Chinese drywall: What to look for WBBH-TV updated 6:12 a.m. PT, Tues., Dec. 23, 2008

FORT MYERS: Chinese drywall was a product used throughout Southwest Florida during the construction boom. Now, it's generating a boom of concern. Homeowners say the drywall is corroding their air conditioning units, stinking up their house, and even making them sick.

Monday, we met with officials from a local environmental testing company called AMRC. The company is very familiar with Chinese drywall and has been responding to a minimum of five new calls a month about it. Jack Snider, CEO of AMRC Environmental Testing, says this is a widespread problem for homes in Southwest Florida. He says the good news is that it's easy for you to check your home to see if you have it.

Snider says the Chinese drywall looks like any other drywall you would see. But the gases released from the Chinese drywall are capable of corroding copper coiling, which is found in nearly every home. When the sulfur is mixed with moisture, he says, it can create a gas that is capable of causing corrosion. "It does corrode away at the copper itself. And you can see it, usually like a black scaling," said Snider. He says homes he's found with Chinese drywall have had to replace their copper air conditioning coils multiple times.

The copper reaction isn't the most noticeable sign if your drywall is of the Chinese variety. Officials with a large building supply company say more than 10 million square feet of the Chinese drywall was imported to Southwest Florida in 2006. It was not because of the price, but because of a drywall shortage during the building boom.

Snider says the best indicator of whether you have Chinese drywall is the smell. It smells sort of like rotten eggs or when you first strike a match. For one more check, you can head to your attic and check out the back of the drywall and look for the letters: KNAUF. Those letters are a manufacturing ID that Snider says will guarantee it is the Chinese version. But, he says, this is not something that will come up all of a sudden. The smell, especially, would have been present from the time you moved in. "You would know it by now. If you moved into a home in 2004, 2005 and you suspect there's a problem - there are probably a lot of signs that would have already been there," Snider said.

If you find you do have Chinese drywall, the first thing you should do is call an environmental testing company to legally verify it is the product. Also, you should monitor any health symptoms you suspect could be related to the drywall

Unfortunately, right now there is no concrete information right now about potential health effects. "There have been some loosely performed health related studies that are important. But, there's still a lot more work that needs to be done before it's concluded," said Snider. "We need much more data before we can speak to the health effects at all," said Dr. Judith Hartner of the Lee County Health Department. Snider says builders are already trying to figure out how to best address the issue. They can't say yet whether they will need to rip out and replace all of the drywall or if there is a way to treat it somehow.

Unfortunately, this is a problem a lot of companies are just learning about and there is not enough chemical data to know exactly what impact this is going to have across our area. We spoke with officials from Lennar Homes. They say their investigation in Southwest Florida shows independent subcontractors installed Chinese drywall in a very small percentage of Lennar homes built between November 2005 and November 2006. [Click here to read the Lennar homes full statement]

Some Lennar homeowners say they don't know what to do. "A lot of people in the neighborhood are scared. They don't want to speak up because if something needs to be done, they don't want to step on Lennar's toes," said Lennar homeowner Alana Consolo. Any Lennar homeowner with questions or concerns can contact Division President Darin McMurray at (239) 278-1177.

Could you have Chinese drywall? Does your home have a strong smell (a sulfur or rotten egg-type smell) Do you have corroded copper coils in your air conditioner or are the coils black? Do you have KNAUF written on the back of your drywall? Go to your attic and look at the back side of the drywall for Knauf. This is the manufacturer's ID, which identifies it as the drywall in question.Chinese drywall is thinner and lighter than typical drywal.

Additional information: This specific drywall is made of waste from coal-fired plants. The material that wouldn't burn was recylced into the drywall instead of being taken to a landfill. AMRC, an environmental engineering and testing company, says the problem is mainly in communities, not single family residences built on their own, like in Cape Coral or Lehigh Acres.

The drywall was used in 2004 and 2005 because there was a high demand for building materials at the time and this was available and cost-effective. Don't waste money on lab testing. If you went over the checklist above and suspect you have Chinese drywall, call an environmental testing company to come out and verify it. It can be verified for legal purposes without lab tests.

Health effects are unknown, there is not enough data on the actual chemical compounds to make a determination.

Jeanne Considine-Spriggs

Inspector Genie, 208-215-4090