Toxic Chinese Drywall has Builders Worried About Lawsuits

As reports of defective Chinese Drywall problems began to emerge across the country, executives with the largest residential drywall installer sent out a letter, assuring customers that they didn't allow any Chinese wallboard to be stocked on jobs. The threat of class action lawsuits from homeowners concerned about toxic Chinese Dry Wall has builders concerned about the legal consiquences.

Attorneys are inundated with calls from builders who had been hounded with homeowners' questions about Chinese Drywall problems after a leading drywall supply company disclosed that defective, gas-emitting wallboard appears to have been installed in some of its homes. Homeowners are questioning what their legal rights are if there home has defective Chinese drywall.

Representatives for four major local builders said last week they did not buy or use toxic Chinese drywall in the construction of any homes, even as demand for drywall sky-rocketed during the housing boom in 2006. The attraction of class action lawsuits is prompting  law firms try to sign up potential clients.
                                                                                                                                                                          
Chinese drywall has been imported to the United States to build more than 60,000 homes nationwide, according to an analysis by one newspaper. While
more than half of those homes could be in the south, attorneys say, lawsuits have been filed in Louisiana
and Alabama regarding Chinese Drywall problems
and health concerns.

Many builders are inspecting  homes in projects built
in 2006 to determine whether they contain defective Chinese drywall. Reputable builders acknowledge
that the sulfur-based gas that appears to be coming from defective Chinese drywall installed in some developments may corrode air conditioning coils and may damage other electrical and mechanical systems
in the homes.

Now, many local health department officials are trying to figure out what their colleagues in the southern states have been grappling with: Do the gases have any short- or long-term health effects beyond complaints of respiratory problems, burning eyes and sore throats? Norma Quigley lives in The Hampshires at Greenbrier in Chesapeake,one of the developments being inspected by Dragas, and worries about potential health effects from Chinese drywall problems. "At this point, the value of the houses is already going down," said Quigley, who with her husband runs an upholstery business in Greenbrier. "It's hard to get rid of a house, as it is. It would be even harder to sell a house. One problem facing homeowners trying to determine the source of their home's drywall is that not all of the product is labeled, said Fred Simmerman, owner of HomePro of Tidewater Inc. in Norfolk.

"Some batches may not be stamped at all," said Simmerman, who is a past president of the Virginia Association of Real Estate Inspectors. "You could have a mixture of drywall in one house."

Simmerman has been researching the problem drywall for weeks. He plans to write a newsletter to all inspectors in the association, explaining how to determine if a home has the Chinese drywall product and whether it needs to be replaced

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