One of the first US corporations to be sued was Lennar Corp. The lawsuit claims that they bought two homes from Lennar which have subsequently turned out to be tainted by sulfuric gas coming from the cheap Chinese drywall that Lennar installed in them. This is typical of the Chinese, and typical of many of the predatory homebuilders that put people in houses during the mid-2000’s, knowing full well that they wouldn’t be able to afford their mortgage payments a couple years down the road when their interest rates went up.

But Lennar is only the first in a long line of Chinese drywall lawsuits that are to come. As the warm air hits more and more houses, and stimulates the latent materials in their walls, thousands of homeowners will discover that they’ve been duped by cheap contractors and even cheaper Chinese manufacturing companies.

Folks, if it’s too good to be true… What other secrets have we yet to discover about illicit practices that were engaged in over the past few years just to make a quick buck? But don’t worry Lennar, I’m sure the US taxpayer will pick up the tab in one way or another.

There are now lots of lawyers advertising on the Internet who can provide legal help to people who have fallen into this huge problem. The way I see it, these lawsuits are going to be golden. What kind of a case can a builder make for why he installed poisonous walls in your home? None that I can see. I don’t think courts will let them off the hook because, “We didn’t make it. We just bought it from China.” But maybe I’m wrong.

The real problem in these lawsuits could be if it is found that there was some knowledge or cover-up about the potential drywall problems. If that is found to be true, then a lot of people are going to make a lot of money through the class-actions.

If you don’t think these Chinese drywall lawsuits are a serious problem, then I would submit to you that on the day that Lennar admitted it was being sued, its stock price dropped by nearly 20 percent in one day. That means that the investors who study things like this believe it’s likely that these companies are going to have to pay out a very significant sum of money to the homeowners they offended.

If you are a person who has been affected by this epidemic, I can’t give you specific legal counsel, but I suggest you seek some out. And I wish you all the best in your fight.

As the lawsuits begin to trickle out, so are high-profile inquiries into the nature of this beast. For instance, the University of Florida’s building and construction school has been tapped to look into that state’s drywall problems.

The leading speculation as to the origin of the defective drywall is that it was originally mixed with ash waste from coal mines in rural China. They have lower standards of safety over there, and this is probably why the problem arose. However, it should never have been allowed to be imported into the US, and somewhere heads are going to roll. As more lab work is done, more will come to light. In the meantime, homeowners all through the South are discovering that the houses that they had built over the last five or more years are starting to smell like rotten eggs.

Early estimates of the scope of this problem peg the potential number of affected houses at possibly 100,000. Why the cases are taking place in the South US is not currently known, but some think it is because the warmer weather is like a trigger that causes the drywall’s composition to change. I wonder if it is because of a few big building companies that tend to operate in the Southeast; maybe they all used the same Chinese exporter.

The company Knauf, located in China, has already admitted that some of its defective drywall complaints are specifically tied to a gypsum mine in Tianjin, which they no longer use at all. Who knows if they’re telling the truth.

My own personal belief is that this problem has barely even begun to rear its head. I hope I’m wrong, but that’s just my feeling. It reminds me a bit of the subprime credit crisis in how it sleeps for awhile before it blows up. Companies like Knauf really ought to take more precautions.

So the question becomes: who will pay for these homes to be stripped of their old, defective drywall and replaced? It may have to be the American companies, such as the builder Lennar Corp., who ultimately have to pay up in settlements. The number of lawsuits being filed is climbing like a rocket, as everyday a new homeowner wakes up to the smell of sulfur emanating from his very own walls.

If your home has been affected by this travesty, you need to know a couple basic things. Firstly, some people have reported getting sick but the full extent of that sickness is not really clear at this point. And secondly, you may want to consider your legal options.

Over the past several years, construction workers and builders have at times used a cheap form of drywall that was imported from China. Well, so what’s the problem with that you may ask; I mean, cheap is good as long as it holds up.

The problem with this Chinese drywall is that it is eroding the houses we live in here in America. This stuff gives off a corrosive gas which damages all the copper and metal surfaces that it possible comes into contact with. This is a big problem. Those metals need to be close to pristine in order for them to do their duties which they were intended to do.

There is still another problem, though, and this is that the drywall also gives off a very bad smell. You might laugh now, but if that odor was emanating from throughout your entire house, from its very walls, I don’t think you’d find that to be too funny. You’d literally “be living in the stink”. You might as well set up shop in a dump.

Who wants to live in a smelly mess of a house? When this terror comes to haunt you and your family, you’re going to wish you or your contractor had spent a little more money to buy higher quality drywall. I know that I personally would not want to invite guests over to my stinky house of crumbling pipes.

All of the preceding aside, the most devastating effect of this bad Chinese drywall is that it is making people sick. In some cases, they may or not be getting seriously ill. It’s still too early to tell the full scope of this onslaught of sulfuric attacks.

The symptoms that people have already reported from their in-home problems include: fatigue, sleepiness, rashes, trouble breathing, sore throat, headaches, and many, many other symptoms. So if your house smells like eggs, and that smell is coming from behind your walls, and you’re experiencing strange symptoms, you should tell your doctor and/or go to the Government website where it deals with this issue.

I hope that I have helped you and your family be a little more prepared. So far, it seems like this is not an overarching problem, but is in some ways confined to only some areas and houses. Only time will tell the outcome of this Chinese-caused problem. I don’t want to frighten you. I only want to educate and prepare.

If you are suspicious that you may have gotten some of this raw deal, then you can perform the Chinese drywall test. There are different ways of testing, and while they may not all be rock-solid, they will definitely tend to give a better idea if your house is affected by the rot.

First of all, use your nose. Smell your drywall; that’s right. Try to get behind it and see if it smells like eggs. Of course, this is only the first, most basic step. It is not conclusive but in either direction but the first thing most people notice is a strange and unpleasant odor emanating from their walls.

If you look on the back of your drywall and see the manufacturer’s name “Knauf”, then you may have cause to be worried. Not all the drywall that Knauf produced is defective, but they are one of the main offenders, if not the only offender. They’re a Chinese company. But we have to look further into our Chinese drywall test in order to have some more obvious connections.

Testers are looking for the following elements: CS2, COS, dimethyl disulfide, and iron disulfide. They claim that these chemicals are non-existent in “good” drywall, but that previous tests have shown these four chemicals to be present in the bad Chinese drywall that was imported into the US between 2004 – 2006.

There are also some companies who are selling Chinese drywall test kits. These companies include Inspectors Inc. who is selling a kit through the Internet and who seems to be pretty knowledgeable about what they’re talking about concerning the problem.

The most common method of testing is called the documentation method. This involves photographing the copper and metal elements in the home. The bad drywall will over time corrode these things by releasing gases into the air. Now, this is merely a visual test, so I think what it really does is to determine a probability that the drywall is bad; not necessarily a conclusive test. If you can get in touch with someone who’s more of an expert in this field then he would be able to glean a lot more insight from a mere photograph.

There are also detection methods which can be used. These will give more solid results, because they rely on actual gas-sensing tools and chemical analysis. These tests will obviously cost more, but at a certain point could make sense. The Chinese drywall problem is not one that can just be ignored.

There are a number of manufacturers that are under investigation, and there are several lawsuits currently underway in the United States and Canada.  Any US Senate subcommittee has scheduled hearings about problems with Chinese drywall, and many people across the country have reported health and safety problems.

Common symptoms that may indicate you have problem in your home or business include the strong smell of rotten eggs, and damage to air conditioners and related equipment due to excessive corrosion created by the excessive So2 levels.  It is speculated that the gypsum that was used to manufacture this drywall came from specific mines in China that had excessive levels of organic material, as well as toxic materials that were left over from previous industrial operations.

In early 2009 Florida’s governor contacted the EPA, as well as the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) and prevention requesting federal assistance to develop tests and procedures for Florida residents that may be affected by the corrosion and other health and safety issues.  In March of 2009 the Drywall Safety Act was introduced as legislation to recall Chinese drywall and ban the import of it from China.

There have been a number documented health and safety issues with sulfur dioxide (SO2).  Excessive levels of SO2 in the air can cause breathing problems for people with asthma, and sulfate particles from the SO2 can gather in people’s lungs.  In the most extreme cases this can result in premature death.  Some people have also had visibility impairment, and sulfur dioxide accelerates the decay of building materials and equipment due to its acid compounds.  It is also a significant contributor to acid rain which damages the environment.

There have also been studies that link the defective Chinese drywall to corrosion of electrical wiring and other household appliances due to excessive sulfide gases that seep out of the drywall.

The potential problem is huge.  In Florida alone there are an estimated 40,000 houses that are believed to contain Chinese drywall.  It seems that the majority of houses in North America that may contain defective drywall imported from China are located in Florida, Louisiana, and a few of the other southern states.  But there have also been claims reported throughout Canada and the rest of the United States.