Comparing CSR, Knauf and Siniat plasterboard
We source all three brands, so when you ask what the equivalent of a sheet is in another brand, this is the answer. No brand is better than another here. The point is to show you which product does the same job, what each one weighs, what sizes it comes in, and where a brand simply does not make an equivalent.
The key facts
- Every maker labels its weights nominal, so the sheet in your hand can sit either side of the published figure.
- Sheet sizes are stock lists, and all three makers say availability changes from state to state.
- An empty cell means the maker publishes no figure, not that the board lacks the property.
- Three grades match almost exactly across all three brands: curved board, shaft liner and the premium 16mm sheets.
- Two grades have a real gap, because one brand makes no dedicated ceiling board and no dedicated acoustic board at all.
- Every figure here is taken from the maker's own published data sheet, never from a guess.
01 Standard 10mm wall board
This is the sheet that lines most of a house. Bedrooms, living rooms, hallways, any dry internal wall. The three brands are within 0.2 kg per square metre of each other and all three make it in the 1200 x 2400 sheet most people picture when they think of a plasterboard sheet.
Standard 10mm wall board
| Specification | CSR Gyprock | Knauf | Siniat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Gyprock Plus | SHEETROCK ONE 10mm | mastashield 10mm |
| Nominal mass | 5.7 kg/m² | 5.9 kg/m² | 5.9 kg/m² |
| 1200 x 2400 sheet | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Widths (mm) |
|
|
|
| Lengths (mm) |
|
No 5400 sheet |
No 5400 sheet |
| Edge profile | Recessed, or recessed and square | Recessed, or recessed and square | Siniat does not publish an edge profile |
| Made to | AS/NZS 2588 | Knauf does not name a standard on this board | AS/NZS 2588 |
What it means on your job. On an ordinary dry wall all three are interchangeable, but only CSR makes a 5400 sheet, which can save you a butt joint.
02 Ceiling board
A ceiling board is engineered to resist sagging across wider spans. It matters because most trusses and battens in a Newcastle house run at 600mm centres, and 10mm wall board is rated to 450mm. Two of the three brands make a board specifically for this. The third asks you to use its standard sheet.
Ceiling grade 10mm board
| Specification | CSR Gyprock | Knauf | Siniat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Gyprock Supaceil | No equivalentKnauf publishes no dedicated ceiling board. It positions SHEETROCK ONE for both walls and ceilings. | spanshield |
| Nominal mass | 6.1 kg/m² 6.2 in WA | Not applicable | 6.2 kg/m² |
| Widths (mm) |
900 in WA only | Not applicable |
|
| Lengths (mm) |
| Not applicable |
At 1200 wide. The 900 and 1350 sheets come in fewer lengths. |
| Edge profile | Recessed | Not applicable | Siniat does not publish an edge profile |
| Made to | AS/NZS 2588 | Not applicable | AS/NZS 2588 |
What it means on your job. Most trusses run at 600mm centres, so on a Knauf ceiling you get standard board where the other two give you a ceiling grade.
03 Standard 13mm board
Thicker board for walls and ceilings that need more stiffness, more mass or a longer span. It is also the board a lot of ceilings end up in. All three make one, and the brands are within 0.3 kg per square metre of each other, but the sheet sizes are not the same.
Standard 13mm board
| Specification | CSR Gyprock | Knauf | Siniat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Gyprock Standard 13mm | SHEETROCK ONE 13MM Formerly SHEETROCK HD | mastashield 13mm |
| Nominal mass | 8.5 kg/m² | 8.5 kg/m² | 8.2 kg/m² |
| 1200 x 2400 sheet | Yes | No. The shortest sheet Knauf lists is 2700 | Yes |
| Widths (mm) |
|
|
|
| Lengths (mm) |
|
|
|
| Edge profile | Recessed, recessed and square, or square | Recessed. The 1400 wide sheet is recessed and square | Siniat does not publish an edge profile |
| Made to | AS/NZS 2588 | Knauf does not name a standard on this board | AS/NZS 2588 |
What it means on your job. CSR and Siniat both make a 2400 sheet at this thickness and Knauf starts at 2700, which matters on a short wall.
04 Wet area board
Bathrooms, laundries and kitchens. At 13mm the three line up closely. At 10mm they do not, and the difference changes what lands on your site.
Water resistant board
| Specification | CSR Gyprock | Knauf | Siniat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10mm product | Aquachek 10mm 7.1 kg/m² | No equivalentKnauf makes no plain 10mm water resistant board. Its 10mm wet area sheet is SHEETROCK PLUS at 8.5 kg/m², which also carries acoustic and impact performance. | watershield 10mm 7.5 kg/m² |
| 13mm product | Aquachek 13mm 9.8 kg/m² | WetStop 9.2 kg/m² | watershield 13mm 9.6 kg/m² |
| Widths (mm) |
|
|
|
| Lengths (mm) |
Both thicknesses |
WetStop at 1200 wide. Several sizes are made to order. |
The 10mm board at 1200 wide. The 13mm comes in fewer. |
| Tiling limit | Not published on the board page | 32 kg/m² | Not published on the board page |
| Made to | AS/NZ 2588, water resistant grade | Knauf does not name a standard on this board | AS/NZS 2588 |
What it means on your job. None of these boards waterproofs anything, so AS 3740 still requires a separate membrane over the board before any tiling goes on.
05 Fire rated board
Garages, boundary walls, the wall between a duplex and its neighbour. All three make a 13mm and a 16mm, and the masses sit within half a kilogram per square metre of each other. This is also the grade where swapping brands is not a free choice, for reasons under the table.
Fire rated board
| Specification | CSR Gyprock | Knauf | Siniat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Gyprock Fyrchek | FireStop | fireshield |
| Thicknesses | 13mm and 16mm | 13mm and 16mm | 13mm and 16mm |
| Nominal mass |
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|
|
| Widths (mm) |
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|
|
| Lengths (mm) |
The 13mm board at 1200 wide |
The 13mm board at 1200 wide. The 16mm adds a 2400. |
The 13mm board at 1200 wide. The 16mm adds a 2400. |
| Core | Glass fibre reinforced gypsum core | Knauf does not describe the core on this board | Siniat does not describe the core on this board |
| Rating published | Not published against the board on its own | Up to 120/120/120 in a compliant system | 30 to 240 minutes in a system, to AS 1530.4 |
What it means on your job. A fire rating belongs to the tested system, not the sheet, so never mix brands inside one.
06 Acoustic board
Denser board for a home theatre, a bedroom off a hallway, a home office, or the wall between a duplex and its neighbour. Two of the three brands make a dedicated acoustic sheet at both 10mm and 13mm. The third does not make one at all.
Acoustic board
| Specification | CSR Gyprock | Knauf | Siniat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Gyprock Soundchek | No equivalentKnauf publishes no dedicated acoustic board. Acoustic performance sits inside SHEETROCK ONE 13MM, SHEETROCK PLUS and its performance range instead. | soundshield |
| Thicknesses | 10mm and 13mm | Not applicable | 10mm and 13mm |
| Nominal mass |
| Not applicable |
|
| Widths (mm) |
| Not applicable |
|
| Lengths (mm) |
The listed stock sizes. No 2400 sheet. | Not applicable |
The 10mm board. The 13mm comes in 3000 and 3600. |
| How you spot it | Yellow face paper | Not applicable | Siniat does not publish a face colour |
What it means on your job. Knauf has no acoustic sheet, so a quiet wall in Knauf is built from a different product entirely.
07 Impact resistant board
Hallways, kids' bedrooms, a rental, a garage wall that takes a beating. All three make a tougher board, but they do not make the same one: CSR's is the only 10mm, and it is the only one of the three with no mesh reinforced option above it.
Impact resistant board
| Specification | CSR Gyprock | Knauf | Siniat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Gyprock HD | ImpactStop | impactshield |
| Thickness | 10mm | 13mm | 13mm |
| Nominal mass | 8.5 kg/m² | 12.0 kg/m² | 11.8 kg/m² |
| Widths (mm) |
No 1200 sheet |
|
1370 to order |
| Lengths (mm) |
|
|
|
| Mesh reinforced | No equivalentCSR publishes no mesh reinforced board. | Yes, MultiStop ONE HI | Yes, trurock hd |
What it means on your job. These are not like for like: CSR's is 10mm and lighter, the other two are 13mm and noticeably heavier.
08 Curved board
Curved walls, arches, barrel ceilings and bulkheads with a radius. This is the closest match in the entire range: one thickness, one width, one length, in all three brands, with less than half a kilogram per square metre between the lightest and the heaviest.
Flexible board for curved work
| Specification | CSR Gyprock | Knauf | Siniat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product | Gyprock Flexible | Flexiboard | curveshield |
| Thickness | 6.5mm | 6.5mm | 6.5mm |
| Nominal mass | 4.3 kg/m² | 4.1 kg/m² | 4.5 kg/m² |
| Widths (mm) |
|
|
|
| Lengths (mm) |
|
|
|
| Edge profile | Recessed, or recessed and square | Recessed | Siniat does not publish an edge profile |
What it means on your job. All three are the same 6.5mm sheet at 1200 by 3600, so the brand genuinely does not matter here.
Where they do not line up
Most of the range matches. These are the places it does not, and they are the reason a straight brand swap is a conversation rather than a shrug.
One rule that overrides everything above. A fire rated or acoustic wall is a tested system, not a board. The rating belongs to the whole assembly: that board, that framing, those screws, those spacings, that jointing. Swapping one brand's sheet into another brand's tested system breaks the test, however closely the two boards match on paper.
Questions we get asked
Is one of these brands better than the others?
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is usually selling one of them. All three make board to AS/NZS 2588 or better. What differs is which grades each one offers, what each sheet weighs, and which sizes you can actually get. That is what this page sets out.
Can you mix brands in the same house?
On ordinary internal walls, yes. In a fire rated or acoustic system, no. Those are tested assemblies and the rating belongs to the whole system rather than the sheet, so the board named in the test is the board that goes in.
Which brand will you use on my job?
Whichever suits the job and is available when we order. We buy through several wholesalers rather than holding stock, so the board comes down to the grade your job needs and what is on the shelf that week. If a wall or ceiling belongs to a tested system, the board that system names is the board that goes in, and that decision is not ours to make.
Why do some cells say the maker does not publish it?
Because that is the truth. Siniat publishes no edge profile for any of its boards. Knauf publishes no manufacturing standard on most of its range. We would rather leave a cell empty and say so than fill it with a number we invented.
Does a heavier board mean a better board?
Not on its own. Mass helps with sound and it usually comes with a denser core, which is why acoustic and impact boards are heavier. It also makes a sheet harder to lift, and a 13mm 6000mm sheet is a two person lift before it leaves the stack. Heavier is the right answer when the grade calls for it and the wrong answer when it does not.
What is the difference between Knauf and Siniat?
More than the names suggest. The business trading as Knauf in Australia today is the former USG Boral, which is why its main board is called SHEETROCK. Siniat is an Etex business, and the Australian company behind it used to trade as Knauf before Etex bought it. The two names have effectively crossed over in this market, which is why a lot of what is written online about them is wrong.
Not sure which board your job needs?
Tell us what the room is and what the frame is doing, and we will tell you which grade it takes and which of the three we can get for it.
Specifications last checked 20 October 2026 against each manufacturer's published data sheets. Sheet sizes are stock lists and availability varies by state. If you spot a figure that has moved, tell us and we will correct it.