The US Gypsum Company has added an inert ingredient or two to their drywall formula that allows them to trademark the “Sheetrock,” but their formula isn’t meaningfully different from other brands. It’s sort of like the difference between Kleenex and generic tissue paper. Sheetrock developed a reputation for being safer than generic brands because Chinese manufacturers used too much sulfur from 2000 to 2009 (which can cause health problems). Today, Sheetrock is no safer than any other high-quality drywall company’s product. [2] X Research source
Drywall is also known as gypsum board, plasterboard, wallboard, and gypsum panel.
Just FYI, all of the “color” boards are actually the color in their name. Whiteboard is white, greenboard is green, etc.
Don’t use greenboard everywhere! It’s heavier and weaker than typical drywall, which doesn’t make it ideal for normal rooms.
Blueboard is used exclusively for plaster. The porous nature of the material means you can’t paint it.
This VOC-absorbing quality of this material should work for up to 75 years.
As a note, normal whiteboard drywall is non-combustible. It can burn, but it takes an extended exposure to fire.
Today, if you hire contractors to install plaster, they’ll hang blueboard instead of installing lathe since it’s much faster and more cost effective.
