Thread: Chinese-made drywall ruining homes, owners say

updated 10:51 a.m. EDT, Wed March 18, 2009

Chinese-made drywall ruining homes, owners sayStory Highlights
Homeowners: Smelly gas from drywall corroding metal, ruining appliances

By Jason Hanna

(CNN) -- Officials are looking into claims that Chinese-made drywall installed in some Florida homes is emitting smelly, corrosive gases and ruining household systems such as air conditioners, the Consumer Product Safety Commission says.

The Florida Health Department, which is investigating whether the drywall poses any health risks, said it has received more than 140 homeowner complaints. And class-action lawsuits allege defective drywall has caused problems in at least three states -- Florida, Louisiana and Alabama -- while some attorneys involved claim such drywall may have been used in tens of thousands of U.S. homes.

Homeowners' lawsuits contend the drywall has caused them to suffer health problems such as headaches and sore throats and face huge repair expenses.

The drywall is alleged to have high levels of sulfur and, according to homeowners' complaints, the sulfur-based gases smell of rotten eggs and corrode piping and wiring, causing electronics and appliances to fail.

"It's economically devastating, and it's emotionally devastating," said Florida attorney Ervin A. Gonzalez, who filed one of the lawsuits. It would cost a third of an affected home's value to fix the dwelling, Gonzalez said.

"The interior has to be gutted, the homeowners have to continue paying mortgages, and they have to pay for a [temporary] place to live," Gonzalez said.

The CPSC has been investigating claims in Florida for more than a month, according to commission spokesman Joe Martyak. He would not confirm whether CPSC is checking other states or reveal how many cases it is probing.

The Florida complaints generally involve homes built or renovated in 2005 and 2006, when a building boom and post-hurricane reconstruction caused a U.S. drywall shortage that spurred builders to turn to imports, Martyak said.

The allegations come after a number of recent safety problems with other Chinese exports, ranging from toys to pet food.

Dick and Nancy Nelson, who say the Florida retirement home they bought new in 2006 has Chinese-manufactured drywall, contend all their appliances with copper are failing, according to CNN affiliate WFTS-TV.

"The washing machine, the dryer, the microwave, a refrigerator -- these are all brand new appliances, and they're breaking down," Nancy Nelson of Palmetto told the Tampa station. The Nelsons are among those who have complained to the state health department.

In a neighborhood in Homestead, Florida, owners of homes with Chinese-manufactured drywall say the dwellings smell like rotten eggs especially on humid days, according to CNN affiliate WPLG-TV. Watch residents display corroded wiring »

Electronics and appliances with copper components stopped working in short order, and copper pipes and wiring turned black, homeowners told the Miami station.

"My dream has turned into a nightmare," one of the homeowners, Felix Martinez, told WPLG-TV. He said he closed on the home in August 2006.

Michael Foreman, head of construction consulting firm Foreman & Associates in Sarasota, Florida, said he's been investigating drywall complaints in that state since last year and is sharing information with at least one group of lawyers preparing lawsuits on the matter. Based on shipping records, Foreman estimates the United States in 2006 and the first two months of 2007 imported enough drywall from Chinese manufacturers named in lawsuits to produce at least 50,000 homes at a size of 2,000 square feet each.

Florida ports alone took in enough of that drywall during those 14 months to build 30,000 homes of that size, he estimated, citing records he obtained from the Port Import Export Reporting Service, a company that collects information on cargoes entering and leaving U.S. ports. Foreman said he has yet to see import records from 2004 and 2005, years covering what he said was a building boom with a high demand for drywall.

Two Florida attorneys involved in separate class-action lawsuits, Gonzalez and Jordan Chaikin, said they, too, believe shipping records indicate tens of thousands of residences in the United States, with a good chunk of them in Florida, may have drywall from the manufacturers.

"The breadth of this thing is a lot bigger than people think," said Chaikin of the Parker Waichman Alonso law firm in Bonita Springs. Chaikin said the problem is perhaps more easily recognizable in Florida because humidity exacerbates it.

An Alabama-based homebuilder alleges that Chinese-manufactured drywall in 40 houses it built in 2005 and 2006 -- 32 in Alabama and eight in Florida -- caused corrosion or odor problems. The builder, Mitchell Co., has filed a class-action lawsuit in Florida against certain manufacturers, attorney Steve Nicholas said.

"We filed on behalf of builders because we believe ... they're going to be the ones with the initial loss" to fix the problems, said Nicholas, of Alabama law firm Cunningham Bounds.

In Miami, Gonzalez filed his class-action lawsuit for homeowners this month. The suit names as defendants three China-based drywall manufacturers that the plaintiffs say are affiliates of Germany-based manufacturer Knauf Gips KG. Knauf Gips KG was also named, along with three Florida developers and two distributors.

The Miami suit seeks compensation and medical monitoring of the homeowners.

Joerg Schanow, a member of Knauf Gips' board, said in a telephone interview with CNN that the Chinese manufacturers named in the suit are part of Knauf Group, but not controlled by Knauf Gips KG.

"We here in Germany do not manufacture Chinese drywall. [Knauf Gips KG has] never asked companies to manufacture Chinese drywall for us or on our behalf. And there is no relationship at all," Schanow said. "I'm confident we will rebut this."

On its Web site, the company says the Knauf Group operates 150 factories worldwide, including the three Chinese production facilities named in the lawsuit.

One of the Chinese manufacturers named in the suit, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin (KPT), said in a statement released through U.S. representatives that tests by an expert toxicologist it retained found "no associated health risks with the KPT product." KPT is still investigating whether its product has caused any corrosion, spokeswoman Yeleny Suarez said.

In a separate statement released through KPT's U.S. representatives, lawyers said there is no basis for the other two China-based manufacturers, Knauf Plasterboard Wuhu and Knauf Plasterboard Dongguan, to be part of the lawsuit and the manufacturers "will defend themselves vigorously."

At least two other class-action lawsuits -- one in Florida, the other in Louisiana -- name as defendants Knauf Gips, KPT and a Chinese drywall manufacturer not connected to Knauf, Taishan Gypsum Co. In a telephone interview with CNN, a Taishan Gypsum representative said "it's impossible that our products are found to emit poisonous gas in America," adding that the company didn't export to the United States.

Martyak declined to say which Chinese manufacturers the CPSC is investigating.

And Foreman cautions that not all Chinese drywall manufacturers who exported to the U.S. are accused of supplying a defective product.


The Louisiana suit, filed by the Becnel Law Firm of Reserve, Louisiana, claims defective Chinese drywall was installed in a home in Pearl River.

The Louisiana attorney general's office said its public protection division has not received any complaints about drywall imported from China. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals didn't respond to a request for information about whether it was investigating complaints

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/18/chines ... index.html

They should also check out where the appliances were purchased. Are they from China? That could be it too....or a combination of the two.

hahahahaha I'm tell'n ..... that is not the only problem... shoddy workmenship from Illegal Aliens, cracks in the foundation from building on sand with no structural support (Pillon's) driven into the ground

contractors skimping to cut corners and it shows.

The Dry Wall is nothing new down here... people have been complaining for a couple years now... the stink is smelled from the time you walk in the door

I will not buy a florida home... not now, not ever

Welcome to globalism and the New World Order at it's finnest

Originally Posted by AirborneSapper7

Welcome to globalism and the New World Order at it's finnest

Ya got that right!!!

These homeowners should count their blessings.....at least their homes weren't built out of Mexican bricks AND Chinese drywall!!!!!

Just kidding!

Drywall Investigation Expands Into U.S. Products

Wednesday, November 25, 2009 3:36 PM

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A federal probe of tainted Chinese drywall has broadened because a small number of homeowners are reporting that American-made drywall is causing some of the same problems: a sickening, sulfurous stench and corroded pipes and wiring.

"We are not limited in the scope of our investigation to just Chinese drywall," said Scott Wolfson, spokesman for the Consumer Products Safety Commission, which is conducting the largest investigation in its history after thousands of homeowners complained and filed lawsuits.

The vast majority of complaints still center on China-made gypsum board imported during the recent U.S. housing boom, when domestic building materials were in short supply. And the commission's investigation is focused mainly on the imported drywall, Wolfson said.

But sporadic reports are surfacing from owners of homes built with American drywall, and the symptoms they report are similar to those reported with the Chinese drywall: a rotten-egg odor that makes occupants sick, corrosion of copper pipes, and ruined TVs and air conditioners.

"We've got a huge problem here, and we just need help," said George Brincku, 48, who bought his southwest Florida house in 2004 and almost immediately began noticing the odd smell, the corrosion of wires and headaches.

When he saw reports about Chinese drywall, he assumed that was the problem with his house _ until he called the contractor who installed it.

"I have all 100 percent American-made drywall," Brincku said.

He sent samples to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which found that the wallboard from Brincku's home contained 50 percent gypsum and 50 percent cellulose, an organic compound. Drywall should contain mostly gypsum.

Researchers do not know for certain what causes the chemical reactions, but an MIT scientist said the mixture of gypsum and cellulose in Brincku's wallboard, combined with the humid atmosphere in Florida, was releasing sulfurous gases, causing corrosion of copper, brass and silver.

"The only solution is removal of the drywall," Thomas Eagar, an MIT professor of materials engineering, wrote in his report. He did not return a call from The Associated Press.

Most of the drywall in Brincku's home was made by Charlotte, N.C.-based National Gypsum, which said its own testing found the material from the house contained just 4 percent cellulose.

"We absolutely don't know how you could make wallboard with 50 percent cellulose. It just simply would not hold together," spokeswoman Nancy Spurlock said. "We have been producing wallboard for 85 years in the United States, and we have never had a problem" similar to the Chinese drywall complaints.

Although Brincku has not sued, several other lawsuits have now been filed against American drywall manufacturers, including National Gypsum and Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corp.

Georgia-Pacific declined to comment on the litigation, but spokesman James Malone said the company had heard no such complaints until now.

Attorney Brian Warwick, who is suing Georgia-Pacific in federal court on behalf of two Florida homeowners, said his clients also heard the reports about Chinese drywall and assumed their homes were built with the imported materials.

He believes reports of tainted U.S. building materials will increase as homeowners realize the problem is not just with some Chinese wallboard.

"All the media keeps focusing on is China, China, China," he said. "So how many people are just dismissing their claims because they see they don't have Chinese drywall, and think they don't have tainted drywall?"

Reports of tainted Chinese drywall began to surface last year, and homeowners who bought houses with the imported materials have filed hundreds of lawsuits against builders, suppliers and manufacturers.

In a report issued Monday, the Consumer Products Safety Commission said its studies found a "strong association" between the Chinese drywall and corrosion. The agency also said it found a possible link between health problems and high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas emitted from the wallboard, coupled with formaldehyde, which is commonly found in new houses.

The commission also recently made public a separate 44-home investigation into homeowner complaints, listed on its Web site as a probe into "imported drywall." In fact, 10 of those homes had American drywall.

Still, complaints about U.S. drywall are greatly outnumbered by those regarding Chinese imports.

Of roughly 2,100 complaints received by the commission, about 25 involve homeowners who reported issues with American wallboard, Wolfson said. That is not enough data to make a determination.

A University of Florida study conducted for CBS News tested new samples of U.S. drywall, new samples of the Chinese material and Chinese wallboard from problem homes.

The scientists found that most of the new U.S. samples released sulfur fumes, but at a lower level than the Chinese product taken from homes. However, the study also found that some American product had higher emissions than some of the new Chinese material.

Spurlock, of National Gypsum, said the company was "quite puzzled" with the University of Florida study.

Some experts have suggested that some homes may have been built with a combination of Chinese and American drywall, but since not all of the wallboard imported from China was labeled, it's impossible to tell what's what. The only solution in that case would be for homeowners to tear the house down to the studs and test everything.

Another theory is that bad Chinese wallboard could be contaminating other materials in the house. The federal government is also looking into that.

Meanwhile, Brincku has moved out of his house and is now renting because the odor persists, and the electrical outlets are failing.

"You turn a switch on, and it all buzzes," said Brincku, who struggles to make monthly rent and mortgage payments. "I don't have any money left."


http://www.newsmax.com/us/us_chinese_dr ... 91052.html