National Gypsum vs USG

friesendrywall

I am new to this forum but I have been operating my own company for about 8 years. The last six have been in Southern Indiana. My drywall comes mixed with about half usg and half national. After numerous houses with nail pop problems that I found while finishing, I started paying attention and realized that most of my problems were with national board. It is a much softer board than usg and requires the screws to be set much deeper. It is something you have to watch very close because you won't see it unless you have a little light on the wall, and then if you put a little pressure on the wall, bingo! Its a little loose. So I call national and they say, no. Its the other way around.

Any comments from anyone else that has seen this?

It seems like BPB and lafarge are somewhat soft also.

evolve991

National also has much more compressed rolled edges which screws don't like. The paper doesnt cut as well either. On the other hand while USG is lighter,easier to cut and has better rolled edges it tends to have bad butt ends causing what we call "clamshell" buttjoints.