US: Chinese drywall not harmful

[vjp2.at]

I can't wait to hear a reply on the recycling issue.

I often wonder about all those wierd specs I see in the cardboard backing on my writting paper pads.

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

[vjp2.at]

Why is gypsum used instead of lime?

I've noticed patching compound is sometimes now made of lime instead of gypsum. I think lime won't crack like gypsum (which is why gyspum needed asbestos or horse hair or straw before today's plastics).

In Greece, the preferred building material is quicklime. But USA (dolomitic) lime has magnesium, while Greek is almost pure calcium. THey even use it in making fruit preserves. When I had a dog we painted his house with lime because he bit it and I felt it was safest. (I added some food oil to the conventional lime sold for lawns.)

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

[vjp2.at]

sometimes the asbestos comes from the mine, but I wonder if it got there by recycling.

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

[AZ Nomad]

asbestos costs money. No chinese drywall maker is going to go to the cost of using it.

[vjp2.at]

I'm crossposting to the geologists so they can better tell us what the typical content of gypsum and quicklime (regular or dolomitic) are. I've even heard asbestos is found in talc but I never confirmed. Also how the minerals found in China are different from those customarily used in American construction.

*+-A couple other drywall factoids I got from a friend: *+-Drywall can contain asbestos. If a material contains less than 1% *+-asbestos it is not regulated [1% seems rather high to me]. Some Chinese *+-drywall has been found to have 3% asbestos.

*+-Drywall contains gypsum (it is also called gypsum board). Gypsum is

*+-calcium sulfate, so 'normal' drywall contains sulfur (but bound in the *+-gypsum molecule).

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

[dlzc]

Like the story of leaded paints on toys, and melamine added to baby formula.

They are still learning. The person that decides to do the shortcut is praised for the savings, and (usually) cannot suffer a penalty.

I hadn't heard about USA made stuff doing that, but then again, when you start cutting "unnecessary" personnel...

Probably not.

Yes.

I heard they did that too.

... and from loss of circulation, getting air into the house. We (and sometimes our heaters) remove oxygen from the atmosphere, and add CO2. So somehow this needs to be equilibrated to normal atmospheric levels, without losing too much heat / cold in the process...

David A. Smith

[vjp2.at]

Katrina construction played a major role in the expansion of steel-stud construction (they use sheet metal in C or I sections) which can even be CAD/CAM prefabbed. During WW2 Chinag Kai Shek mothballed his nvy in New Orleans and since they were wooden, they brought over unusually aggressive termites. THose termites have spread so much that south of Mason-Dixon you can't insure new wood-stud construction. CHina has also had a building boom. Ditto the Kemp-Cuomo subprime boom. We have had a lot of innovation, but also there is a lot of room for mistakes when you do things in a hurry. I have friends whose 1970s houses (in one of the five wealthiest zip codes in the country) frighten me: leaking skylights which cook everyone in the summer, plywood floors that keep needing more beams to keep from collapsing; yet these houses continue to fetch astronomical prices. The worst asbestos came about by government mandates and public works booms in the

1930s. Sheetrock was invented largely because of the GI Bill. The financial crisis happened because people introduced too many new things without testing them sufficiently. Edmunde Burke used to advocate making changes slowly because you never know which thread you pull will disintegrate the entire fabric. Such mistakes are inevitable, but I think instead of dropping our guard when we are in a hurry, we should enhance it.

*+-At the time people were buying this drywall they just felt lucky to

*+-get any drywall from anywhere. It was right after Katrina and in the *+-middle of a building boom that had already swallowed up all the *+-drywall the US could produce.

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]

[vjp2.at]

Sorry for the clutter, but I think I figured it out: the "cellulose" (that was added either to insulate or cheapen) released formaldehyde which then reacted with the gypsum which then releaed HS gas?????

THe question which still bugs me is why they added cellulose. (THis was the guy who submitted AMERICAN MADE sheetrock to MIT for testing.)

- = - Vasos Panagiotopoulos, Columbia'81+, Reagan, Mozart, Pindus, BioStrategist

---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- [Homeland Security means private firearms not lazy obstructive guards] [Urb sprawl confounds terror] [Phooey on GUI: Windows for subprime Bimbos]