The prisoners of drywall

Thousands of homeowners believe that imported Chinese drywall is making them sick and destroying their property. They’re awaiting government tests to conclude whether the drywall is a health hazard. And while staying could ruin the health of their families, walking away from their homes could ruin their credit. By M. P. McQueen of The Wall Street Journal.

Shortly after buying their home in Cape Coral, Fla., in 2006, Keith and Denise Cramer noticed a peculiar acidic smell they thought was wet paint. The odor never left.

There were other strange occurrences. Chrome-plated faucets and showerheads became pitted or turned black. The central air-conditioning unit faltered and failed. Their baby son, Gavin, suffered frequent ear and upper respiratory infections, and Gavin and Denise got rashes.

The Cramers — along with thousands of other homeowners in Florida and elsewhere — now believe that imported Chinese drywall is making them sick and destroying their property. The drywall, which is used in walls and ceilings, is emitting sulfur-compound gases that homeowners have described as giving off a sour or “rotten egg” odor. Many blame the fumes for eye, skin and breathing irritation and nosebleeds, as well as the corrosion of copper pipes, electrical wiring and air conditioners.

The Cramers say that if government tests conclude the Chinese drywall is a health hazard, they will be left with a wrenching choice: “We will have to either ruin our son’s life by staying, or ruin our credit by walking away from the home,” says Keith Cramer, 34.

An estimated 100,000 houses across the country, most built in 2006 and 2007, may be affected, based on the 500 million pounds of Chinese drywall — also known as plasterboard or gypsum board — believed to have entered the U.S. during that period. The drywall is being investigated by numerous agencies, including the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with state health departments.

If the agencies conclude a “substantial” electrical, fire or health hazard exists, they could issue a recall or other action. More than 800 complaints from 23 states have been filed at the CPSC’s Drywall Information Center.

Experts estimate it would cost about $100,000 to pull out bad drywall and replace corroded electrical wiring and appliances in an average-sized home, and the problem is shaping up as a costly disaster for homeowners and the battered housing industry. Many homeowners are hoping the federal government will step in with some sort of aid similar to that provided for victims of hurricanes and tornadoes, as well as a moratorium on mortgage payments.

Others are staking their hopes on lawsuits against homebuilders and the drywall manufacturers and distributors. Many of the suits are being consolidated in federal court in New Orleans. But suing foreign-based manufacturers for liability is difficult and complicated, legal experts say.

A few builders are already taking action. Lennar Corp. has set aside almost $40 million to fix 400 houses in Florida and is ripping out the drywall in many homes throughout the state, the Miami-based homebuilder said in a securities filing last month. Some other builders are making similar repairs.

While Chinese drywall was initially thought to have been used mainly in Florida and Louisiana, complaints have been pouring in from many other states. Colleen Nguyen, 41, of Virginia Beach, Va., says she, her husband and three girls moved out of their waterfront home built in 2006 and into a trailer last April for three months on the recommendation of their pediatrician. Their computers, phones and microwaves kept breaking down, and the circuit-breaker kept tripping, they say. They are suing their homebuilder and the drywall subcontractor. The cities of Virginia Beach and Norfolk, Va., recently banned builders from using Chinese drywall in construction.

Nguyen says the family left their belongings behind in the house because the odor had permeated the bedding and upholstery. “I won’t expose my children to it until they can explain what it is,” she says. “We have not had a bloody nose since the day we moved out.”

One major manufacturer of the Chinese drywall, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co., says its tests indicate that its products aren’t harmful. Testing found that carbon disulfide and carbonyl sulfide are being emitted by some of its drywall, but not at levels that would damage health, says Phillip T. Goad, principal toxicologist and partner at the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health in North Little Rock, Ark. The center is a private company hired by Knauf Tianjin that consults and does testing for corporations and government agencies.

David Krause, state toxicologist for the Florida Department of Health, says that the department’s preliminary tests indicated Chinese drywall is emitting sulfur-compound gases, but adds that the tests weren’t designed to quantify the rate of emissions. The CPSC plans to measure the amount of sulfide gases emitted by various types of drywall, and will work with other governmental agencies to determine whether they are at harmful levels, Krause says.

Most of the health symptoms described by homeowners and residents are “nonspecific,” Krause says, and could be associated with a variety of causes. The health department and other agencies are trying to determine if unsafe concentrations of chemicals are present, which would help them develop public health guidance, he says. “But is it safe to live in these homes until they are remediated? That is what we are trying to address in a thoughtful and progressive fashion.”

Some builders, including Lennar, are suing importers and distributors of the drywall, including Knauf Tianjin and its German affiliate, Knauf Gips KG. Donald Hayden, an attorney for Knauf Tianjin, says the company accounted for about 20% of Chinese-made drywall imported into the U.S. from 2004 through 2007, and didn’t ship any to the U.S. after October 2006. At least one American drywall maker also has been named as a defendant in product-defect lawsuits by homeowners. Hayden also says that while the sulfur gases are causing metal corrosion, “we do not believe that it is causing corrosion to the extent it would be a fire safety hazard.”

Government agencies are trying to determine exactly why some drywall is emitting the sulfur-compound gases at levels that seem to exceed those of most domestic drywall. A CPSC report cited gypsum excavated from a mine in China known for producing a smelly and off-color mineral. Hayden says the company believes the wallboard that is emitting the smell “is limited to board that contained raw material from a particular mine or mining region in Shandong Province.”

Hayden says that Knauf Tianjin’s wallboard also contains gypsum from flue-gas desulfurization, a process that involves recovering the mineral during the process of electrical-power generation in fossil-fuel power plants. Many other domestic and foreign manufacturers of drywall also use this process, he says, and the company says it doesn’t believe it is a factor in the current complaints. Knauf Tianjin is working on alternative remedial solutions that wouldn’t require tearing out all the drywall, Hayden says.

In Cape Coral, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Keith Cramer says he feels trapped. He says he has been unable to get the builder, locally based Aranda Homes Inc., to make repairs. The builder didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment.

Cramer and his wife, who is 37, paid nearly $315,000 for the property and home, but similar properties whose owners disclose the presence of Chinese drywall, as required by law, are selling for as little as $19,000 online. Cramer says he doesn’t have the money to tear out the drywall or to relocate while the home is repaired.

He can’t refinance, and his bank has indicated it won’t allow homeowners with drywall problems to skip mortgage payments while they seek a remedy. Homeowners insurance generally doesn’t cover construction defects. “If something happened and we had to walk away from this home, we’d lose every penny we had,” Keith Cramer says.

Richard Kampf, 56, a former chief of staff with the EPA in Philadelphia, retired to Cape Coral in July 2007 with his wife, Patricia, 57, their teenage son and Kampf’s 96-year-old mother. He says that his air-conditioning unit broke down 15 times in one year and that its coils have been replaced four times, forcing him to send his mother to live with a sister temporarily because of the heat.

“The (air-conditioning) company told me they suspected my house was contaminated with Chinese drywall,” he says. He and his family were out of their home for five days while officials inspected it and collected air and drywall samples.

Kampf says fear of a fire caused by corroded electrical wire keeps him up at night. “We question every single day if we are doing the right thing by staying. A lot of people are just fleeing. It is a shame,” he says.

About three miles away, Louis Appelman, 64, and his wife, Sara, 65, say their children and grandchildren no longer want to spend vacations with them in their home with its indoor pool and screened room overlooking a canal, because of the acrid fumes and health worries.

“If this is what it is doing to your copper, what is it doing to your body?” Louis Appelman asks. The couple recently replaced their third air-conditioning unit since moving into the house in September 2006. “My kids are wondering if they ought to bring their children to our house,” he says. “Our family doesn’t even want to visit.”

<< Back to Home

Share on Facebook