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Our townhouse was built with defective chinese drywall. We have had more air condition problems with our home over the past three years than most people have during a lifetime of owing a home.
Trying to keep this story as short as possible..... We need to replace our drywall throughout our house. Our insurance will not help us and the lawsuit we have against the provider of the drywall in China will not yield results anytime soon.
A huge concern of ours though is that both of our neighbors also have Chinese drywall throughout their home. Our townhouses are connected to each other from top to bottom (they are 4 story townhomes). We have heard that even if we spend tens of thousands of dollars to replace the drywall in our own home our house will still be in danger because both of our neighbors homes have it as well. We even heard a rumor recently that chinese drywall can "infect" new, high quality drywall if they are in the vicinity of each other.
Should we even bother replacing our drywall if our neighbors have it as well? If we replace our drywall will it just become infected again by our neighbors defective drywall? Will our A/C and numerous other electronics in the house be safe? This whole situation is so depressing. If my partner wouldn't have already spent $700,000 paying off this townhome we would have abandoned it years ago.
If there are any chinese drywall experts out there I would greatly apprciate your advice. Every handy man who we have hired to come out and fix our house just seems to have no solutions for us. The one thing they all say is "You should just try to sell it and get out." or "If you haven't paid it off just ditch the place". Neither are options for us at this time.
Our townhouse was built with defective chinese drywall. We have had more air condition problems with our home over the past three years than most people have during a lifetime of owing a home.
Trying to keep this story as short as possible..... We need to replace our drywall throughout our house. Our insurance will not help us and the lawsuit we have against the provider of the drywall in China will not yield results anytime soon.
A huge concern of ours though is that both of our neighbors also have Chinese drywall throughout their home. Our townhouses are connected to each other from top to bottom (they are 4 story townhomes). We have heard that even if we spend tens of thousands of dollars to replace the drywall in our own home our house will still be in danger because both of our neighbors homes have it as well. We even heard a rumor recently that chinese drywall can "infect" new, high quality drywall if they are in the vicinity of each other.
Should we even bother replacing our drywall if our neighbors have it as well? If we replace our drywall will it just become infected again by our neighbors defective drywall? Will our A/C and numerous other electronics in the house be safe? This whole situation is so depressing. If my partner wouldn't have already spent $700,000 paying off this townhome we would have abandoned it years ago.
If there are any chinese drywall experts out there I would greatly apprciate your advice. Every handy man who we have hired to come out and fix our house just seems to have no solutions for us. The one thing they all say is "You should just try to sell it and get out." or "If you haven't paid it off just ditch the place". Neither are options for us at this time.
You are in a jamb. There is no easy or cheap way out. In the mean time your health is at serious risk and if you have kids their health is even in more dire risk of asthma or cancer.
You are not suing the Chinese manufacturer as you said, it can't be done. Big wealthy Builders have tried with no success. The good news is this govt has adopted new strict laws concerning dangerous drywall and cabinet imports. The bad is they are not required to correct the problem for 2 years.
You are correct that your insurance company will not help. You are SOL my friend. In the mean time the sulfur emitted from the drywall will deteriorate the copper wire in your walls which is a very serious fire risk. Please keep your smoke detectors with fresh batteries.
I always have the answer but unless you are wealthy I have none now. Good luck to you.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,551 posts, read 81,085,957 times
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Just changing the drywall will not solve the problem even for your home, you will have to re-wire, replace all duct work, and the HVAC units and plumbing. The gas will corrode copper pipes too, and the exposure it's already had since it was built can continue after the defective drywall is removed. Since the corrosive and toxic gas attacks metals, putting in a barrier against the shared walls/ceilings won't prevent the effects of the neighbor's bad drywall and yes, the new drywall can be contaminated by the bad next door. Has anyone considered talking to the city or county that did the original building inspections? Any chance of liability there?
Its so irritating. The symptoms of the drywall are exacerbated in Summer, and Summer is now here.
I guess there is no easy or hard way to fix it. We are planning to move in one to two years and I suppose the house will just be vacant. The local government has recognized the problem we face. Hillsborough County, Fl gave all residents with defective Chinese drywall an extremely large property tax cut. We have to pay virtually no property taxes for the house.
We have decided we are not going to sell it when we pay such little property tax on the home. Its current appraised value vs what he bought it for would have some people jumping off their roofs.
I've never understood why and how they could import heavy dry wall from China cheaper then buying it in the USA! To the original poster, sorry for your situation!
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,551 posts, read 81,085,957 times
Reputation: 57739
Quote:
Originally Posted by casper324
I've never understood why and how they could import heavy dry wall from China cheaper then buying it in the USA! To the original poster, sorry for your situation!
Drywall is a heavy product, but then if it's manufactured in Tennessee and shipped by truck to Los Angles, it could cost more than by slow ship from China to the Port of Long Beach. Whazt's reall odd is that the worst problems are in Florida, so we're talking ship then train or truck. It shows just how much less the cost of making it must be over there if all that shipping cost isn't making it cost as much as being made here.
I recently ordered a Motorola cell phone car charger from E-Bay. The price was $11 with free shipping.
It was delayed a few days, and the seller sent me an apology e-mail, as all business in China stops for the Chinese new year. Beforeit came I went to a local store and found the same item with "made in China" marked on it for $59. When mine came the envelope had Chinese characters on it but it was mailed from Seattle. A little research and I find that Motorola has factories in China, and these sellers in China buy wholesale, shipping hundreds or thousands of items in a container to the port, where they have contacts that mail out at the lowest USPS rate.
They still make a nice profit on every item while selling for 1/6 of the price we pay locally.
The attached townhouse situation does pose an additional challenge to your Chinese drywall problem; however, it may not be as big a factor as you think. The firewall between your units is NOT Chinese drywall (if built to code), which means you have a double layer of sealed protection from gasses and vapors moving from a neighboring unit over to your unit. It is possible that neighboring Chinese drywall fumes could penetrate and move through the walls, but I believe the risk is minor (for a number of reasons). Having said that, one way to address the possibility would be to apply a paint-on vapor barrier to your firewall drywall as additional protection. We have not had a situation which required this, but I am certain we could find a product that could serve the purpose and pass inspection.
We do Chinese drywall remediation work throughout Tampa Bay, Florida and have created a Chinese Drywall Remediation Series which walks homeowners through each step of the process. The intent is to help homeowners understand the process to ensure their own projects are successful. These videos may be helpful to you. You will see that the videos are numbered, which will help you to view them in order.
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