TOPIC: American-made Drywall

At a home inspection yesterday on a brand-new house, my client was buying a home built by one of the companies that has installed Chinese drywall in the past.

They are having obvious problems because of that installation.

My client wanted assurance that there was no Chinese drywall in this house.

I was able to find a spot where the stamps were visible to show that this drywall, in fact, was American made!

While I cannot guarantee that there is no Chinese drywall in the house, it is a pretty good bet that there is none!  This builder likely wouldn't open that can of worms again, a scant couple of years later.  Especially since it's in the news.

Although Chinese drywall is showing up in more and more states and locations, it is apparently not in this neighborhood in Northern Virginia.

My recommendation: if you have concerns when selling a house built any time from 2004 on that there may be Chinese-made drywall, have your inspector try to find the stamps on the backside that demonstrate where it had been manufactured.  Peace of mind is worth a million bucks...  and a picture says a thousand words.

However...

Go here and have a look at the pictures.

www.sandiegohomeinspect.com/chinese-drywall-inspections

See pic three?  Is it staged?  One never knows.  But being in construction for many years has taught me that builders may use whatever they can get their hands on and sometimes will buy materials from multiple suppliers during the course of construction especially if the project is quite large.

My other concern here is how you protect yourself from the liability inherent in doing these types of inspections.  Tread carefully when  making recommendations about the existence or non-existence of CD in your report. Are you doing physical samples for lab analysis?

I have SEEN good and bad FRT plywood in the same roof, a mix of breakers in the panel box of new construction, different shingle grades, etc.

In this case, my report said nothing about the drywall manufacture.  All I could show him was ONE piece.  However, it was built in 2009 and very unlikely to have any.  Especially since that was one of the builders caught up with the problems elsewhere.

Looking at those pictures, I doubt if that one was staged.  I think they were making a point.  The one guy around here who does testing (and NOT getting much business because it is really expensive and so far has found NONE in Northern VA) says he does 3 and 4 samples in each room throughout the house, just in case there is a mix and match of drywall.

They make drywall here in Gastonia NC. Better than the stuff from China. I like drywall unless someone covers it with pop corn.


www.thecolumbiahomeinspector.com
www.thegreenvillehomeinspector.com
www.bestcharlottehomerepairs.com

Jarrod - I have 8 other posts about the Chinese Drywall.  Even got on TV last week!