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Drywall from China blamed for problems in homes

jaycola

jaycola

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Is there Chinese Drywall in Canada? If I bought a new home I think I'd want to know where the drywall was made. Who thinks about the drywall?

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2009-03-16-chinese-drywall-sulfur_N.htm

By Julie Schmit, USA TODAY
Real estate agent Felix Martinez thought he'd found his dream house when he bought the 3,500-square-foot beauty in Homestead, Fla., two years ago.
Then, he says, his large-screen TV mysteriously failed. Next, the air conditioner went. His bath towels smelled like rotten eggs. Visitors noted an odor in the house. Martinez says he's suffered new sinus problems and sleep apnea. His wife and son sneeze a lot.

The walls in the home, a recently filed class-action lawsuit alleges, were built with the same kind of Chinese-made drywall that tests have shown emit sulfur gases that corrode copper coils and electrical and plumbing components.

Similar problems have been linked to hundreds of Florida homes. Tens of thousands of homes there and in other states could be affected, say lawyers who have filed lawsuits on behalf of Florida homeowners. The discovery has created a firestorm that's engulfed an international building supplier, large and small home builders and dozens of subcontractors. The issue also has revived concerns about quality-control procedures of U.S. companies that use Chinese-made products, following episodes in recent years involving contaminated toothpaste and pet-food ingredients, lead-tainted toys and defective tires imported from China.

A leading U.S. home builder, Lennar, and a Chinese drywall manufacturer, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin, say tests show the gases given off by the drywall pose no health hazards. Florida regulators and the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission are investigating.
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the only thing in china that doesn't contain lead is probably lead. ;)
 
I had the honor of visiting Gypsum Colorado a few years ago. That's where most of the innards for American made drywall comes from. Quite the operation in the middle of nowhere.

I also remember reading about Chinese villagers somewhere using home recycled paper pulp to replace flour in steamed buns.

The Chinese are capable of quality; if supervised, and given the raw resources and machinery. Otherwise their products are simulacra of the real thing, i.e., Chinese batteries; which are good for squat. Chinese printing is of very good quality, that's where most of your coffee table type books are printed..
 
I had a connection with a business that was looking at outsourcing some of its production to China. A few of the top executives flew over to tour some of the production facilities and see what sort of product they could expect. The way the process was later described to me was that when outsourcing to China the first question that's asked is what it is you want, and the second question is how much you want to pay. On their end they will then come up with a way to fabricate whatever you want for however much you want to pay (as opposed to the typical model here, where you contact a supplier and they quote you a price which serves as a basis for negotiation).

Basically, if their experience was indicative of how things actually are, the problem with Chinese manufacturing isn't their manufacturing per se, but rather that cost cutting on our side tends to drive down the quality of the product that gets imported.
 
Sounds about right. I toured manufacturing plants in China, supervised by Western engineers. The quality there, if given the resources, the know-how, and the supervision, can match anything here.

I certainly believe it's the problem with the importers and contractors more than the standards (worker safety is a whole other ballgame, though) there, that's at issue.
 
Something is suspect when people are willing to put melamine in milk products and endanger the lives of thousands. I would sooner quit, and it astonishes me that people would choose the alternative.

There has to be a point where you push back and say 'no cheaper', rather than using lead paint for toys or putting melamine in baby formula (or even dog food).
 
ShonTron said:
(worker safety is a whole other ballgame, though)
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Actually, at the plants that my contacts visited they said that the facilities were at or above domestic standards for everything from safety glasses to ventilation systems. The factories were all spotlessly clean, workers were getting breaks, and the working hours weren't unreasonable. The facilities were very large, and workers (and families) were housed on-site in smallish but livable apartments.

I don't think the facilities they saw were just a front (they saw the plant in action, and it was producing too specialized a product for it to be a show), nor do I think that they saw 'public' facilities, with the evil facilities hidden away somewhere else. I think the plant was just producing such an expensive product, with demands for quasi-skilled workers and major overhead, that the industry warranted a full-out investment by the Chinese.
 
Some plants do have safety standards that are high - particuarly high-value manufacturing - but when you visit a construction site, they're going by 1920s North American standards. Harnesses, for one thing, might be a good idea.
 
W. K. Lis said:
That is why I refuse to buy things from Walmart or Dollar stores, except as a last resort. Just look at the labels for the "Made In...".
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Not a useful guide, based on our labelling laws. For instance, apple juice from concentrate from China can be labelled 'Product of Canada' if it was diluted and bottled here.
 
New “Made in Canada†Labelling Rules Effective January 1, 2009

Under the new rules, a product must be made almost entirely of domestically grown or produced contents to qualify for a "Product of Canada" label.

The term "Made in Canada" can still appear on goods with foreign materials, but only if a disclaimer clearly states some of its contents are imported.

See this PDF.
 
It's normally pretty clear on drywall where it comes from. The stamps on the back normally identify the plant, and the date of manufacture. From what I've seen, I doubt this is a local problem. Buf if you are concerned, just keep an eye on the labels, etc.
 
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