Gypsum as a structural material

[DigiAlmond]

I've been knee deep in some historic building research for a project I'm working on. This old building really has the full 9 yard of obscure building systems, which means I've looked at a lot of era-appropriate catalogs to try and find a match. One thing I've noticed while trying to hunt down a specific gypsum product is that there were a lot of structural gypsum systems in the 1930s to 1950s (and perhaps beyond) that all seem to have vanished. The thing is, the material properties touted by these (admittedly outdated) catalogs don't seem too terrible. so what happened? Where did gypsum as a structural material go? It seems to have been fairly popular for a time. Was there a string of disasters? Was it a maintenance issue? Curious as to others thoughts.

 

[jayrod12]

The gypsum based materials got wet and everyone realized they needed something that was at least slightly more resilient to water?

 

[1503-44]

Almost everything you want to know about gypsum. Attached.

It has been an historic construction material for thousands of years. Seems to be an economic issue. Sand, aggregate and cement being generally more available (cheaper). Use is more common near its geologic deposits. Potentially has irregular, quality control properties not especially consistent across regional supplies and dependent on its various methods of production processing. Gypsum can also have long term exposure to the elements issues, as such it's use today is mainly wothin indoor controlled environments.

Personally I find it more difficult to mix with water, it appears somewhat hydrophobic, and very messy to use in general when compared to a typical plaster. It also takes longer to set up.

--Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."

 

[1503-44]

Attachment is here

--Einstein gave the same test to students every year. When asked why he would do something like that, "Because the answers had changed."