Tainted Chinese drywall shows up in Katrina homes
By CAIN BURDEAU
April 13, 2009
CHALMETTE, La. (AP) — Thomas Stone and his wife rebuilt after their home was flooded by six feet of water during Hurricane Katrina, never dreaming they would face the agony of tearing it apart all over again.
They tapped Lauren Stone’s 401(k) retirement savings and saved $1,000 by installing Chinese-made drywall throughout their two-story home. Now the Stones are among hundreds of Katrina victims facing another, this time unnatural, disaster.
Sulfur-emitting wallboard from China is wreaking havoc in homes, charring electrical wires, eating away at jewelry, silverware and other valuables, and possibly even sickening families.
“The bathroom upstairs has a corroded shower-head, the door hinges are rusting out,” said 50-year-old Thomas Stone, the longtime fire chief of St. Bernard Parish, outside New Orleans. And then there’s the stench, like rotten eggs, that seems to get worse with the heat and humidity.
“It makes me wish there would be another flood to wash it out,” said his wife Lauren, 49.
Chinese manufacturers flooded the U.S. market with more than 500 million pounds of drywall around the same time Katrina was flooding New Orleans, an Associated Press review of shipping records has found.
The boom in imported China-made building materials peaked in 2006, driven by domestic shortages created by the nationwide construction boom, as well as a series of Gulf Coast hurricanes.
2 Responses to “Tainted Chinese drywall shows up in Katrina homes”
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You should first file a complaint with http://www.cpsc.gov/ . Chances are your neighbors also have it so you should have them also file a complaint with the CPSC. You also have to make a claim with your builder and with your insurance company.
Next advise your bank that you have Chinese drywall and let them know that they need to freeze your mortgage payment until the house has been remediated.
I live in Covington, LA in the Savannahs…and have just discovered the entire house is constructed with chinese drywall…any guidelines or advise???