Bob is at the port of Wilmington, Delaware, at the Georgia-Pacific wallboard plant. Every three weeks a cargo vessel laden with thirty thousand tons of gypsum from Nova Scotia arrives and drops the gypsum onto a conveyer belt that funnels into the football field-sized shed behind Bob. Gypsum is also known as calcium sulfate or plaster of Paris. Here, it is turned into wallboard. Bob meets with Monty Palmowski, the plan manager, for a tour. First the gypsum rock is dried and then ground. Then additional moisture is removed from the powdered form. Monty shows Bob the rolls of paper used on either side of the wallboard. The backing paper is rough while the front paper is smooth to accept paint. A slurry of gypsum is poured on top of the paper going down a conveyer belt. The sides are folded over and glue added to adhere the sides to the face paper, which is placed on top. It then goes through a machine that adjusts its thickness and produces a four-foot by eight hundred foot sheet of wallboard. The board sits to dry and then is cut into thirty six foot pieces and put in a drying oven by a conveyer belt that moves vertically. It sits in the oven for thirty-five minutes at six hundred degrees. After that it is cut into twelve-foot lengths and stacked and packaged.

Bob meets Thad Goodman from Georgia-Pacific who is on site to install DensArmor Plus fiberglass-faced wallboard in the storm-ready house. The four-by-ten sheets are drilled into furring strips installed against the concrete walls. DensArmor Plus is ideal for humid climates where mold, mildew, and insects are attracted to the sugars and starches used to bind gypsum in traditional wallboard. By eliminating the organic material, DensArmor kills the food source for dangerous mold and insect growth. The wallboard is finished with fiberglass mesh tape and a setting compound that is enhanced to set up quickly and reduce the opportunity for moisture intrusion.

Bob is back on the first floor of the barn with Bill Reid from US Gypsum where the crew is installing drywall. This is a traditional installation with drywall wallboard and taped joints. Before hanging the boards the crew takes some measurements so that they can avoid putting a ripped piece in the center. If they installed the drywall with an eight inch piece in the center it would create a weak spot on the board between two studs. The screw spacing on drywall should be 16 inches on center. The installer uses a roto-zip to make cut-outs. Once in place the wall is ready for tape and joint compound.

When hanging wallboard on an angle, try this technique. Measure the length from the edge of the wall to the end of the angle. Next, measure the height - think of it as outlining a triangle. Mark the measurements on your wallboard and snap a chalkline.

Georgia Pacific DensArmor Plus was used for wallboard for the bathroom in the basement remodeling project. Jim Larsen from Larco Wallboard reviews some of the features of the wallboard, including a fiberglass face to resist mold and mildew. The wallboard is easy to work with and will work with a plaster or drywall finish. A drywall finish was used in this project.

In this scene, Bob meets with Thad Goodman from Georgia-Pacific. Goodman is installing a new wallboard product called DensArmor. DensArmor consists of a non-combustible gypsum core embedded with a fiberglass mat on the back and a smooth, heavy-duty paper on the face. The mat on the back provides superior protection from incidental moisture in the stud cavity and resists the growth of mold and mildew. The material cuts, scores, hangs, and finishes just like standard drywall, and it is possible to skim coat it similar to blue board for veneer plaster applications.

John Picard, an environmental specialist, explains some of the features that make the Malibu house more environmentally friendly. Oriented strand board (OSB) used for structural wall sheathing is made from fast-growing aspen trees that reach harvest in only 12 years. The board is held together with resorcinol glue. Steel studs were used to give extra depth to some walls. Cold-rolled steel has a high-recycled content and can be recycled it self. Pre-punched holes allow wiring and plumbing to be installed quickly and easily. The extra wall thickness allows the walls to be super insulated. Nature Guard cellulose insulation, made from recycled newspapers, was used throughout the project. Material specialist Don Williams explains the advantages of Fiberbond wall board, which is used in place of drywall. Fiberbond is made from recycled newspaper. It's fire resistant, moisture resistant and provides good sound deadening. The joints don't need tape, just a special joint compound. Note, FiberBond was made by Louisiana-Pacific. That division has since been purchased by US Gypsum and the product's name has been changed to FiberRock.

When choosing wallboard, remember the difference between drywall and blue board. Drywall panels are covered with paper that will take paint directly once they've been taped and the joints and fasteners have been covered with compound. Blue board's more absorbent paper layer is designed to bond with a veneer plaster coating before it is painted.

For a saw that is great on the curves, look for a good sabre saw. Sometimes called a "jigsaw", it has a small blade that cuts with an up and down motion. Look for a good quality sabre saw with a long stroke and about 3000 strokes per minute. You can change blades to cut leather, linoleum, plaster, wallboard, metal and hardwood up to an inch thick.

Here s another great tip from BobVila.com. U.S. Gypsum developed a way to sandwich plaster between two paper faces and make wallboard as early as World War I, but the manpower shortage of World War II is what really made it catch on. Before drywall, builders nailed lengths of wood, called lath, to the studs and then applied several coats of plaster to that for a smooth finish. As many of us with old houses can attest, lath and plaster walls can last a long time but they re hard to deal with if you re having rewiring, insulation and plumbing needs. Drywall comes in various thicknesses. For interior walls, one-half-inch works fine but won t stand up to heavy abuse. Five-eighth-inch is required for fire hazard walls like garages and basement entries. Standard paper-faced drywall is grey and comes in 4x8 or 4x12 sheets, designed to make it easy to cover from stud to stud with minimal cutting. But even cutting is made easy. Most drywall scores and snaps with a simple utility knife. Holes can be cut by hand with a short keyhole saw or a small rotary tool. Special fiberglass-faced drywall was recently introduced to help prevent mold problems that can develop when traditional paper-faced drywall gets wet. This new product finishes just like paper-faced drywall with tape and joint compound. Behind tile, in bathrooms and in other wet areas, it s important to use cement board. This denser product is waterproof and faced with fiberglass mesh that won t degrade or mold when it gets wet. In the past, some builders used a product called green board in bathrooms, but time has shown that this product is not a good substitute for cement board. Find out more at BobVila.com: the ultimate home improvement web site! 2008 BobVila.com