news.eternal-september.org...
When we bought the house at the beginning of Sept. the city required it to be brought up to code. We couldn't even have anybody live there until all the safety issues were taken care of. I got three pages of items from the mechanical inspector and the electrical inspector said he'd have three pages for me too unless I agreed to call in a contractor. He estimated it'd be $3000 of work that needed to be done. I spent three weeks working on the electrical myself before I called the contractor and got by with only a $1000 bill. In among the items that needed to be done mechanically was to "complete restoration work in laundry room and back bedroom." When we started the laundry was bare frame and a plywood floor and the back bedroom (where the fiberboard is) had a tile ceiling removed exposing more of the fiberboard with glue spots on it where the 12 by 12 tiles were glued on. Another requirement was that I trim in all 9 windows in the house. The new vinyl widows the previous owners had installed that were smaller than the old windows they had never been trimmed in and all the rough framing and insulation was exposed around their perimeter. So, all of this was in plain sight of all these inpectors that I'm getting to know by their first names. :) I could go on for a day detailing the idiot things they lived with for years in that house including the water pipes that were run through an "unheated" attic, but were kept from bursting by leaving the access door to the attic open and thus heating the attic. They were paying $2400/yr. for gas in a 980 sq. ft. house rather than having the pipes moved . *rolling eyes*
I talked to the inspector today and he'll let me drywall over the fiber board as long as I install a vapor barrier. Any drywalling has to have a rough framing/insulation inspection and a final inspection. I can't wait to have them sign off on this house and that is when the real renovations will commence.
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Way back in the 80s, there was a house I passed on the way to go skiing at the Wisp in western Maryland that had Celotex as its exterior. We called it the Celotex house. I wouldn't doubt it's still there in that condition.
Way back in the 80s, there was a house I passed on the way to go skiing at the Wisp in western Maryland that had Celotex as its exterior. We called it the Celotex house. I wouldn't doubt it's still there in that condition.
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