How can you use Magnesium Oxide Board in your renovation or new build?

Not all Magnesium Oxide Board is the same, and it’s important to know how and where you can use it, and what to specify.

In this episode, Steve Marskell from Rescom Building Products, shares the different kinds of board products available, and what to know about installing and using them in different applications.

This is Part 2 of my conversation with Steve Marskell. (You can listen to Part 1 here).

Hello! This is Episode 278, and in it, I’m continuing my conversation with Steve Marskell from Rescom Building Products.

Rescom Building Products was founded in 2009, and today produces the world’s #1 ISO:8336 Certified High Performance Magnesia Cement Building Products.

If you haven’t listened to Part 1 of my conversation with Steve, head back to Episode 277, where you’ll hear more about the benefits of Magnesium Oxide board, and what Steve and Rescom have done to develop the product since 2009 with their extensive testing and product development.

In this episode, Steve and I will talk specifically about the applications of Magnesium Oxide board: where it can be used, how to use it, and what to consider in your specification of it.

As you heard in the last episode, Magnesium Oxide Board has so many amazing benefits.

So why isn’t it being used everywhere? What is stopping the industry from adopting this product as a replacement for FC sheet, plasterboard and other board products so readily used in commercial and residential construction?

Well, as you heard in the last episode, Steve has done a massive amount of work, testing, and certifying of Recom’s Building Products to demonstrate their viability. And yet, there’s still lots of scepticism about the product. 

To be frank with you, I see this with all businesses who step into this industry with new products – it takes a lot of money and a lot of tenacity to disrupt the ‘we’ve always done it this way’ mindset that exists.

Increasingly, we are seeing A LOT of products entering the market place that, when you look at the testing, the material composition, and the specifications, are more environmentally sound, and better performing than what we currently use.

However, it’s super expensive to run any new product through certification and third party testing processes. For a lot of smaller companies or start-ups, those processes are cost-prohibitive. 

Consumers, understandably, are hesitant to use something on projects that need to last decades and decades, that haven’t been tested over decades and decades. 

And builders who haven’t been used to working with a particular material will often charge more to use it for the first time, because they’re pricing risk into their project. Or, they’ll refuse to use it altogether.

And hence, particularly when it comes to residential construction, we’re building homes out of the same things we’ve been using for decades. Just slightly new and different versions of the same products of sticks (or timber), bricks, blocks, concrete, plasterboard, tile, metal and FC sheet. 

However, Magnesium Oxide Board is one of those products that keeps cropping up for me. And, in my research, I’ve definitely found that Magnesium Oxide Board products are not all equal, and it can be difficult to cut through all the information that’s online. 

However when you do, it’s definitely a material worth reviewing, as its benefits are huge, and there’s lots of examples of it being used successfully around the world in a variety of different projects.

For this episode, I’ll share in the resources a series of videos that Steve sent through to me. They’re on the Youtube channel called Maxkil that shares, amongst other things, information about products, techniques and working with board products, especially plasterboard. The videos are a series of clips from an unexpected visit they paid to the Rescom location, and will show you the products Steve discusses in this episode. 

In my conversation with Steve in this episode, you’ll hear me refer to these videos, and a particular installation in Rescom’s facility that shows the natural finish of Rescom’s board. It’s got a beautiful green lustre to it, that I can see working exactly as it’s been installed, as finished cladding to a home. You’ll find that in Video 4 (available in the resources and also just below).

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

RESOURCES: 

Learn more about Rescom Building Products >>> www.rescombp.com

This video shares the home that Joost Bakker build to test the fire safety of a building methodology including Magnesium Oxide Board >>> Straw house offers bushfire safety

Videos of Rescom Building Product’s facility showing their different types of products (Video 4 includes footage of the greenish coloured cladding I mention in this episode)

• Video 1: Rescom – The Amazing Building Material to Replace Gypsum Drywall? | Part 1
• Video 2: What is Rescom Building Products? | Part 2
• Video 3: Rescom High Performance Board Sold Around World | Part 3
• Video 4: Benefits Lining Walls and Ceilings with Rescom | Part 4
• Video 5: Burn Hole in the Wall Board with Blow Torch
• Video 6: Makita 40V Plunge Track Saw With Full Battery After 25 Cuts

Access the support and guidance you need to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my flagship online program, HOME METHOD >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/the-home-method/

Learn more about how to get started with your home design with the Happy Home Design mini-course >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/happy-home-design

Access my free online workshop “Your Project Plan” >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/projectplan