Drywall is a very important building material, which is widely used in the construction of ceilings and interior walls. It is also called by other names such as plasterboard, wallboard as well and gypsum board, particularly in places such as Australia, Ireland, and the United States.
It is also called pladur in Spain, gyprock in the United Kingdom, and Gibraltar board in New Zealand. Find out more interesting things about this all-important construction material including how much a sheet of drywall weighs.
The Weight of a Sheet of Drywall
How much does a sheet of drywall weigh? In general, the weight of drywall varies depending on the thickness of the sheet.
For instance, a square foot-inch thick standard drywall sheet weighs around 3.4 pounds.
Meanwhile, a square foot inch thick water-resistant drywall sheet is a bit heavier at 3.9 pounds.
Heavier than these two variants is the fire-code C drywall sheet, which is a square foot inch thick it weighs approximately 4.2 pounds.
Thus, if a drywall sheet measures 4 feet by 8 feet by ½-inch, its weight is probably around 54 pounds.
Additional Information and Other Interesting Details
In countries like Canada and the U.S., a typical drywall comes in sheets with a width of 1,219 millimeters or 4 feet. However, these sheets are available in different lengths.
Because of the popularity of ceilings as high as 2.7 meters or 9 feet in many newly constructed homes, manufacturers have started to produce panels measuring 1,371 millimeters or 4.5 feet wide.
In general, it is much easier to install larger sheets mainly because the joints to be finished are significantly reduced. For fire resistance and soundproofing purposes, installing a couple of drywall layers can get the job done.
In other places like Europe and the United Kingdom, plasterboards are distributed in metric sizes. Standard sheets usually measure about 1,200 millimeters wide.
Likewise, some manufacturers produce sheets that are 900 millimeters thick. In terms of thickness, some of these products measure 12.5 millimeters thick, which is particularly true for those that are to be used for the walls.
For those that will be used for ceilings, the usual thickness of the plasterboards is 9.5 millimeters.
There are various types of drywall distributed in Canada and the U.S. These include highly popular variants like controlled density, foil-backed, and lead-lined sheets.
Likewise, there are also other variations including the so-called enviroboard, soundproof and blueboard.
Other reliable versions of this all-important home construction material are mold-resistant, greenboard, and fire-resistant.