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It helps when you know construction people. The first batch I got came
from a "Chinese drywall" house. They broke a piece trying to take the
kitchen apart and decided they could never match it up so they got rid
of all of it. The pieces with cut outs in them can be pretty fragile.
Since I didn't want the cut out anyway, it was fine with me. That was
where my other bar top came from.
.......,

The "Chinese drywall". Oh man, a mixture of formaldehyde and chalk

What ever was the outcome of all that anyhow?

On Thu, 26 May 2016 10:06:54 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

It helps when you know construction people. The first batch I got came
from a "Chinese drywall" house. They broke a piece trying to take the
kitchen apart and decided they could never match it up so they got rid
of all of it. The pieces with cut outs in them can be pretty fragile.
Since I didn't want the cut out anyway, it was fine with me. That was
where my other bar top came from.
......,

The "Chinese drywall". Oh man, a mixture of formaldehyde and chalk

What ever was the outcome of all that anyhow?

There was a little bit of restitution to be had out there if you were
willing to pursue it and could actually find an American company that
would accept responsibility but most of the houses were just dumped in
the housing crash for a fraction of what they were worth. One of my
buddies specialized in fixing them and did quite well but it involved
taking the house down to the FEPAC (predrywall) treating the block
walls and rebuilding it from there.
I think some of the problems were a bit over hyped. The sulfides did
attack copper and brass. Other metals were pretty much unaffected. The
level of damage was also pretty superficial and a lot of stuff was
replaced that didn't need it. The sulfur in our well water is as bad
or worse. You did need to get rid of the drywall. I am not sure how
long it would out gas sulfur compounds but I was in a 5 year old
drywall house that had been opened up for over a month and it still
smelled bad in there.
Once he ripped out every speck of that drywall, sealed the block and
went back fresh, it was fine. Considering you could buy a 2000 sq/ft
house for about $20k and spend another $25-50k depending on how you
rebuilt it, there was plenty of money to be made there. He went back
on the high end of that and got over $250k, even during the recession.
These days, I doubt there is a "drywall house" left and the ones he
rebuilt are going for more like $400k.

On Thu, 26 May 2016 10:06:54 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

The "Chinese drywall". Oh man, a mixture of formaldehyde and chalk

That wasn't really the problem. They were using pyrites, probably from
coal production, in the aggregate and it had a high sulfur content.
This would outgas sulfur compounds that burn your eyes and corrode
copper. I think most of it in this country came through Tampa and
Miami with a smaller amount in New Orleans. That is why Florida was
ground zero for this problem.

http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Chinese%20D...of%20cases.jpg

My wife's company, Centex, had their own US based drywall company
(Eagle) so they never had the problem.

On Thu, 26 May 2016 14:32:32 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 26 May 2016 10:06:54 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

It helps when you know construction people. The first batch I got came
from a "Chinese drywall" house. They broke a piece trying to take the
kitchen apart and decided they could never match it up so they got rid
of all of it. The pieces with cut outs in them can be pretty fragile.
Since I didn't want the cut out anyway, it was fine with me. That was
where my other bar top came from.
......,

The "Chinese drywall". Oh man, a mixture of formaldehyde and chalk

What ever was the outcome of all that anyhow?

===

It was a financial disaster for all concerned. It turned out that
there was a fair amount of sulphur in the mix also. Combined with
Florida humidity it was a recipe for making sulphuric acid which ate
everything it touched, especially copper wiring and human respiratory
systems. Savvy buyers eventually learned the trick of pulling a few
electrical cover plates and checking for green copper wires. That was
a sure sign of Chinese drywall. To remediate, the house had to be
gutted down to the studs, rewired and rebuilt - huge expense.

Black copper and brass, not green. I have a lot of pictures of the
house where my granite came from including opened up electrical
devices and stripped wire. The damage is really pretty superficial but
ugly,

http://gfretwell.com/ftp/Chinese%20Drywall/
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