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bathroom drywall

13 years ago

Hi All,

Our bath remodel is progressing. I'm wondering about the drywall that our GC is using. It's "purple" in color. My understanding is this a variant to greenboard. I've also seen the term wonderboard thrown around.

We have cultured marble panels going in next week for the shower walls and ceiling. And our GC put these purple boards up both in the shower area and also on all the other walls of the bath.

Can someone help me to understand the differences in the various drywall options that seem to be available: greenboard, wonderboard, and this purple stuff?

I do have a picture of the purple stuff (label with brand name & other details) if someone is interested. I'd have to find it though in the millions of pictures I've been taking :)

Thanks!

--jans

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Comments (3)

MongoCT
13 years ago
National Gypsum makes a purple-faced product. It's usually used in rooms where large purple cartoon-looking dinosaurs play.

Consider it a newer version of the old moisture resistant green board.

It's still gypsum-based, but it's moisture-resistant, mold-resistant, it's even more abrasion and puncture resistant. And I think it's even rated as a fire board. Not sure about the fire board though.

Greenboard was the "original" moisture resistant gypsum board. It's been phased out around here.

Blueboard is for veneer-coat plaster.

Wonderboard and Durock are cement boards. They have a cement core instead of a gypsum core. They are used as a tile backer board in wet areas like tub and shower surrounds.

While the "Drywall" sheets (green, purple, blue board, etc) most commonly come in 4' by 8' sheets, the cement boards (wonder and durock) are mostly found in 3' by 5' sheets. Convenient, in that it generally takes 4 sheets to cover the three walls of a typical tub surround.
JanS
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks Mongoct!

Should he have used wonderboard instead in the shower area? I think he was open to either wonderboard or this purpleboard, but the cultured marble guy requested the purpleboard from what I gather.

Did he make a mistake? What's your opinion?

Thanks!
--jans
Funny I thought about a certain purple dinosaur too when I saw the stuff :)
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MongoCT
13 years ago
I'd defer to the installation instructions for the cultured marble surround and to your local code, if applicable.

The manufacturer has all the stuff on their website. Installation files usually in pdf format, etc.

I don't deal with those surrounds, but they used to recommend drywall. It's not considered a "tile backer" when being covered with a surround instead of tile, so code usually allows things like purple board or gypsum boards behind the solid surface surrounds.

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