A consumer advocacy group is claiming that potentially defective Chinese drywall has been found in 41 states. According to a report on News-Press.com, the group, America’s Watchdog, has said that 250 million feet of the drywall came into the United States from China. The drywall enterd into ports located along the West Coast - including Long Beach and Oakland, California, and Seattle, Washington. It also entered from ports in New York, New Jersey and Florida, the group said.

Since January, the Florida Health Department has received close to 100 complaints about drywall that has polluted homes with a putrid, “rotten-egg” smell. Many homeowners have also complained that the fumes are causing air conditioning coils and other metals to corrode. The health department has said that most of the homes being investigated were built after 2004, but one home that is the subject of complaints was built in 2001.

The problems have sparked at least four class action lawsuits in the state. One of the first was filed in January by the Bonita Springs law firm of Parker Waichman Alonso LLP. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, charges that Knauf Plasterboard and other defendants negligently manufactured and sold the defective drywall, which was “unreasonably dangerous” in normal use because it caused corrosion to air-conditioning and electrical components, and caused coughing and irritation of sinuses, eyes and throats. It goes on to state that, “when combined with moisture in the air, these sulfur compounds create sulfuric acid.

According to America’s Watchdog, its environmental testing has found defective drywall in 41 states. In addition to Florida, those states also include Virginia, California, Arizona, Nevada, Louisiana, New Jersey, and Texas.

According to News-Press, the head of the group said that because most of drywall came in through the West Coast, California and Arizona could ultimately have bigger problems than what is currently being seen in Florida.

Many U.S. drywall manufacturers could also be affected because Knauf Plasterboard - the Chinese company that manufactured the drywall - sold the material to U.S. companies through a “private label” program, America’s Watchdog said. Under such an agreement, Knauf supplied drywall would be re-labeled and distributed under the U.S. manufacturer’s name.

A representative for an industry group told News-Press that the organization had no knowledge of such arrangements. But at least one Florida homeowner has reported drywall problems in a home built with drywall bearing the label of a U.S. maker.


5-24-2009:  The Herald Tribune has published several recent articles about "bad" imported drywall from China.  These articles are informative and also contain additional links on the web page.  Visit www.heraldtribune.com/chinesedrywall to view these articles.


6-1-2009 The photos at the bottom of the page are from a recent inspection we performed where we could state that the house had indications that  "bad" Chinese drywall was present in the home.  This particular property had a very strong odor upon entry into the home, and the home had been vacant for several weeks.  The odor was consistent with someone having just struck a household match, yet no one was in the home.  The issues with this home were obvious, however Chinese drywall issues are not always obvious, or even noticeable depending upon the amount of the product in the home.  For this reason, we never claim that any home is free from Chinese drywall, or bad drywall manufactured with any label.  We can only state that we did or did not see any indications of the defective product in the home at the time of the inspection. 

When we are providing or can recommend an additional testing method or service, we will update this page with any information we can provide.

9-24-09:  While we continue to find indications of the presence of Chinese drywall in various homes in Englewood, Rotonda, North Port and Port Charlotte, we also ran across an interesting article.  We don't know the validity of the claim but we will follow the story and post any updates we can find.  You can view the article here:
http://www.winknews.com/news/local/61273402.html

10-12-09:  We have received many telephone calls with qestions about insurance coverage on homes with Chinese Drywall.  This link to a news article indicates that at least one homeowners insurance company "Citizens" is cancelling coverage on homes that contain the product.  You can view the article here: http://www.winknews.com/news/local/63906197.html



The tubes on this two year old evaporator coil should be brigh copper.  When the black coating on the copper was scraped, bright copper was visible beneath the coating.



A closer view of the condition of the copper tubing.



Look at the bare copper ends of the white grounded conductors (neutral wires).  They are coated with a black substance.  Some blackening is beginning on the service cable at the left of the picture (large wire).

Close up view of the smaller copper tubes in the air handler.  These tubes should still be bright copper at the age of this system.