Posts Tagged ‘Chinese Drywall’
It turns out that there was more wrong with the recent US housing cycle than just bad loans and predatory lenders. It has recently come to light that many homeowners are experiencing Chinese drywall problems that are making them sick and destroying what they
paid so much to build.
Some people estimate that as much as half of a billion pounds of toxic drywall was shipped into the US from China during the boom. This is a major problem, as now people are reporting the smell of sulfur emanating from that drywall. Would we expect anything more from the country that brought us toxic toothpaste and over-leaded kids’ toys? But this looks like it could be a much more far-ranging conflict than those isolated incidents.
The first consumer complaints came from the state of Florida, where not surprisingly much of the fake real estate boom occurred. Beyond that there were major hurricanes there, especially in 2006, that prompted a lot of low-cost buying of drywall.
There have also been complaints about further Chinese drywall problems coming out of other southern states such as North Carolina, most recently. Some people have speculated that this is because the warm climate activates the toxicity within the drywall and releases its stench.
The origin of the problem may lie in the dirty coal mines of China. The truth is not known, but some believe it is likely that waste ash from these mines was transported over to drywall factories, where it was then mixed into the ultimate end-product.