Chinese drywall victims get U.S. rules on documenting problems
By Rebecca Mowbray, The Times-Picayune
January 28, 2010, 8:58PM
Times-Picayune archiveThe step that most people are waiting for is guidance on the proper way to remediate a home because it's unclear exactly what needs to be gutted or thrown away to rid a home of problems, whether a house can be treated to render drywall problems inert, or whether a home must be torn down.
The federal government Thursday defined exactly how homeowners can document that they have problem drywall in their homes in the first of two anticipated steps that could make people eligible for financial assistance. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission outlined what homeowners must look for to identify bad drywall in their homes, and then how to corroborate their observations with chemical laboratory work. The step that most people are waiting for is guidance on the proper way to remediate a home because it's unclear exactly what needs to be gutted or thrown away to rid a home of problems, whether a house can be treated to render drywall problems inert, or whether a home must be torn down. "We hope to release the remediation protocols this spring," said Dr. Warren Friedman, senior adviser to the director of the office of healthy homes and lead hazard control at HUD. Several weeks ago, HUD granted state and local governments permission to use Community Development Block Grant funds to help people with drywall problems if they wish. The Louisiana Recovery Authority has set aside $5 million in Road Home money to help applicants affected by bad drywall but the agency is waiting for word from HUD about how people should fix homes, because the LRA needs to be able to verify that repair money is spent properly and productively. Additional money eventually could be dedicated to the problem. LRA spokeswoman Christina Stephens said that the identification protocol issued Thursday gets Louisiana closer to being able to dispense funds. "It's a step toward the right direction but obviously we would like to see remediation protocols," Stephens said. "The fact that they are releasing protocols means that we're getting there. It shows that they're engaged." So far, 2,800 people in 38 states have reported to the Consumer Product Safety Commission that their homes contain bad drywall. Meanwhile, some 803 families in Louisiana have reported problems to the LRA. The number of cases falls far short of some claims that people in 40,000 households nationwide could be afflicted with health problems, corroded wiring and ruined appliances from bad drywall. Anybody concerned about bad drywall should find out whether the drywall was installed in their home between 2001 and 2008, then look for signs of corrosion such as blackened copper wiring, blackened air-conditioner evaporator coils, or proof that bad air-conditioning coils have been removed. If homeowners find evidence of those problems, they should look for corroborating evidence such as markings that the drywall was manufactured in China, since most of the drywall that has been causing problems came from overseas. There is a photographic catalog of markings at http://www.laed.uscourts.gov/Drywall/DrywallMarkings.htm Homeowners also can hire a firm to test for chemicals in the home and test a strip of copper exposed to drywall in the home. More details about the chemicals that may show up in bad drywall is available at http://www.cpsc.gov/info/drywall/hud10020.html or http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/documents/InterimIDGuidance012810.pdf If the drywall was installed between 2005 and 2008, homeowners need to find only two pieces of corroborating evidence, but if the drywall was installed between 2001 and 2004, homeowners must find four pieces of corroborating evidence from the drywall markings or chemical testing. Since most of the bad drywall was installed after the devastating hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, members of the Federal Interagency Task Force on Problem Drywall felt that two pieces of additional evidence would be enough. But since homes with older drywall could be experiencing problems for other reasons, the task force felt that more proof was necessary to point to the drywall. Homeowners who want to have their home tested should look for a home inspection firm, an environmental consultant or home forensic inspection firm to do the work. The federal agencies urge homeowners to make sure that the consultants are qualified to do the work.
Rebecca Mowbray
Original article here: http://www.nola.com/business/index.ssf/2010/01/post_23.html
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