# Anyone having problems with Chineese Drywall yet?



## Michigan11 (Jan 20, 2011)

I know it started to surface around 07', that it was inferior to American made drywall, in fact it will burst pipes and cause the ho to have to rip it all out and re-install correct drywall.

Luckily I haven't come across it yet, that I know of, but how do you know if it is Chineese Drywall?


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## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

Michigan11 said:


> I know it started to surface around 07', that it was inferior to American made drywall, *in fact it will burst pipes* and cause the ho to have to rip it all out and re-install correct drywall.
> 
> Luckily I haven't come across it yet, that I know of, but how do you know if it is Chineese Drywall?


huh?


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## Michigan11 (Jan 20, 2011)

SlimPickins said:


> huh?


I read that it corodes pipes, because of the sulfer content.


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## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

I've never heard that...crazy. I heard that it molds at the first wisp of moisture though, and that it was molding just from humidity.


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## Kiwiman (Jun 14, 2008)

I think there was quite a discussion on it over at Contractor talk a year or two ago.


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## Michigan11 (Jan 20, 2011)

SlimPickins said:


> I've never heard that...crazy. I heard that it molds at the first wisp of moisture though, and that it was molding just from humidity.


Yeah supposedly all the copper soder joints in the ac units, even including water piping would corrode. Not sure if the electrical wiring was effected. I know it is crazy that's why I brought it up


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## vvdrywall (Jan 21, 2011)

Ya, funny! People out here in CA were all worried about me using it on their job! There was a newspaper article out saying that it was coroding jewelry, pipes, and causing health problems! People were freaking out about it! Would hate to be the Drywall Contractor that was using it!


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## mudslingr (Jul 18, 2010)

Michigan11 said:


> I know it started to surface around 07', that it was inferior to American made drywall, in fact it will burst pipes and cause the ho to have to rip it all out and re-install correct drywall.
> 
> Luckily I haven't come across it yet, that I know of, but how do you know if it is Chineese Drywall?


Look on the back of the board for the manufacturer's name. Probably Knauf.

http://www.chinesedrywall.com/


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## Michigan11 (Jan 20, 2011)

vvdrywall said:


> Ya, funny! People out here in CA were all worried about me using it on their job! There was a newspaper article out saying that it was coroding jewelry, pipes, and causing health problems! People were freaking out about it! Would hate to be the Drywall Contractor that was using it!


It's enough to keep some of us up at night to say the least. Could you imagine having to rip out an entire house of drywall and re-doing it again?


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## mudslingr (Jul 18, 2010)

Not only Chinese drywall. American too. Watch this.


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## fenez (Nov 30, 2009)

I did a house with it about 3 years ago, 135 4x12 boards. The guy happens to live around the corner from me, when I found out there was a problem with the chinese board I stopped by his house and told him I would like to make sure there was no issues he let me and there was none. I stop by every few months just to take a look and he appreciates it, I took a piece down to see if there was any mold behind it but none so far.


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## comremodel (May 6, 2009)

mudslingr said:


> Not only Chinese drywall. American too. Watch this.


I have to say that their problems do look much the same as those caused by Chinese drywall but I had to stop looking at that video about half way through. Geeze, cut the BS we know there's a problem and you aren't the only ones. We know about the Chinese stuff. What does the testing lab say about your stuff and what does USG or GP have to say? That's what I want to hear about not you home owners and your kids whining.


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## comremodel (May 6, 2009)

fenez said:


> I did a house with it about 3 years ago, 135 4x12 boards. The guy happens to live around the corner from me, when I found out there was a problem with the chinese board I stopped by his house and told him I would like to make sure there was no issues he let me and there was none. I stop by every few months just to take a look and he appreciates it, I took a piece down to see if there was any mold behind it but none so far.


No, nothing to do with mold. The Chinese as you might expect spiked the gypsum with any **** they had that they wanted to get rid of. The Chinese rock outgasses sulphur fumes from the fly ash that they added to the mix. The fumes are corrosive to copper and other metals and cause health problems.


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## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

mudslingr said:


> Not only Chinese drywall. American too. Watch this.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWLbxR8O-sQ


Wow. That was one cheesy video. 

Now I'm going to have to do a bunch of research on "defective" drywall, and compare it to what I've read about the off-gassing of all the other toxic things we put in our homes. I think most of our drywall here comes from Canada anyway, and while it might be high in beaver residue I think overall it's pretty safe.


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## carpentaper (Feb 28, 2009)

i wanna be high in beaver residue too.


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## 2buckcanuck (Jul 9, 2010)

SlimPickins said:


> Wow. That was one cheesy video.
> 
> Now I'm going to have to do a bunch of research on "defective" drywall, and compare it to what I've read about the off-gassing of all the other toxic things we put in our homes. I think most of our drywall here comes from Canada anyway, and while it might be high in beaver residue I think overall it's pretty safe.


I hope you know that beaver means a woman's vagina in canuck land,what do you tell your wife your doing at work all day


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## SlimPickins (Aug 10, 2010)

2buckcanuck said:


> I hope you know that beaver means a woman's vagina in canuck land,what do you tell your wife your doing at work all day


I tell her not to worry, it's all really really old beavers, and that I don't have any feelings for them.


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## [email protected] (Dec 23, 2008)

If you are some distance from the coasts, you have nothing to fear of the bogus Chinese board. There was also some Calgary (G.P.?)product with similar results. 84 Lumber sold some in the Florida market, so I heard. Knauf was the Chinese perp., being Germany based, little chance of a legal remedy. If you suspect you got sold any of this board, it sucks to be you.


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## jam1324 (Feb 5, 2011)

You can place some pennies, or other copper in the cold air return right behind the vents and they should start to corrode within a couple weeks to months if there is problematic chinese drywall.


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## joepro0000 (Jun 14, 2008)

Been there, done it, seen it, and replaced it. Stuff just sinks like rotten eggs. It didn't corrode this one persons copper pipes, so they didn't replace it. (their choice) We installed new drywall/insulation, and everything worked out fine in a South Florida Home. It took 2 days to install the drywall, and 3 days to finish it. The homeowner opted to demo himself to save money, which is understandable. It took him 6 days, and would of took us probably 2. But I see it as these jobs can be done in a month, including everything from demo to paint. I recommend a home-owner hiring subs and pulling the permits themselves, and save money from working with a GC.


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## sprayforce (Oct 10, 2010)

One of my suppliers had purchased 2 boat loads of that junk. They only offered me a savings of $5 p/thousand. So thankfully I didnt buy any. they did try twice to sneak a lift of 40 pcs on one of my jobs. But I caught it and had them replace it. 
I had some pictures of one of the boat loads when it pulled into port. Scary the board didnt look like it was secured to well for rough seas. 
Also they only bought 1/2" as the 5/8 was not rated.
But I wish I had some houses that needed the board replaced NOW. As I sit here twiddling my thumbs wishing I could get at least enough work signed up to pay my bills. I have one nightmarish job going on now and am grateful for it. No backlog... Stressing hard


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## Michigan11 (Jan 20, 2011)

sprayforce said:


> One of my suppliers had purchased 2 boat loads of that junk. They only offered me a savings of $5 p/thousand. So thankfully I didnt buy any. they did try twice to sneak a lift of 40 pcs on one of my jobs. But I caught it and had them replace it.
> I had some pictures of one of the boat loads when it pulled into port. Scary the board didnt look like it was secured to well for rough seas.
> Also they only bought 1/2" as the 5/8 was not rated.
> But I wish I had some houses that needed the board replaced NOW. As I sit here twiddling my thumbs wishing I could get at least enough work signed up to pay my bills. I have one nightmarish job going on now and am grateful for it. No backlog... Stressing hard


Why not try some advertising to homeowners saying you can check to see if they have contaminated drywall. Get a testing kit or something that looks professional and have a well written article that scares them. Then charge a fee. I bet you could make a killing just on checking for drywall if it is around your area that is.


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## florida drywall (May 20, 2010)

mudslingr said:


> Not only Chinese drywall. American too. Watch this.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWLbxR8O-sQ


 
Sorry this is so long 

I don’t know about the rest of you but I find some of the information in this video to be questionable evidence on the drywall being toxic, and there are a few reasons why I am questioning it. 

First off, if the drywall has been contaminated or is omitting toxic gases comparable to the Chinese’s drywall such as the outrageous rotten egg smell you get with Chinese drywall, there was no mention of that in the video.

The illness feelings could be related to other issues, new plants they maybe alleges too, hell I have all the symptoms my self all the time due to stress and smoking. I also have some bad alleges that I never had until moving to Florida as a kid. 

Notice in the first image of the outlet talking about the copper wire, notice its only the ground wire and not were the white wire is connected to the outlet, also notice the outlet copper plating is not corroded in the same image. 

Copper, if exposed to the air we breath and oxygen it will start to tarnish and blacken, it’s the natural process for copper, that’s why copper roofs that are exposed start to change color and then finally turn green, its called oxidization. 

The controller box on the floor, looks to me like one of three things, one its been exposed to a home where smokers live, two its been exposed to sun light though a window, three the dam thing is just old and starting to discolor, I say this because it’s the only thing they show changing in color, what about the receptacle in the first image, wouldn’t all the receptacles be discolored? Especially the backside of them exposed in trapped gasses with in the wall? Also why wouldn’t the white plastic shielding in the wirering be discolored? 

Again with the image of the boy pointing to wires and the receptacle, notice NO discoloring of the receptacle or the wire shielding. Only the ground wire. 

As for the image with the boy pointing at the faucet, notice you don’t see any thing wrong with the cover around the shower knob, then the image only shows the faucet by its self with black scale on it, this could be an image from an older faucet, or a bad water system, this is in Florida were a lot of people are on wells like I am. If I don’t keep my water softener filled with salt rocks, I tend to have very hard water with a lot of iron in it as well as a bad egg smell from the water, I have seen this before on faucets and is most like due to a high iron content in the water. Its called iron and calcium deposits. 


The clip where they discuss MIT testing was done, first off I don’t know how many of you have taken drywall samples to an independent testing laboratory like I have, but it can be very costly, starting around $5,000 and up for one test. Also why didn’t they show there testing data results in the video as more compelling evidence?


The black marks he shows and speaks of on the paper side of the insulation is quite common. The paper is coated in a wax and it is simply discolored is all. If it was mold, it would be on the surface of the paper and be darker, larger area, have hairy spoors on it, its NOT mold. And has nothing to do with the drywall. 

Every house I have been in and redone the Chinese drywall in the brass door hinges were discolored, notice these are NOT, behind the women at 5:01 time.

As for the back side of the drywall paper, I see this all the time in new drywall, drywall paper is recycled paper, depending on the color and percentage of that color during the manufacture of that paper will determine how off white it is, note the manufacturing time between the 2 sheets he makes this case fore me him self. 

As for the AC coal, I see this all the time under normal conditions. 

I have redone over a 100 homes here in Florida due to the Chinese drywall, I also do a lot of bank foreclosures, and the come to find out, some people use the Chinese drywall problem as an excuses to stop making mortgage payments, they then loss there home and we get called in to make repairers for the bank to get the house back on the market, I have found several times when I am called to visit one of these homes to do an estimate expecting to walk into a defected Chinese drywall house, that in fact its not, the people used it for an excuse because they couldn’t make the payment any more and wanted some kind of break or loan to remodel the house and then not do the work but to help pay down there bills. 

I have done enough of these I know what to look for, and what they show in this video is a little off, I have also to date not found a house with Chinese drywall related problems with US manufactured drywall in it, other than the ceiling board, I have found that since the Chinese drywall was a regular ½” drywall and was not rated as a ceiling board they didn’t use Chinese drywall on the ceilings, also in most cases the house would not pass a drywall inspection, because the ceiling drywall needs to be rated for ceiling use. 

So in most case of finding Chinese drywall in a house it would only be on the walls and not the ceiling, just as in his video, the stacks of drywall could have been there for the ceiling as well, if he does in fact have Chinese drywall in the home. 

Please make sure you don’t believe every thing you hear, read or see, do your own investigating and research, there are a lot of people out there in financial trouble and looking for a way to get out or a hand out. 

Sorry for the long post….


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## fulcrum (Sep 13, 2010)

Totally agree. I'm no expert on metal corrosion but I do know about plastics - the discoloration on that controller they showed is due to u/v. They are typically molded out of HIPS (high impact polystyrene). Polystyrene readily discolors with u/v. Most manufacturers have grades with added u/v stabilizers but they will still discolor eventually - if it was a cheap product where teh manufacturer was trying to save a few cents and went with a non-stabilized grade then it will discolor very quickly. And of course on teh backside there is no discoloration because it never saw daylight.
But what kind of dumb-ass would pull their home apart like that?? If they were in debt before, they still are - just now they have no home...


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## florida drywall (May 20, 2010)

fulcrum said:


> But what kind of dumb-ass would pull their home apart like that?? If they were in debt before, they still are - just now they have no home...


I have seen a few people do it, they go on line and read things and see videos like this, and then the first thing they do is start looking at the AC, and start popping off recp. covers, then they see the wires oxidizing and think they have it, so they start pulling off drywall, that’s the bad part about some people trying to teach them selves to become an expert in an area that they have no clue about.

What makes some people read a book, watch a video and go to HD pick up some drywall and some plastic drywall knifes and pans and think they are an expert in drywall now and start remodeling there house, only to find there is more to it than what they expected.

It's the same thought process.


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## jam1324 (Feb 5, 2011)

florida drywall said:


> Sorry this is so long
> 
> I don’t know about the rest of you but I find some of the information in this video to be questionable evidence on the drywall being toxic, and there are a few reasons why I am questioning it.
> 
> ...



I thought the same thing pretty much about everything you pointed out, I did not see one real sign of the drywall being toxic, everything was pretty much normal as far as what any house looks like behind things if you start tearing things out in a house with normal drywall.


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