I guess the "tiny" issue of poisonous drywall is important enought to catch the eye of the IRS.

They have made uncompensated remediation deductible as a disaster loss for replacement of the drywall and replacement of corroded appliances (acid gas.)

Of course you need to actually DO the expensive replacement before you can claim anything, so those least able to afford the damage will likely get nothing.

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...Herald Tribune

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that at least ONE major Jersey City high rise will need to replace ALL its drywall. Let's see if I'm right and watch for who smells hydrogen sulfide first.

Hey, an upside: maybe hydrogen sulfide gaas kills bedbugs?

JC man,

I assume you are talking mainly about lead-based paints used before 1978 and not the myriad of metallic components added for color in small amounts like titanium, zinc, chromium? etc.

For lead testing there are kits readily available, and I think remediation is usually a paint over. THe REAL difficulty comes if one is going to strip the stuff off, like in restoring the beauty of old woodwork, you don't want to breath in the dust.

It's a shame that a good product like lead paint, it lasted forever, had to be removed because some kids liked to eat paint chips. I imagine there are kids who will drink insecticide, eat matches, and sip anti-freeze but that shouldn't mean we should be forced to do without the products. Let Darwin do his work.

[quote]
fat-ass-bike wrote:


PS. Can anyone tell the difference between metal-based paints and what should be used !




??????????????? WTF?

If someone can save $ on a grand scale, especially when building a multi-level building and it doesn't breach any code, then they be doing it. Cheap imported drywall is just a tip of the iceberg - I'd be checking if there were any carcinogenic properties involved in its manufacture.

Also look at so called insulation between the walls and lofts - A good % is rubbish made in China or India that can be a safety trap if unskilled labor was used to install it.

Welcome to the construction industry, JC style where there are no checks or balances !

PS. Can anyone tell the difference between metal-based paints and what should be used !

A good cityhall building inspector or pre-purchase inspector should know what to look for !

Proportion has nothing to do with it.
You either have defective drywall or you do not.

Just like roaches, chromium, bedbugs, leaking pipes or rotten landlords...you got 'em or you don't.

I know a project manager for the construction firm that built many of the new towers downtown (Grove Point, Columbus Towers, Trump, Crystal Point) and they did not use Chinese drywall.

I think you are blowing this a bit out of proportion.

Bedbugs, drywall, Comcast and LEFRAK!

The first one is feared, the last two are VERY real! I might throw in the gas chamber atmosphere of PATH stations too.

And although I know and knew I am safe from Chinese Drywall, my posting was to give a heads up to those who have moved into new apartments built on the waterfront since 2001, like a jillion of them up and down the waterfront.

If a LOT of them are not made from outgassing drywall, I'll be massively surprised and that includes Shore North, Shore South, Aqua Blu, The Pier, Grove Pointe, half the Hoboken waterfront, and everything else Downtown constructed or reconstructed in the last decade.


So sniff your walls today. Jaded is correct, on a humid day LIKE TODAY you will smell rotten eggs (outgassing hydrogen sulfide, H2S, far more poisonous than carbon monoxide.) The cure is replacement of your drywall and/or joining one of the dozens of class action suits.

Quote:

You forgot Comcast.

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1986? You're safe. You'd know right away if you have the problem on a humid or very rainy day. Your place would smell like rotten eggs. The drywall also poses a fire hazard in homes down South. As the walls disintegrate from humid conditions, the high sulfur content in the drywall basically becomes sulfuric acid, eating away at the wiring. Bedbugs, drywall....you sure do worry a lot about problems you don't have yet!

I have dealt with this issue at work and the majority seems to be in Florida. Really nasty stuff.

See below from http://www.chinesedrywallclaims.com/

The defective drywall, also known as wallboard, gypsum board, or plasterboard, arrived at about 2 dozen ports around the country with 7 of them in Florida, but including New York, Texas, New Orleans, and California. During the housing boom after Hurricane Katrina, among other storms, from 2004 through 2006, the strain on the supply of domestic drywall required many builders to resort to international suppliers to fill the demand.

Many imported drywall from a German-based company, Knauf, with subsidiaries in China (such as Knauf Tianjin). Reports are showing that millions of pounds of Chinese drywall entered the US during this time frame and that is was used across the country in thousands of homes, condos, and office buildings. Most foreign manufacturers stopped shipping drywall to the US in 2007, after the building boom was over.

However, it has been discovered that another manufacturer, Taian Taishan (based in Taian, China), continued to ship large quantities of drywall to New York and Port Everglades into the summer of 2007. It appears that at least 550 million pounds of Chinese drywall have arrived at US ports since 2006. That is enough to construct 60,000 average-sized homes.

My understanding is that the Chinese drywall was used mainly in Florida, New Orleans and parts of southern California from 01-07. I'm pretty positive that there haven't been any cases in NJ or NY but I could be wrong.

I've been hearing more and more about the "Chinese drywall" issue of late. Seems a lot of it was put into homes and apartments because the local production was outstripped by demand (or more likely, it was CHEAPER ) when the housing frenzy was inflating starting in 2001.

Seems there is a high sulfur content that outgasses hydrogen sulfide among other noxious products and it is making people sick. Lawsuits are flying, and people are walking away from homes. Remediation numbers like $100,000 per home fly around.

Does anyone have any personal experience with this stuff?

(I assume I'm safe because my drywall dates to 1986.)