After seeing in person several homes with Chinese drywall and seeing the Red Flags in those homes of what to look for I have compiled a simple list that will give you a good start in the search to see if your home has this problematic drywall in it:
- Use you sense of smell. If you detect a sulfur like odor, you might have it.
- Look at the soft reactive metals in your home. Copper and Silver seem to be the first to show signs of reacting to the corrosive off gassing of the drywall.
- Copper wiring that is turning dark is a tell tail sign. It turns almost black when it is exposed to the drywall off gassing.
- Most of us have pennies sitting in a jar, bowl or whatever. Take a look at that pocket change that has been sitting on the desk for a while. If the pennies on top are turning dark and the ones further down in the jar are not, then you might have it.
- Silver plated picture frames are another good test. If they are turning dark, you might have a problem.
- Silver jewelry is another good prospect to see if you might be at risk.
- Looking for the Made in China or Knauf/Tianjin marks on the back of the drywall in black ink. This is a guarantee that you have it! This can be done form the attic or even an air return chase.
Note: If you find Made in China or Kanuf on the back of the drywall in Blue ink, this drywall seems to be OK.
Any of the above situations or items along with the smell of sulfur in the home is about the best way to tell if your home is at risk of having Chinese drywall or drywall that has been mixed with fly ash. After talking with individuals who's homes have had this drywall, they all said that it started after they had been in the home for more than a few months and some took as long as four years. A common thread was that they all started to notice their silver jewelry was turning or tarnishing more than it ever did as soon as they moved into their new home.
At this time we have no sure method of testing an entire home to see if it has Chinese drywall in it. The only way to test via a lab is to take a sample (1" round core) every 4 feet in every wall and on every ceiling that has drywall. Why every 4'? The drywall sheets are in 4'x8' sheets so you must test every sheet! It is cost prohibited and very destructive to do this type of testing. Visual is the best method we have at this time for identifying a home with Chinese drywall. Be careful of the testing scams that have popped up over the past few months.
This information is provided by Scott Patterson as a service. It may be reproduced with permission as long as credit is given to the author and it is not changed.
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Actually, there are many other non-destructive and minimally intrusive tests that can be conducted, besides what this citizen has described. Think about it, you want to test for sulfur contained in the gypsum in your drywall. Why would you need a large 1 inch hole? Why not half an inch, or a quarter inch. Do you not still get gypsum to test? How did the optimum hole magically land on such a nice round number as 1?
Beware of home inspectors like these. They are not chemists, and as such don't have as good an understanding of what they are dealing with. Also, ask yourself, does this person have a service they are offering which benefits from what they are saying? If so, like in this case, then you have to take what they tell you with a large portion of salt.