Chinese Drywall Blog

Is all testing for Chinese drywall accurate? The short answer is “No”. The long answer…

Recently, we have had several customers call the office requesting a Chinese drywall inspection with testing. These customers had previously completed  Chinese drywall testing and had been told they had Chinese drywall but wanted yet another and "non partial" inspection with testing. In some cases, upon completion of our inspection and testing, no evidence of Chinese drywall was found. Interestingly enough, in some of these inspections, the very boards in question were clearly manufactured in the USA. Additionally, proper testing by an accredited lab showed no excessive corrosion causing sulfur chemcial present in the questionable drywall.

Why the difference in results? Apparently, some testing companies are using test methods that are not recommended by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Also, some companies are testing strictly for chemicals that are naturally found in USA drywall. In these type tests, the glitch may be that the allowable threshold for the chemical is set so low that some domestic brands may wrongfully be determined to be Chinese drywall.

As we have seen in the last year, the CPSC standards continue to evolve as more is learned about the problems with Chinese drywall. We try to stay abreast of the most current CPSC standards. We keep the lines of communication open with the labs we work with to ensure the most up-to-date testing. While we cannot guarantee our clients their homes do not have any Chinese drywall installed, we can offer some of our clients a level of confidence that will help them rest easier until the CPSC offers final protocol for identifying Chinese drywall.

With so many companies popping up to offer testing, inspection, and remediation for Chinese drywall, it's no wonder the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has published a warning: "Don’t Get Nailed by Bogus Tests and Treatments". The CPSC also recently released guidelines to help bring some standardization to the inspection, testing and remediation of possible Chinese Drywall installations. Hopefully, these guidelines will bring some peace of mind to those who have been wrongfully told they have Chinese drywall. For those who are unsure whether or not they have Chinese drywall, these guidelines may help determine if Chinese drywall is present.

Griffith Home Analysis has long-established relationships with accredited environmental labs. We have been providing residential environmental testing for nearly twenty years and don't take take it lightly. The CPSC recommended drywall tests measure for contaminants as low as 10 parts per million. As a result, we leave the accuracy of these types of tests to qualified chemists. We do not perform onsite drywall tests as we have found some of these types of tests to be inaccurate.

We have discovered, just as the CPSC has suggested in step one of their new guidelines, that a visual inspection of the accessible drywall areas and the home systems' accessible metal components is the best place to start to determine if the possibility of Chinese drywalls existence in a building. Looking for possible markings of Chinese drywall or the corrosion resulting from Chinese drywall has proven to be our best tip-off that a home has Chinese drywall.

Visual identification can be difficult since most of the drywall manufacturer markings are obscured. Most views of the drywall manufacturers stamps are limited to partial stamps on the back of the drywall, pieces of the boards end tape or partial UPC numbers. We rely on our database of information built from hundreds of drywall inspections and first hand information from labs, drywall manufacturers, drywall distributors, builders and developers to help sort the limited information obtained in a drywall inspection.

For more information see the CPSC page: http://www.cpsc.gov/info/drywall/InterimIDGuidance012810.pdf

We have been waiting on some standards to evolve and offer some guidance on what to do with the homes that conclusively have Chinese drywall installed. The CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) has released "Guidance on Repairing Homes With Problem Drywall".

For clients who have Chinese drywall, the CPSC publication, as generally expected, recommends "remove all possible problem drywall from their homes, and replace electrical components and wiring, gas service piping, fire suppression sprinkler systems, smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms." In most cases, this means the removal of most of the interior finishes to strip to the studs.

The unexpected result of the CPSC's sweeping recommendation is the effect on homes that have a partial amount of or only a few Chinese drywall boards. In Alabama, our experience with Chinese drywall inspections has discovered many homes with only partial installations of Chinese drywall and some exhibit little or no corrosion damage to the systems. Some contractors are arguing that complete removal of the homes interior and mechanical systems may be overkill. As we have seen in the past year, the guidelines seem to be continually evolving. Many homeowners are waiting for information from the EPA or CPSC on the health impact of the drywall contamination to decide how to react.

For more information see the CPSC web page:

http://www.cpsc.gov/info/drywall/hud10068.html