Another builder linked to Chinese drywall

By Aaron Kessler


Published: Wednesday, April 8, 2009 at 1:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, April 7, 2009 at 7:35 p.m.
FORT MYERS - The list of national builders whose homes contain defective Chinese drywall already includes national players like Lennar Corp., Taylor Morrison and WCI Communities.

Now, Atlanta-based Beazer Homes may also have used the tainted material in at least one of its Fort Myers developments.

George Ciaffone, who lives in a Beazer home in the Magnolia Lakes development in Fort Myers, first realized something was amiss only days after moving in at the end of January. The air-conditioner was not blowing cool air.

"It just wasn't working correctly," Ciaffone said. "When we opened up the unit, we saw it. The coils were completely black."

The copper coils were not the only corroded metal. Copper ground wires in the home's electrical outlets were blackened, and in subsequent weeks three lights began failing. The house had an odor that would not go away. Ciaffone developed strange headaches.

The potential for Chinese drywall in Beazer's homes came as federal officials are taking increasing notice of the drywall problem. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, was in Lakewood Ranch on Tuesday, meeting with affected homeowners. He has called for a recall of the material.

Ciaffone and his family paid to repair the air-conditioner last month, but kept the coils so they could be tested.

The family does not have many good options. They cannot walk away. Ciaffone's parents bought the house in December as a foreclosure sale -- before defective Chinese drywall became publicly known -- as a way of protecting their savings from a declining stock market while providing a home for their son and rental income from two other tenants. They paid in cash taken from liquidating much of their stock holdings.

The family have joined in a federal lawsuit seeking class-action status filed in Miami against drywall manufacturers. They want Beazer to fix their home or offer to buy it back.

Jeff Ciaffone, George's father, said the attorneys' investigator recently came to take samples of drywall. Beazer also came to take its own samples. The results are expected shortly.

Jerry Smith, warranty manager for Beazer's Fort Myers region, referred calls Tuesday to a company spokeswoman. Smith said the builder was researching the situation in Magnolia Lakes but had not confirmed Chinese drywall. "We don't have a confirmed case yet," Smith said. Calls to the company's spokeswoman were not returned.

The Ciaffones said they were told by Beazer officials that at least four other homes in Magnolia Lakes are being investigated.

According to the company's materials, Beazer builds homes in more than 40 markets in 18 states. In Florida, Beazer's markets include Fort Myers, Tampa and Orlando.

Nelson visited two Taylor Morrison-built homes in the Greenbrook neighborhood of Lakewood Ranch on Tuesday, part of a three-day swing through the state. He was in Cape Coral on Monday, and is in West Palm Beach today.

He met with the owners of three homes built by Taylor Morrison on Skip Jack Loop in Greenbrook, and toured two. He also spoke at the event with at least one Lennar homeowner from nearby Heritage Harbour.

"We have a major problem," said Nelson, who contends that the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have not been aggressive enough in tackling the issue.

One of the Lakewood Ranch homes Nelson toured was that of Kristin Culliton, whose home was the first in Florida inspected by a Washington, D.C., team of commission investigators.

Culliton first began noticing problems in fall 2007, and pregnant at the time, she moved out to live with her mother. She has yet to return. She told Nelson that she is still paying about $1,200 a month for a mortgage.

Nelson examined Culliton's damaged air-conditioning coils, using a screwdriver to scrape off black corrosion. In Culliton's driveway, he discussed the potential scope of the problem using a poster-size version of a graphic published by the Herald-Tribune. The report analyzed shipping records and found that enough drywall came into the U.S. from China since 2006 to build 60,000 homes. Enough material entered through Florida to build at least 36,000 homes.


http://www.heraldtribune.com/article...hinese-drywall