This is a common problem with air conditioners. People change the filters by they forget to check the coils. Dirty coils like this do not allow for proper air flow across the coils, which will result in a less efficient unit and higher energy costs. On average, the coils should be removed and cleaned about every five years. The cost to do this is about $400.00. We will always, as home inspectors, write this up, because the unit is now not functioning in the manner in which it was inteneded to. They say that we should always report temperature drops on the AC unit. I will not do so under these conditions because the drop reading in now inaccurate due to the dirty coils.
Posted by Bill Siegel Florida Home Inspection Team Inc.
Tags: Air conditioners, Broward County, Chinese Drywall, First Time Home Buyers, Hallandale, Home inspection, home sales, homewoners, Miami, Miami Dade County, Miami Gardens, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, Plantation, real estate transactions, Sunrise
Chinese manufacturers are responsible for the high-sulfide drywall that is causing corrosion problems and health complaints in thousands of homes in Florida and other states, U.S. consumer officials said on Tuesday.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission released the names of Chinese companies that turned out drywall with high levels of hydrogen sulfide strongly associated with metal corrosion. The Commission essentially urged these companies to consider compensation for Americans.
“Homeowners who have problem drywall in their homes are suffering greatly,” said CPSC Chairwoman Inez Tenenbaum. “I appeal to these Chinese drywall companies to carefully examine their responsibilities to U.S. families who have been harmed and do what is fair and just.”
Of the drywall tested, the top 10 sulfur-emitting drywall samples were produced in China. Some had emission rates of hydrogen sulfide 100 times greater than non-Chinese drywall samples.
Here are the top ten:
Knauf Plasterboard (Tianjin) Co. Ltd.: (year of manufacture 2005) China
Taian Taishan Plasterboard Co. Ltd.: (2006) China
Shandong Taihe Dongxin Co.: (2005) China
Knauf Plasterboard (Tianjin) Co. Ltd.: (2006) China
Taian Taishan Plasterboard Co. Ltd.: (2006) China
Taian Taishan Plasterboard Co. Ltd.: (2006) China
Shandong Chenxiang GBM Co. Ltd. (C&K Gypsum Board): (2006) China
Beijing New Building Materials (BNBM): (2009) China
Taian Taishan Plasterboard Co. Ltd.: (2009) China
Shandong Taihe Dongxin Co.: (2009) China
Tags: Broward County, Chinese Drywall, First Time Home Buyers, Florida, Ft Lauderdale, Home inspection, Miami, Miami Dade County, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, real estate transactions, South Florida, Sunrise
Looks like Knauf is about to start settling some of these claims.
Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin has been in discussions with builders in recent weeks, seeking “a reasonable solution to repair homes built with KPT drywall.
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One of the largest makers of high-sulfur Chinese drywall has announced a settlement with Atlanta-based homebuilder Beazer Homes.
Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin, a German-owned company based in China, said it has been in discussions with builders in recent weeks, seeking “a reasonable solution to repair homes built with KPT drywall.”
The company’s talks have been ongoing since a federal judge ruled that homes must be gutted of the problem drywall in April. Knauf has said it believes less costly solutions are possible.
“In an effort to assist with Chinese drywall remediation efforts, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin (KPT) has reached a joint settlement with Beazer Homes that used KPT drywall to construct some of its homes in Florida,” Knauf said in an e-mailed statement attributed to attorney Don Hayden of Baker & McKenzie.
Beazer’s Web site says it has projects in metropolitan areas near Panama City, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando.
Hayden said more details about the settlement will be forthcoming, but the company has not yet disclosed the settlement terms.
“The settlement with Beazer is part of KPT’s effort to get this issue behind them and move forward. It shows that a solution is possible when there is agreement on reasonable repair costs,” Hayden said in the statement.
On April 28, a federal judge ordered Knauf to pay the Hernandez family of New Orleans $164,049 for damages related to contaminated drywall in their home, including $136,940 to gut and restore the home. The total award represents $81 a square foot.
Miami-based Lennar Corp. has sued KPT over drywall problems. On Monday, a spokesman for Lennar declined to reveal whether the company was negotiating with KPT.
Chinese drywall has concentrations of sulfur and other substances that produce corrosive gases and odor. The biggest problems are corrosion in air conditioners and electric wiring.
From 2004 to 2006, when the building boom and hurricane repair created a domestic shortage, 500 million pounds of drywall were imported, with 60 percent coming through Florida ports.
Tags: Broward County, Chinese Drywall, First Time Home Buyers, Home Inspections, homewoners, Miami, Miami Dade County, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, real estate transactions, South Florida, Sunrise
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Posted by Bill Siegel Florida Home Inspection Team Inc.
Tags: Chinese Drywall, First Time Home Buyers, Florida, Ft Lauderdale, Hallandale, Miami, Miami Dade County, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, real estate transactions, South Florida, Sunrise
A home in Parkland built with Chinese drywall recently was gutted. The $1.7 million home was built by now-bankrupt developer WCI Communities. The cost to fix the problem: $220,000.
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Consumer advocates hailed a ruling Thursday in Louisiana federal court that awarded $2.6 million to seven Virginia families who bought homes built with Chinese drywall.
U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon handed down the first award in a Chinese drywall lawsuit. He awarded property damages, personal property damages, and an amount for loss of use and enjoyment.
The case is considered a bellwether for numerous federal class action lawsuits consolidated in New Orleans. It also provides guidance for hundreds of other cases awaiting trial in state circuit courts.
The ruling lends legal weight to a recent federal policy decision that the only safe method of dealing with Chinese drywall is to gut a house’s interior of all drywall, wiring and plumbing.
“Proper remediation for the [plaintiffs] is to remove all drywall in their homes, all items which have suffered corrosion as a result of the Chinese drywall, and all items which will be materially damaged in the process of removal,” Fallon’s order states. “Accordingly, the court further finds that the plaintiff-interveners are entitled to recover damages.”
Fallon used a formula of $86 a square foot for a typical home, and awarded $100,000 to most of the seven families for loss of use and enjoyment. But, recovering from the Chinese company that made the drywall –Taishan Gypsum – may be more problematic. Taishan was served notice of the suit, but failed to respond, and a default judgment was entered against it in a previous ruling.
Although the case involved homes in Virginia, most were built using Chinese drywall in Florida and Louisiana during the construction boom.
Chinese drywall has concentrations of sulfur and other substances that produce corrosive gases and odor, which leads to corroded metal. From 2004 to 2006, when the building boom and hurricane repairs created a domestic shortage, 500 million pounds of drywall were imported – and 60 percent of the drywall came through Florida ports.
The American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers) hailed the ruling as a reason to pass federal legislation cracking down on foreign manufacturers who do business in the U.S.
“Taishan Gypsum profited from a product they sold here in the U.S. that has now proven to be defective, costing millions of dollars in damage, decreased property values,” AAJ President Anthony Tarricone said in a news release.
“While the ruling today holds the company responsible, there is no guarantee the company will comply, leaving U.S. consumers and homebuilders to pick up the tab,” he said. “This is why it is critical we pass the Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act, so foreign manufacturers are held to the same standards and justice system as U.S. manufacturers.”
Coral Gables attorney Ervin Gonzalez, of Colson Hicks Eidson, said the ruling “tells other parties how the law is being interpreted and what to expect in similar cases.” Gonzalez is handling several cases for homeowners with Chinese drywall. He also sits on the plaintiffs’ steering committee for the consolidated federal cases. Gonzalez said he expects Fallon to take up one of several cases from Florida this summer.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, also praised the ruling. “This is a legal determination of who’s at fault in the drywall mess,” he said in a release. “Now homeowners have somebody to put in their sights. Meantime, I’m going to keep pushing our government hard to step up the pressure on the Chinese to get the companies over there to pay up.”
Fallon’s ruling enshrines several scientific findings about Chinese drywall into federal case law, most of which had been made public in previous studies:
- Chinese drywall has a significantly higher average concentration of strontium and significantly more detectable levels of elemental sulfur.
- Chinese drywall releases reduced sulfur gases.
- The sulfur gases released by Chinese drywall are irritating to the human body.
- The sulfur gases cause offending odors in homes, making them hard, if not impossible, to live in.
- The sulfur gases are corrosive to metals, particularly copper and silver.
- The corrosion on metals caused by the sulfur gases causes premature failure of electrical and mechanical devices.
- The corrosion on metals caused by the sulfur gases emitted by Chinese drywall poses a fire risk.
Read more: First Chinese drywall suit award: $2.6 million – South Florida Business Journal:
Posted by Bill Siegel Florida Home Inspection Team Inc.
Tags: Broward County, Chinese Drywall, First Time Home Buyers, Ft Lauderdale, Hallandale, Home inspection, Miami, Miami Dade County, Miramar, Pembroke Pines, real estate transactions, South Florida, Sunrise
Parkland homeowners grappling with Chinese drywall are getting a bit of a break on repairs.
The city commission has agreed to eliminate building permit fees in such cases, which could run from $1,700 to $3,000 per house. Chinese drywall gives off a sulfurous odor, tarnishes metals, and corrodes pipes and wires.
Several hundred houses in Parkland are thought to have been built with the tainted walls, which some homeowners say is causing nosebleeds, headaches, sore throats and respiratory issues.
"It's meant as a way to help the people who got stuck with a home with
Chinese drywall,"Mayor Michael Udine said Monday. "We wanted to figure
out a way to cut them some slack."
Homeowners could benefit from case filed by trust.
A Chinese drywall trust created by WCI Communities Inc. has filed a lawsuit in Louisiana against 14 of the home builder’s insurance companies, seeking as much as $200 million in coverage related to the tainted wallboard.
The trust was formed last summer after the bankruptcy of Bonita Springs-based WCI, which used the defective drywall to build homes in Parkland and other areas nationwide. Some 700 homeowners may seek recovery through the trust.
Getting the insurers to cover homeowner claims against WCI is “vital to enabling homeowners suffering from the effects of defective wallboard to remediate their homes and recover their losses,” said Robert M. Horkovich, lead counsel to the trustee for the WCI Chinese Drywall Trust.
Insurers named in the complaint include AIG’s American International Specialty Lines Insurance Co. and Lexington Insurance Co.
An AIG spokesman declined to comment Wednesday.
Posted by Bill Siegel Florida Home Inspection Team Inc.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said Tuesday it’s instructing lenders to temporarily suspend or reduce mortgage payments for homeowners who have tainted Chinese drywall.
Lenders also are being encouraged not to charge late fees and to give the homeowners time to make up past-due payments. The guidelines, however, apply only to mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration.
“We want to remove additional pressures for these families as they find solutions to allow them to return to a safe, decent and sanitary home,” FHA commissioner David Stevens said.
Complaints about Chinese drywall began last year. The defective wallboard corrodes wiring, copper pipes, appliances and metals. Some homeowners blame the drywall for nosebleeds, respiratory problems and other symptoms, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission has yet to link it to any health risk.
Some residents are temporarily moving to rental housing while continuing to pay their mortgages. Homeowners say lenders have been slow to understand the problem and offer help.
Steven Roberts, whose home west of Boynton Beach has the tainted drywall, said the guidelines are needed. But he doubts that many Florida homeowners with the defective drywall have FHA loans.
“This is a great thing for those who qualify,” he said.
For questions on mortgage forbearance terms, call HUD at (888) 297-8685.
The agency also announced Tuesday that federal block grants are available to states and local communities to help repair homes. HUD said 70 percent of the money must go to low- and moderate-income residents. Many of the homeowners who have Chinese drywall in Palm Beach and Broward counties bought in upscale communities during the 2000-2005 housing boom.
Still, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson was encouraged by HUD’s announcement.
“This is the first real good news we’ve had,” he said.
The following is an article about Chinese Drywall found in the Sun Sentinel. Some companies are stepping up and repairing Chinese Drywall.
At Joe Araneo’s home west of Boynton Beach, a dancing snowman guards the front door, the staircase is wrapped in garland and a pile of presents sits under the 12-foot Christmas tree.
Eleven months ago, he couldn’t imagine celebrating the holidays here.
At the time, Araneo had just discovered his $1.3 million home in the Canyon Isles development off Lyons Road was built with tainted Chinese drywall. While other South Florida residents have abandoned their properties and are desperate for help, Araneo’s builder, GL Homes, agreed to make repairs at no cost, installing new drywall after tearing the home’s interior down to the studs.
Araneo is one of 29 GL residents who have moved back to their homes, while owners of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of homes built by other developers in Palm Beach and Broward counties continue to live in limbo.
“They put the house all back together,” Araneo, 50, said last week while walking through the living room that overlooks a pool and lake. “It’s hard to imagine. It’s better than it was before.”
Complaints about Chinese drywall began last year. The defective wallboard corrodes wiring, copper pipes, appliances and metals. Some homeowners blame the drywall for nosebleeds, respiratory problems and other symptoms, but the Consumer Product Safety Commission has yet to link it to any health risk.
Some residents are temporarily moving to rental housing while paying their mortgages. Lenders and property insurers have offered little or no relief. Many builders have refused to fix the homes, citing the huge cost and a lack of a construction protocol endorsed by the government.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is expected to offer guidance in the coming weeks on how homeowners and communities can use federal block grant funds to repair homes. Still, many residents, including Holly Krulik of Parkland, wonder when, or if, their homes ever will be fixed.
“I wish I was a GL homeowner,” Krulik said. “Those homeowners are fortunate. But I certainly don’t begrudge them anything.”
Sunrise-based GL is “doing far more” than many builders when it comes to repairing homes, said Boca Ratonattorney Allison Grant, who specializes in Chinese drywall cases.
GL says it removes and replaces all interior building materials affected by the defective drywall, including insulation, electric wiring and copper plumbing. The builder also pays for rental housing for the homeowners, moving expenses and storage for their belongings.
Miami-based Lennar Corp. says it also replaces tainted drywall and affected components of a home and pays for moving expenses and temporary housing. But before the builder agrees to fix properties, it insists that homeowners sign releases, assigning any future claims against drywall manufacturers to Lennar and preventing the homeowners from later suing the builder or other responsible parties, Grant said.
GL requires no such release, she said. Attempts to reach GL officials to confirm that understanding were unsuccessful. Lennar this week declined to address the issue.
Other builders will remove drywall but won’t agree to re-wire the house, Grant said. One builder will rip out all the drywall but leaves the homeowners to clean the toxic gases and dust from the homes, she said.
Builders haven’t publicly discussed the costs for fixing homes with Chinese drywall. But Lennar told federal regulators this summer it set aside roughly $40 million to repair 400 homes.
Araneo, an entrepreneur, said GL has been more than accommodating.
As part of the repairs, the company repainted the entire house, using paint with an eggshell finish. Araneo’s wife, Lauren, preferred flat paint, so GL agreed to a second repainting, he said. Also, the company installed upgraded tile, marble and granite.
Gerald Feldman, another Canyon Isles resident whose home recently was repaired, said, “there was absolutely no issue with GL in terms of stepping up.”
As word has spread, residents who didn’t buy from GL have asked the builder to fix their homes, for a fee. GL says it will consider that.
GL executives declined to be interviewed. Through a spokesman, Division President Marcie DePlaza said the builder has not received any complaints from residents whose homes have been repaired.
The company says it has worked with experts to develop a protocol for repairs and continues to identify and fix affected homes. GL won’t say how many of its homes have Chinese drywall or how many repairs it plans to make.
“Clearly, Chinese drywall has been a basis of severe frustration for both GL Homes and our customers,” DePlaza said in a statement, “but the frustration lessens each time another family moves back into a repaired home without experiencing any further Chinese drywall-related complaints.”
Paul Owers can be reached at Powers@SunSentinel.com or 561-243-6529.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A federal probe of tainted Chinese drywall has broadened because a small number of homeowners are reporting that American-made drywall is causing some of the same problems: a sickening, sulfurous stench and corroded pipes and wiring.
“We are not limited in the scope of our investigation to just Chinese drywall,” said Scott Wolfson, spokesman for the Consumer Products Safety Commission, which is conducting the largest investigation in its history after thousands of homeowners complained and filed lawsuits.
The vast majority of complaints still center on China-made gypsum board imported during the recent U.S. housing boom, when domestic building materials were in short supply. And the commission’s investigation is focused mainly on the imported drywall, Wolfson said.
But sporadic reports are surfacing from owners of homes built with American drywall, and the symptoms they report are similar to those reported with the Chinese drywall: a rotten-egg odor that makes occupants sick, corrosion of copper pipes, and ruined TVs and air conditioners.
“We’ve got a huge problem here, and we just need help,” said George Brincku, 48, who bought his southwest Florida house in 2004 and almost immediately began noticing the odd smell, the corrosion of wires and headaches.
When he saw reports about Chinese drywall, he assumed that was the problem with his house — until he called the contractor who installed it.
“I have all 100 percent American-made drywall,” Brincku said.
He sent samples to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which found that the wallboard from Brincku’s home contained 50 percent gypsum and 50 percent cellulose, an organic compound. Drywall should contain mostly gypsum.
Researchers do not know for certain what causes the chemical reactions, but an MIT scientist said the mixture of gypsum and cellulose in Brincku’s wallboard, combined with the humid atmosphere in Florida, was releasing sulfurous gases, causing corrosion of copper, brass and silver.
“The only solution is removal of the drywall,” Thomas Eagar, an MIT professor of materials engineering, wrote in his report. He did not return a call from The Associated Press.
Most of the drywall in Brincku’s home was made by Charlotte, N.C.-based National Gypsum, which said its own testing found the material from the house contained just 4 percent cellulose.
“We absolutely don’t know how you could make wallboard with 50 percent cellulose. It just simply would not hold together,” spokeswoman Nancy Spurlock said. “We have been producing wallboard for 85 years in the United States, and we have never had a problem” similar to the Chinese drywall complaints.
Although Brincku has not sued, several other lawsuits have now been filed against American drywall manufacturers, including National Gypsum and Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific Corp.
Georgia-Pacific declined to comment on the litigation, but spokesman James Malone said the company had heard no such complaints until now.
Attorney Brian Warwick, who is suing Georgia-Pacific in federal court on behalf of two Florida homeowners, said his clients also heard the reports about Chinese drywall and assumed their homes were built with the imported materials.
He believes reports of tainted U.S. building materials will increase as homeowners realize the problem is not just with some Chinese wallboard.
“All the media keeps focusing on is China, China, China,” he said. “So how many people are just dismissing their claims because they see they don’t have Chinese drywall, and think they don’t have tainted drywall?”
Reports of tainted Chinese drywall began to surface last year, and homeowners who bought houses with the imported materials have filed hundreds of lawsuits against builders, suppliers and manufacturers.
In a report issued Monday, the Consumer Products Safety Commission said its studies found a “strong association” between the Chinese drywall and corrosion. The agency also said it found a possible link between health problems and high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas emitted from the wallboard, coupled with formaldehyde, which is commonly found in new houses.
The commission also recently made public a separate 44-home investigation into homeowner complaints, listed on its Web site as a probe into “imported drywall.” In fact, 10 of those homes had American drywall.
Still, complaints about U.S. drywall are greatly outnumbered by those regarding Chinese imports.
Of roughly 2,100 complaints received by the commission, about 25 involve homeowners who reported issues with American wallboard, Wolfson said. That is not enough data to make a determination.
A University of Florida study conducted for CBS News tested new samples of U.S. drywall, new samples of the Chinese material and Chinese wallboard from problem homes.
The scientists found that most of the new U.S. samples released sulfur fumes, but at a lower level than the Chinese product taken from homes. However, the study also found that some American product had higher emissions than some of the new Chinese material.
Spurlock, of National Gypsum, said the company was “quite puzzled” with the University of Florida study.
Some experts have suggested that some homes may have been built with a combination of Chinese and American drywall, but since not all of the wallboard imported from China was labeled, it’s impossible to tell what’s what. The only solution in that case would be for homeowners to tear the house down to the studs and test everything.
Another theory is that bad Chinese wallboard could be contaminating other materials in the house. The federal government is also looking into that.
Meanwhile, Brincku has moved out of his house and is now renting because the odor persists, and the electrical outlets are failing.
“You turn a switch on, and it all buzzes,” said Brincku, who struggles to make monthly rent and mortgage payments. “I don’t have any money left.”
Posted by Bill Siegel Florida Home Inspection Team Inc
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