Posted on 05/31/2009 5:10:46 AM PDT by IbJensen
There's something rotten in Homestead.
It's the odor in Jason and Melissa Harrell's house, which was built with defective, Chinese-made drywall redolent of strong paint or rotten eggs. The smell got so bad that the Harrells felt forced to move. They now pay rent on top of their mortgage.
''What it boiled down to is, I had to choose between my financial health and my children's physical health,'' Melissa Harrell said.
When the sulfurous stink in Gary and Andrea Suhajcik's Boynton Beach home wouldn't go away, the builder offered to rip out the walls, wiring, plumbing and molding in hopes of making it livable.
Builders and homeowners have feuded over construction defects, real and imagined, since the first slab was poured in the first house in the first subdivision somewhere in suburbia. But South Florida has never seen anything quite like the curse of the Chinese drywall. Tens of thousands of homes were built with the material, which was brought in by boat from the Far East when the demand for drywall exploded during the building boom.
Aside from the odor, scientific studies by the Florida Department of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency found that drywall made by Chinese manufacturers distinctly differs from North American-made product and emits high levels of three volatile sulfur compounds, which can corrode copper piping -- like the kind in appliances -- and blacken copper wiring in electrical outlets and light switches.
No scientific study to date has linked the drywall to any specific health problems.
And yet, Michael McGeehin, director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's environmental health division, told a U.S. Senate subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance: ``There's no doubt that corrosive material is causing health problems.''
COUNTING THE COST
Buyers are suing. Occupants are fleeing. And builders are, in some cases, tearing out walls and rebuilding at a staggering cost.
Although the problem is most prevalent in Florida, the defective drywall was used in at least 18 states between 2004 and 2008. Some estimate the cost of addressing the problem could rise to $1 trillion.
Dajan Green and her mother bought a four-bedroom townhome in the Silver Palms community in Homestead, built by Lennar in 2006. By buying something new, she hoped to spare herself the problems that plague older homes, like corroded galvanized pipe.
''You know: Everything is new. You don't have any issues,'' said Green, 28.
Wrong.
The air conditioner's copper coils turned black. Jewelry, including a bracelet her brother gave her to celebrate her sweet sixteen, turned black too.
And, more disturbingly, her 7-year-old son became lethargic, a condition she blames on the home -- although there is no proof.
They would leave, Green said, but they can't pay the mortgage and rent somewhere else.
''What are we going to do? We're stuck,'' she said.
Lennar, which says it isn't commenting at this time, has litigation pending against the drywall manufacturer. At the time the suit was filed, it issued a news release declaring: ``Lennar is acting promptly to correct the problem in the homes we delivered.''
The first concerns about a possible problem arose at least five years ago. A Fort Myers environmental health firm investigated complaints but didn't link them to foreign-made drywall for about two years.
Then came the first lawsuit -- the first of many, both class action and individual. The target of the suit, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin hired its own lab, which found that the drywall emitted sulfur-containing compounds at unnaturally high concentrations but said it should not be considered a public health problem.
No word from the building inspector Mr Magoo.
That’s because he’s been busy working on the Cheerio’s box, making sure they don’t go over the line.
No worries. Chinese made aspirin is on the way.
Bummer to hear about your situation...hope it gets resolved
Someday enough Americans will rise up against all this inferior cheap Commie Chinese crap. Too many still pander Free Trade with Communist China
The same thing happened here in Hampton Roads. Chinese drywall is now banned in many local cities. The supplier who bought it during a shortage of American made drywall lost millions.
On a related China note, my wife recently had a red rash around her lower back (waistband). First thing I asked her was, a)Are those pants new? and b)Did you wash them first? The answer was yes, and no. I guaranteed her that what she was wearing was made in China and that was the case. Purchased at Kohl’s.
Chinese drywall isn’t always bad. The bad stuff comes and goes because they were trying to shave costs. The early stuff was inspected and found OK.
It appears that the county building inspectors are to blame as well.
Do you have any idea what percentage is bad?
I noticed in one of our three eight story buildings that all drywall was being ripped out and replaced.
Do you believe that the county building inspectors should know about this as they're 'inspecting?'
That’s what happens when you use the crushed bones of executed Chinese prisoners as the primer for drywall! :P
FYI, there is still no known way to tell the “bad” drywall from the good drywall.
What exactly is causing the problem is still not known, so tests to determine whether it is present are of course not available.
There are repeated reports of American-made drywall causing similar problems. This has not been confirmed.
There is absolutely no evidence at this time that the “bad stuff” was associated with attempts to cut costs by Chinese manufacturers.
My wife always washes new clothes before they are worn for the first time. I used to think she was being paranoid, now not so much.
Homes considered to potentially be affected by Chinese drywall would have been built after 2003 and meet two of the following:
1.
The presence of sulfur-like or other unusual odors
2.
Drywall labeled made in China
3.
Observed copper corrosion, indicated by black, sooty coating of un-insulated copperpipe leading to the air-conditioned
4.
Documented failure of air conditioner evaporator coil (located inside the airconditioning unit)
5.
Confirmation by an outside expert or professional of the presence of premature copper corrosion on un-insulated copper wires and/or air conditioner evaporator coils (inside the air conditioning unit)
At this point nobody knows what makes it "bad," so there is of course no way to test whether a particular piece or batch is bad or not.
The EPA just came out this week with some tests that knock some holes in the previously generally accepted theories of what is causing the problems.
Hey maybe they will find out it’s mold resistant.
See, it’s okay to let other countries manufacture stuff and pollute the air, just so long as we can feel good about ourselves back here. Of course, we soon won’t have any jobs, but don’t the air look purty? Now shut up and read your politically-corrected Bible by the light of your 52 watt flourescent bulb.
Clever these Chinese.
Money grubbers these unscrupulous contractors.
Myopic these county building inspectors.
Screwed these Florida home buyers.
I don't disagree with you in general about (some) contractors and inspectors.
I think it's important to keep pointing out that absolutely nobody knew at the time there was anything wrong with the Chinese drywall. Drywall has been around almost 100 years and has never caused problems of this type. In fact, it generally causes no problems at all as long as it stays dry.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.