Bathroom Wallboard Requirements for Green Building

LEED for Homes, Enterprise Green Communities and Energy Star have certain requirements for wallboard installed in moisture prone locations such as bathrooms. All of these programs prohibit the use of typical “green board.”
LEED and Enterprise require either a paperless product or one meeting mold-resistant standard ASTM D3273(with score of 10). Energy Star also allows products meeting ASTM D6329. These requirements do not apply to powder rooms.

There may be other products available, but here are a few examples:

Georgia Pacific’s DensArmor Plus

National Gypsum’s Gold Bond XP

Certainteed’s ProRoc

Mold Tough

If using a product other than the above, please supply a cut sheet showing that it meets the applicable standard.
Enterprise Green Communities has additional requirements for installation as follows:
 Criteria 7.9c: To be in compliance with the criteria we require that projects use a non-paper-faced backing material such as cement board, fiber cement board, or equivalent in portions of the bathroom in the following areas that are susceptible to bulk moisture damage (i.e. splash-prone and puddleforming
areas), including:
o 4” surrounding the entire perimeter of the tub/shower enclosure,
o 4” up from where the floor meets the vertical wall throughout the entire bathroom (creating a
band around the bathroom floor).
For the rest of the bathroom wall and ceiling surfaces, projects can use an ASTM D 3273 compliant
board with a score of 10.

Article by

Janice Romanosky, LEED AP BD+C, Green Rater

Principal, Pando Alliance

ENERGY STAR | NGBS | LEED Homes

Direct: 443-852-5969