Rotten Eggs: Bad Drywall from China?

WAIT! No – don’t tell me….let me guess. Another basic, garden variety,
low-tech product made in China at an amazing low cost, by using
low wages, shoddy practices, and substandard or illegal materials.

But bad drywall??? What could possibly go wrong with plasterboard?
How about a constant rotten-egg sulfur smell – like hidden Easter eggs
that were not found for a few months.

This story appears similar to to previous stories where Chinese product defects
only came to light when:

• – children started dying (melamine in powdered milk)
• – children got sick (chemically tainted toothpaste, lead paint on toys)
• – people died in car crashes (tread separation on defective tires)

The list goes on and on. Western companies aided their own destruction
by investing hundreds of millions of dollars in new Chinese factories to take
advantage of the wage disparity. Unfortunately, it seems that the Chinese do
not as a whole share our traditions of trying to create the best product at the
lowest cost; the Chinese ethos seems to be “create the lowest cost product
regardless of the consequences.”

The fact that they could still make a profit after paying the costs to transport
very heavy drywall some 6,000 – 9,000 miles across the globe should have
indicated something was amiss, but hey – what could possibly go wrong?

I’ve been reading about bad drywall from China for a couple of
months now. It is pretty scary if you live in Florida, Louisiana, Nevada
(and possibly other southern states) in a dwelling built between 2004 – 2008.

The Chinese product apparently used fly ash from power
plant smokestacks that had not been “scrubbed” the way
US smokestacks have been required to do for years,
and thus contains a huge amount of sulfur products
that break down over time – especially in humid climates
like the southeast.

Some people have reported health problems from breathing
the air in their new houses. China exported over 500 million
pounds of this stuff that we know of – and no surprise – it was
remarkably cheaper than domestically produced US drywall
(which has worked really well for the past 75 years or so.)

In one classic statement, a new homeowner said that he’d
saved over $1,000 building his new house with this product.
This may turn out to be another one of the false savings we
have come to expect from many Chinese products.

Many folks are now looking at the cost of tearing out all of their
walls and starting over with USA-made product, which does not
emit these noxious gases, and doesn’t corrode copper water pipes.

This AP article very well summarizes the situation so far:
        Chinese drywall poses potential risks

and this CNN story from March has some interesting details:
        Chinese-made drywall ruining homes, owners say

If you know anyone in any of the Southern states that had
big construction booms in the 2004- 2008 period, you
should pass this along to them.

And please let me know if you know of anyone who has
actually experienced this..

Explore posts in the same categories: Chinese products, Economics, Environment, News, Pollution

Tags: bad plasterboard, China, contaminated drywall, defective Chinese products, Drywall, fly ash, plasterboard, tainted drywall, US gypsum

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.