Posted on 10/15/2009 11:02:43 AM PDT by Wiz
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – James and Maria Ivory's dreams of a relaxing retirement on Florida's Gulf Coast were put on hold when they discovered their new home had been built with Chinese drywall that emits sulfuric fumes and corrodes pipes. It got worse when they asked their insurer for help — and not only was their claim denied, but they've been told their entire policy won't be renewed.
Thousands of homeowners nationwide who bought new houses constructed from the defective building materials are finding their hopes dashed, their lives in limbo. And experts warn that cases like the Ivorys', in which insurers drop policies or send notices of non-renewal based on the presence of the Chinese drywall, will become rampant as insurance companies process the hundreds of claims currently in the pipeline.
At least three insurers have already canceled or refused to renew policies after homeowners sought their help replacing the bad wallboard. Because mortgage companies require homeowners to insure their properties, they are then at risk of foreclosure, yet no law prevents the cancellations.
"This is like the small wave that's out on the horizon that's going to continue to grow and grow until it becomes a tsunami," said Florida attorney David Durkee, who represents hundreds of homeowners who are suing builders, suppliers and manufacturers over the drywall. "This is going to become critical mass very shortly."
During the height of U.S. housing boom, with building materials in short supply, American construction companies imported millions of pounds of Chinese-made drywall because it was abundant and cheap. An Associated Press analysis of shipping records found that more than 500 million pounds of Chinese gypsum board was imported between 2004 and 2008 — enough to have built tens of thousands of homes. They are heavily concentrated in Southeast, especially Florida.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
From China...with love...
Waking up in the morning to the scent of frying eggs and sizzling bacon is one thing.
The smell of rotten eggs emanating from your walls . . . well, that’s another thing altogether.
China stinks...the more we destroy our manufacturing the more we will be at the mercy of foreigners and the poorer we will be also.
Imported wallboard products? That's just crazy.
Did not read the article but did it mention who distributed the drywall? I think there is some responsibility there. Nothing irks me more than only cheap China made stuff being available when I got look for a tool.
The insurance companies appear to be correct. They should not be required to provide warranty service.
On the other hand, any builder who chose to purchase drywall from China should be pushing a shopping cart around containing the remainder of his possessions by this time next month.
And surely, contractors must have smelled the ‘rotten egg’ odor - and who, in Florida, isn't familiar with that being the odor of sulfur? So much of Florida's well water smells like that.
The gov't won't be interested in helping these people - unless they're predominantly 'not white."
Chinese Drywall, the Asbestos of the 21st. Century
Chinese drywall, mexican labor all financed by Fannie Mae, what could go wrong? Same sort of thing happened about 20 years ago with a new stucco exterior material used to finish houses. The material did not breath causing rot and mold inside of the house. As a result the vendor went bankrupt and the homeowners lost their investment. Be careful using new materials, developmental testing will not tell you everything you may want to know about a products life cycle performance.
My comment from an earlier thread;
“What I want to know, and haven’t been able to find out, is who, here, bought this stuff? What standards did they have? Did they do even minimal testing? Did they do any testing after problems started to surface? Did they keep using it after problems surfaced?
I ain’t gonna just blame the Chinese jerks that made this crap! Somebody here got greedy and careless! Everyone knows that the Chinese will sell anything. I wouldn’t contract with a Chinese company without very strict rules and regulations. And I certainly would test any products I ordered from them.
I think there’s a lot of blame to be spread around with this drywall issue, which I’ve been following for months. If you’re gonna buy Chinese, exercise care!”
I agree. Is the builder still in business? Is he required to buy and maintain insurance which would reimburse the purchasers of his homes?
If this were an American company, the builder AND manufacturer would be on the hook. Because the state and/or federal government allowed these products to be purchased, did not seem to require any testing to determine safety, and KNEW there would be no recourse from China if the products were bad, I say go after the Feds, make these people whole and then let the Feds fight with China.
And deja vu to 40 years ago and aluminum wiring and quick-connect receptacles!
Imported wallboard products?
Because at the height of the resdential building boom, the drywall plants couldn’t keep up with demand. I work for Lowe’s in Tampa and we have a National Gypsum plant 20 miles from my store yet we were having it shipped from Alabama (if I remember correctly) because the demand was too great. The distributors had drywall on allocation meaning even we and HD could only get so much brought in.
The problem with the Chicom board is it contains unclean organic fillers and was sprayed with a substance to keep it from molding while in the hot cargo containers coming from China.
The building material suppliers were not checking the quality/content of the material they bought. They assumed it was the same. NOT!
My philosophy: let the other guy buy the Chinese stuff.
“Chinese drywall that emits sulfuric fumes and corrodes pipes”
Ah, our Chinese friends that the international corporation boys want to “outsource” to.
And we are the ones who end up taking it up the “pipes”.
Mine too.
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