Lite-Rock Launches Revolutionary New Lightweight Strengthened Wallboard; Back Orders Total 250 Million Square Feet, Company President Says.

Business Editors

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 12, 2001

Lite-Rock, a revolutionary lightweight strengthened wallboard that its manufacturers predict will vastly improve standard gypsum drywall, is taking the country by storm, company President Don McCoy Monday announced.

According to McCoy, Lite-Rock Drywall Corp. is now in full production and has back orders of more than 250 million square feet of product. During a test production run at a high speed manufacturing plant, the company's formulated patented drywall was produced at 400 linear feet per minute.

McCoy, who spent 36 years managing wallboard plants for U.S. Gypsum Corp., said the production run on a high speed line met all expectations and proves Lite-Rock can be produced economically anywhere in the country.

"The plant foreman was very impressed with Lite-Rock's hardness," added McCoy. "We have agreements to manufacture Lite-Rock at several plants, and are licensing two other plants to make our patented product in order to meet the global demand for a better wallboard." The rapidly growing company has offices in Kingman, Ariz., Irvine, Calif., Tulsa, Okla., Silver Spring, Md. and Toronto.

McCoy defined the new product as a "low-cost, lighter weight wallboard that is superior to standard gypsum wallboard in weight, moisture resistance, strength and ease of handling. It's also acoustically superior."

The remarkable wallboard was created after years of research by Joseph Luongo, 43, a civil engineer and inventor who developed the product in a northern Arizona laboratory.

He used a mixture of the best of the old gypsum wallboard with the best low-cost adhesive polymers and other raw materials to make a strengthened wallboard that is 25 percent lighter in weight than the standard gypsum product.

McCoy said Lite-Rock is also easier to score, cut and handle, while meeting or exceeding ASTM standards. Because of its patented strength and hardness, it improves acoustics in any building where it is hung and reduces sound transmission, he added.

"We have back orders for 250 million square feet of our new wallboard and new orders are coming in every day largely through word-of-mouth advertising and some articles that have appeared in trade journals and newspapers, including Automated Builder, a prestigious construction magazine," said McCoy, 69, who came out of retirement to join the company.

He headed USG's Shoals, Ind. facility, which industry stalwarts have called "the best wallboard manufacturing plant in America."

Drywall, also known as wallboard or gypsum board, replaced plaster board in the 1940s as the material of choice for finishing interior walls and ceilings.

McCoy said, "I didn't think anybody could talk me out of retirement, but Luongo did. This product is significantly better than its cousin, gypsum wallboard, plus it's so strong that we are confident a half-inch wallboard can replace five-eighth inch wallboard using two feet on center trusses with minimal sag on ceilings.

"Other wallboard manufacturers have tried for years to make a lighter weight, strengthened affordable wallboard with only limited success. It took a civil engineer who lab tested different formulas to discover a combination of mineral core ingredients to get the job done."

The company has sufficient raw materials to produce Lite-Rock for the global construction industry for the next 400 years, he said, adding, "Our patent-protected technology is being made available under production licensing agreements with other major wallboard manufacturers. We expect to be a long time major player in this $4 billion industry."

(For more information on Lite-Rock, its prices and shipment schedules, click on the company's website, DirectBuild.com, or call 520/681-1111.)