Last modified: August 10, 2017

Solutions, Highlights and Suggestions

For acoustical uses see our web page

Highly resistant wallboarding for Exotic Fish breeding and Salt Ocean Reef grow operation: Magnesiacore is used for this interior wall boarding project to resist the harsh and demanding indoor environment required for elaborate salt water aquarium tank habitats with water, air piping and auto control systems.

Prefab house panel material for indoor and outdoor: Magnesiacore makes cement hard, solid, durable, yet light prefab homes, well insulated and fully transportable without being flimsy or delicate.

Acoustical wall retrofit and encapsulation achieved with one fast material: Magnesiacore can be applied over existing materials to reduce the cost for demolition, disposal, clean up. Pictures below show an interior office space refitted with magnesiacore over walls and floors. Walls show a two layer (larger grey and smaller white panels) with acoustical goo in between. Also shown is a two layer system for the floor over existing carpet. In each case the existing old materials have been encapsulated with magnesiacore rather than removed and disposed of. Save money, time, and trips to the landfill for your demolition and disposal work.

Radiant Heating Floor Systems: Magnesiacore used in radiant floor heating systems. Dry board materials glued, screwed and/or stapled together will quickly create perfectly flush radiant surface ready to finish immediately. Cut costs further by leaving magnesiacore itself as the finished floor. Other benefits: easier access to piping when removing boards for future repairs or changes (much more difficult with poured concrete).

As a unique finishing material: Magnesiacore provides natural, attractive design and decorating options. Below is magnesiacore used as a finishing material in wet areas subject to water abuse.
The natural grey board is polished and sealed for decorative effects:



or as base for various finish claddings:

The Perfect Garage Wallboard: Magnesiacore used for fire, moisture, and impact resistant garage walls with a natural look. Use nails and screws anywhere on the wall to build shelving and hang tools without looking for studs.



Magnesiacore used on a garage floor.

Non-combustible board that takes brad nails, crown staples, and screws: Magnesiacore is used as support board for asphalt shingles where non-combustible construction is required or desired. While asphalt shingles are designed to be nailed onto plywood or OSB, Magnesiacore allows a non-combustible base material. Screw magnesiacore to a metal deck or a sloped concrete structure, and quickly staple shingles to magnesiacore.

Non-combustible construction: Use magnesiacore screwed to structural metal decks for floor and roof structures that solve most mandated requirements of building codes for fireproof construction. In wood frame construction, a layer of magnesiacore over the roof sheathing under your shingles adds a measure of life safety protection against the dangers of roof fires. 

Pictured below is a state-of-the-art feature wall of an architectural studio. Magnesiacore allows for hot elements in wall systems such as electrical lighting and wiring. The deep blue finish is heat resistant for the neon lighting without visible joints or imperfections. This installation could not be done with paperface gypsum or other soft or combustible materials.

Cut and worked like wood particle board or drywall for a non-combustible fireplace assembly:

Laminated with other materials as in balcony applications with railing and divider infill panels. In this example prefinished aluminum sheets are laminated to magnesiacore on one side, allowing textured coatings or other finishes to match the building façade.

Substitute in steel construction concrete deck composite floors to eliminate using poured concrete over metal floor deck in multi-story steel buildings. Apply magnesiacore directly to the metal deck to substitute the wet concrete infill. Magnesiacore is then ready to receive all types of flooring immediately, with a perfectly smooth surface; no trowel marks from workmanship, and no more pouring and refinishing wet concrete slabs. Avoid the high cost, mess and labor to pour and refinish concrete and obtain a lighter structure. Optionally, use sandwich panels (two layers of laminated magnesiacore) for the infill material to provide insulation, temperature and sound attenuation benefits.

Light curvatures can be achieved: Magnesiacore has the flexibility to bend to a slow shallow radius as in the vaulted ceiling shown below. Jointing in this case is achieved by using plastic "H" molding at all panel junctions without filling or tape. Equally suitable for sharp elaborate angular ceiling shapes:

 

...over conventional light metal or wood framing systems:



...perfectly flush, seamless jointing is made possible without the humps, bumps and undulations from mudding and tapping of paperfaced gypsum:

Concrete Form Liner Surface Finish: Magnesiacore can be used inside formwork as a finished lining that will bond to the concrete naturally. Concrete and most cement materials will bite into magnesiacore's pores for a strong natural bond. Note: the concrete juice that seeps through the panel joints can be easily scraped off with a sharp blade to reveal the natural undamaged magnesiacore panel and perfectly flush joints.

Exterior Panel Finishing Systems: Magnesiacore has numerous applications for exterior wall panel finishing systems. Contact us with your requirements and we will work with you to develop a specific system detailed for your project.

Durable Versatile Material: Magnesiacore has the flexibility to be a paint substrate, a stucco substrate, and a tile backer on the same wall face without changing substrates to avoid joints between dissimilar materials. Cut and work with carpentry tools for simple design options not available in any other all-in-one dry board material. Below is a simple wall using 3/8" (9mm) grey as a base with 1/2" (12mm) white screwed over it to create raised panels, creating solid wall panel detailing that combines both (buff) paint and (white) stucco texturing finish…all over the same substrate. This would otherwise require different highly skilled trades to apply different materials and jointing. The end result is a 20 MpA (3000 PSI) concrete-hard, plaster-like wall surface that is fireproof and resistant to water, moisture, organisms, salt and impact damage. Increased resilience to freeze-thaw cycles reduces maintenance and extends longevity.

Stucco Substrate: Traditional stucco applications may use an insulating material board to provide a thermal break over a sheathing material on stud work, over which lath (galvanized wire or mesh) is applied. This is then followed by several layers of wet cement plastering to dry into a hard base. The base coat is made in layers of wet mix, hand applied, troweled-on material that results in a substrate with varying properties and quality depending on the tradesman. Using magnesiacore completely eliminates these laborious steps, different materials, and drying downtimes. A consistent quality substrate is guaranteed as soon as the board is screwed onto the wall to receive stucco or paint.



Magnesiacore provides an excellent surface for stucco adhesion. Stucco jobs can be done in one quick continuous process by mechanically fastening magnesiacore to the structure using appropriate thermal break foam behind the board. The flexible decorative finishing goes on directly and immediately without waiting for plaster base coats to dry. Does not require a great deal of skill to create the uniform base surface, and reduces the amount of costly acrylic stucco material required for uniform renders. For panelizing and embossing, layers of magnesiacore can be used and edges can be made true or routered without corner and edge trimming materials.

Pictured below is an example of lightweight steel framing using magnesiacore as exterior cladding and interior wall board. Achieve quality lightweight structures with maximum functional strength. The same character and functionality of heavier construction methods with much less construction time and material.

Fast and Easy Plaster Hard Walls: (Interior or Exterior) Gypsum based board materials suffers from structural weakness with a separate friable core and paper or plastic facings that require taping to reinforce joints. Magnesiacore board provides a solid integral plaster-like wall that can be adhered together at the edges without reinforcing over the face of joints. Its high impact resistance, moisture resistance and fireproofing make it suitable for interior and exterior use.

Basement dry floor component: Seen below magnesiacore is used to create a basement subfloor raised above a cold damp concrete slab. In this case two layers of magnesiacore are glued and stapled together to form a rigid mass over high density waterproof foam insulation. Performs as an insulated floor, a dry floor that won't rot, and provides acoustical attenuation.

     

As general purpose exterior panels magnesiacore has a practical application to encapsulate pressure chemical treated wood lumber (reducing physical contact with arsenic releasing surfaces) thus allowing the common pressure treated wood decks and railings new life as support for our hard flexible concrete-like surface. (Note* USA banned the use of virtually all Arsenic Wood Preservative Treatments in new residential construction starting in the year 2004)

The magnesiacore surface pictured below shows smooth and dense yet finely porous surface for receiving all coatings with a higher degree of adhesion than most other materials. In stucco applications considerably less stucco material is required to achieve a more uniform surface for saving in the cost of the finishes. Finishing options also include, stucco, painting, staining, or left natural with a gloss coatings or clear penetrating sealers.

As an exterior wall cladding magnesiacore can be used as a faster alternative to stucco, block, brick or siding left in natural color with a clear weatherproof sealer, or stained for different effects. For a paintable exterior wall surface it can be used textured or smooth. Shown below is an exterior wall assembly made using natural T&G panels representing  32" x 48" (81cm x 122cm) in 15mm thickness and dramatic reveals. Panels are joined by buttered T&G joints and exposed countersunk screws.



Alternatives for fasteners (exposed or concealed) while providing unlimited choice for architectural coursings, reveals, ornamentation, and embossing to permit diverse designs by working with three dimensions of a wall's surface. Machined & painted faux brick shown below.


 

Pop rivet fasteners to apply aluminum and metal trim to magnesiacore for more options and versatility not achievable with other types of construction board.

T&G JOINTING: Magnesiacore can be shaped to use "tongue and groove" joints and eliminate taping and filling. Pictured below is a wall made using T&G in 1/2" x 32" x 48" (12mm x 810mm x 1220mm) panels that can be prime painted the day the wall goes up. Left in a natural finish you could have lunch in a room started after breakfast.

Using rounded bullnosed edges as pictured below provides a different method of installation to eliminate taping. Since magnesiacore is a uniform solid material without a separate facing material it can be bonded together by the edges using a variety of different bonding fillers not limited to drywall joint compounds.

For fast easy heavy duty ceramic tile backerboard: Laminated over a sub-floor or over existing old flooring, 1/4" (6mm) (or 3mm 1/8" in certain instances) of Magnesiacore can be used with flexible adhesives. This replaces the wire lath and cement screeds, mud coats and plastering work that requires downtime and skilled trades to place over subfloors. Hard tiles are applied over the magnesiacore using normal floor mix adhesive. Common labor can apply the magnesiacore while a tile setter lays the tiles in sequence without downtime. Different thickness are available and laminating layers of magnesiacore is possible.

 

Magnesiacore's smooth and uniform surface lets you use finer tooth ceramic floor mix spreaders and save considerably on the amount of floor mix used. i.e. using a 1/4" tooth spreader rather than the 1/2" tooth extends by four times the coverage.

Impact resistant suspended ceiling tiles: Pictured is an application using 6mm (1/4") magnesiacore cut to 24" x 24" (600mm x 600mm) ceiling tile size in natural chalk white. Magnesiacore can be left natural, painted, stucco, coated or laminated to provide unlimited options for T-Bar suspended ceilings. Achieve impact resistance beyond what is available with fibrous, cellulose or soft tiles with magnesiacore’s different thickness options.

Foundation wall insulation protection board for cold climates subject to ground swelling and soil heaving from freeze and thaw cycles. Soil movement between cold winters and hot summers can erode and wear away buried rigid insulation over exterior foundations walls. We recommend a minimum of 3/8" (9mm) thick for protection board for buried insulation for most types of soils subject to these effects. Withstands pressure of frozen earth pushing against exterior foundations preventing damage to insulation.

Existing Wall Refinishing System: Salt and chlorine resistance makes magnesiacore the ideal wallboard for protective covering and/or re-facing for masonry and concrete surfaces. Protect your seaside construction prone to salt damage, or your interior swimming pool building walls and ceilings. Magnesiacore mechanically fastened to walls using Stainless Steel (SS) Masonry Screws and SS Clips provides a quick, easy, less expensive, and more durable solution to more costly protective coatings. Make maintenance long, not short term.

For the signage industry: Magnesiacore provides a novel alternative for sign boards in place of high end exterior grade plywood and composite panels. As a machinable material, carving and routering achieves interesting effects. Magnesiacore is also an exceptional durable paint substrate for watercolors, oils, acrylic, pastels and other graphic arts.

Finish Flooring: Magnesiacore is a unique and attractive finishing material for floors. Laminate to sub-floors with adhesives, or use concealed fasteners, nails or screws with visible plugs. Magnesiacore can receive sealers directly for a raw, economic floor finish. Since the color is throughout the material and not just a surface feature, sanding and refinishing lets you regenerate worn floor surfaces over time.

Skin Material for paint grade, veneered and pre-finished doors or paneling: The inertness and moisture management properties make Magnesiacore the ideal material for use as core or skin materials for doors (interior and exterior), countertops and cabinets, especially those that may become in contact with water or humidity such as kitchens, baths, public washrooms, sporting facilities, pools, change rooms, showers, vestibules and other interior or exterior applications.

As hot applied roof membrane base sheet and as a roofing ballast; magnesiacore does not burn and will take flame applied and hot roofing without being adversely affected. Under roofing it will not deteriorate if it gets wet making roof leak repairs easier without water damaged gypsum or other materials that need replacement. Magnesiacore dries out unharmed after getting wet. As embedded ballast on top of soft roof membranes it provides a walking surface for  balconies and roof top patios while replacing the stone ballast as UV protection.

For wood frame construction: Magnesiacore provides a concrete like floor with ease by laminating over plywood floor sheathing. Wood frame structures receive the added benefit of fireproofing between floor levels as well as acoustic and thermal resistance improvements that plywood does not provide. Tendency for squeaky wood floors is reduced with Magnesiacore being more rigid than plywood. Separating living spaces of homes from the wood structure creates fire separation between rooms. If a fire starts in a room that has Magnesiacore on the floors, wall and ceilings; fire can be contained within the room for an hour or more giving ample time for smoke alarms and intervention to limit the extent of fire damage to the contents of the room, minimizing the risks of fire spreading to structures and other rooms.

Copyright - Magnesiacore Inc.