Builders respond to concerns about Chinese drywall

As reports of defective drywall began to emerge across the country, executives with Hampton Roads' largest residential drywall contractor sent out a letter, assuring customers that they didn't allow any Chinese-made wallboard to be stocked on jobs.

Last week, a partner with the company fielded a half-dozen calls from builders who had been hounded with homeowners' questions after a Hampton Roads development company disclosed that defective, gas-emitting wallboard appears to have been installed in some of its Chesapeake and Virginia Beach homes.

Representatives for four major local homebuilders said last week they did not buy or use Chinese drywall in the construction of any homes, even as demand for drywall skyrocketed during the housing boom in 2006.

Since then, enough Chinese drywall has been imported to the United States to build more than 60,000 homes nationwide, according to an analysis by one Florida newspaper. While more than half of those homes could be in Florida, attorneys say, lawsuits have been filed in Louisiana and Alabama.

The Dragas Companies is inspecting nearly 60 homes in two Hampton Roads developments to determine whether they contain defective drywall. The company acknowledges that the sulfur-based gas that appears to be coming from defective drywall installed at the two developments may corrode air conditioning coils and may damage other electrical and mechanical systems in the homes.

Now, health department officials in Chesapeake are trying to figure out what their colleagues in Florida and other 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

"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 at the Hampshires because of all the information that's come out."

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 product and whether it needs to be replaced.

"Without the tell tale symptoms like heavily corroded pipes, you might have to start cutting a lot of holes in the house to figure it out," he said.

Ervin A. Gonzalez, a Miami attorney who's filed a class-action lawsuit against a drywall manufacturer, said there are likely thousands of homes in Virginia that could be affected.

Venture Supply Inc. in Norfolk supplied the Chinese-made drywall to Dragas, company officials say. Venture's owner, Sam Porter, declined to provide the name of the company that manufactured the drywall, as did a spokeswoman for Dragas.

Gonzalez, who filed the class-action suit against German manufacturer Knauf, called this "the largest construction defect case in the history of our country." He said the drywall was used largely between late 2005 and early 2007.

Four major Hampton Roads builders that constructed many homes in the area during that period - L.M. Sandler & Sons Inc., Terry Peterson Residential Cos., Franciscus Homes, and Stephen Alexander Homes & Neighborhoods - did not buy or use Chinese-made drywall, representatives for the companies say. Other Dragas communities built during that time were built with domestic drywall supplied by a different subcontractor, according to a company statement.

Executives with Tidewater Interior Wall and Ceiling Inc., Hampton Roads' largest residential drywall contractor, have sent letters to customers assuring them that no Chinese drywall was used. Tidewater has also received certification from its four vendors that none of the imported wallboard was shipped to its job sites.

Company President Rob LeBlond said Chinese-made drywall was offered to him during a time when "you couldn't get enough drywall to support demand," he said. He said he specified to his suppliers that he wasn't going to buy any.

"We thought it was an inferior product, so we didn't want to use it," LeBlond said. "We didn't have to go down the Chinese drywall road. We were guaranteed we could get American board no problem."

Dragas did not know that the drywall being installed at the Hampshires in Chesapeake and Cromwell Park in Virginia Beach was made in China, according to a company statement.

The firm is inspecting 50 homes in the Hampshires and six in Cromwell Park. Dragas said it plans to replace any Chinese-made drywall and repair or replace any items affected by it, according to the statement. Work has just begun on a handful of homes, said Donna Ponti, Dragas' director of marketing.

Dragas has also offered to pay to relocate residents while work is being done. Ponti declined to reveal the number of homeowners who have been relocated. She said the relocations have begun and will occur on a staggered basis.

Pilot writer Josh Brown contributed to this report.

Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com