NAHB Issues Recommendations on Faulty Chinese Drywall
Posted on March 16, 2011 By Craig Allen (Edit) Leave a Comment
Massachusetts appears not affected by faulty Chinese drywall.
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has released a new resource for builders concerned about faulty Chinese manufactured drywall.
“The publication represents more than a year of intensive research, testing, analysis and evaluation under the auspices of NAHB’s Chinese Drywall Task Force, whose mission was to identify a permanent solution to problems with drywall emitting or off-gassing corrosive compounds, which can lead to blackening of copper electrical wiring and air conditioning evaporator coils and can cause mechanical, electrical and electronic failures,” according to news release from the NAHB.
However, the non-profit investigative journalism organization ProPublica reports that the NAHB’s guidelines contradict recommendations made last year by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The NAHB’s report says detecting corrosive drywall only takes a few days using using copper coupons. But ProPublica quotes a materials testing expert who insists it can take significantly more time to detect faulty drywall.
Large quantities of the defective drywall was imported from China– mostly to the U.S. Gulf Coast states following a string of hurricanes. Fortunately for Massachusetts residents and builders, it appears little or none of the drywall made it to the northeastern U.S.
The ProPublica website includes a U.S. map indicating where most of the drywall problems have been uncovered.
