In February this year, I moved into a house built in 1974. Now we're fixing up one of the bedrooms, and I'm wondering what material the boards on the wall are made of. It's probably obvious, but I'm a bit green in this area... It's definitely not plasterboard, OSB, or particleboard.
Some questions:
* What material is it? Some kind of brown compact board about 11-13 mm thick. It resembles a masonite board a bit, but it's thicker. Could it be some kind of MDF board?
* Is it okay to keep these boards, or should they be replaced from a health or fire perspective?
* Does anyone have an opinion on its load-bearing capacity (shelves / TV)?
The picture shows some torn wallpaper on the actual "brown board."
Treetex is relatively light, and above all softer than other board materials. There is masonite in various thicknesses. There are also particle boards in different qualities, (coarser vs finer/smoother structure).
It looks like tretex (I have it all over my house). It's not suitable for hanging things heavier than small paintings unless you attach to the studs behind.
Generally, I replace all tretex at home to get smooth walls, but they absorb sound a lot better than gypsum, for example, so it's not all bad
Tretex is unusual in a house from '74, when the OP writes that it is a compact material, my guess is particle board. If the OP can tell if it is hard or soft and possibly take a picture of the edge of a board, it will be easier to say for sure.
Tretex is usually not used as the sole wall material but has a layer behind it of a harder type such as raw paneling or plank, sometimes possibly sparse paneling.
Stefan N: What is it that makes you dismiss Tretex?
Micro: Not impossible that it is masonite board. Is it something you've replaced with gypsum when you've renovated your house, or do you leave it as is?
Since there are so many materials: what material "should" be used for walls and sloped ceilings? Isn't it gypsum (single/double) and possibly structural plywood behind if you need to hang things?
I've kept most of the board in my house. In one of my old children's rooms (now more of a cinema room), I placed renovation plasterboard over the board on a damaged wall. The original bathroom is the only place where I removed all the board. This was because I rebuilt all the walls and prepared everything for tiles in the entire bathroom, and there I used plasterboard. I think the board holds up just as well for hanging things as plasterboard otherwise. The living room that will be renovated in the future, after the dog's passing... will get a layer of renovation plasterboard on top. The downside of the board is that it's not a dead material, making it a hassle to fill joints and wallpaper over.
What do you mean by dead material? Do you mean that it is not as insensitive as gypsum, for example, regarding not moving/sensitive to moisture and that as a result cracks, etc. occur on the wallpapers?
