Complaints about damaged air conditioning equipment, refrigerators and even home wiring spread Monday as homeowners attempt to pinpoint whether sulfur-emitting drywall from China is to blame.
Lehigh Acres resident Billy Rybak said he was "stunned" to read reports in The News-Press about homeowners who have regularly replaced A/C coils and refrigerators and are blaming sulfur from their imported drywall as the cause.
"This sounds exactly like what we have been dealing with for years, but we have been blaming it on the water," Rybak said. "We've been changing water systems like crazy."
Also Monday, Lennar Homes, which has heard similar complaints from residents in the Bella Terra condominium, responded with a written statement from Darin McMurray, Southwest Florida division president for Lennar.
"So far, our investigation in Southwest Florida shows that independent subcontractors installed Chinese drywall in a very small percentage of Lennar homes built between November 2005 and November 2006," McMurray said in the statement. "Lennar has taken extensive measures to ensure the safety of our homeowners and their families. Scientific testing shows no indication of any health risks to our homeowners."
He said the company is taking action.
"Lennar has been working with our homeowners on long-term solutions based on the specific testing of their homes," he said.
Dan Reid of Intuitive Environmental Solutions in Fort Myers, said he has been getting complaints about sulfur dioxide from drywall for three months. He said he has investigated four complaints and has found measurable levels of the substance.
"There are no residential safety standards, but the levels have been well within workplace standards," Reid said. "There has been nothing extreme."
Reid said his research indicates at least some drywall imported from China during the homebuilding boom years of 2004 and 2005 was made with waste materials from scrubbers on coal-fired power plants.
Those materials can leak into the air as gases combine with the moisture on an air conditioning coil to create sulfuric acid, which appears to be dissolving solder joints and copper tubing - creating leaks, blackening the coils and even causing the system to fail, Reid said.
Rybak moved into his home in 2003 and said he has had to replace air conditioning coils four times and his refrigerator once.
Meadowbrook Estates was built by Lehigh Acres-based I&E Homes. Calls to the company offices were not answered Monday and President Johann Pfuner's home number is unlisted.
"I'm going to notify everybody on the street about this and have it tested to find out exactly what the problem is," Rybak said.
Cape Coral resident Frank DeBenedictis said he already checked into getting an air quality test on the advice of his air-conditioner installer, who has replaced his coils four times.
"They said it was going to cost me $800 for the testing," said DeBenedictis, who moved into his home two years ago this month. "I think the builder should have to spend the $800 to tell me if it is safe."
DeBenedictis said his home has copper electrical wiring and it shows signs of corrosion as well.
His home was built by Cape Coral-based Aranda Homes. The woman who answered the phone there on Monday said executives were out of the office on holiday vacation.
Cape Coral resident Lou Appelman, who lives in a home built by Aranda Homes in 2006, said he has replaced his air conditioning coils annually.
"They come out of the unit looking like they are 20 years old," he said, adding that at first, he was willing to blame the air conditioning unit.
"But copper is copper," he said. "Whatever is in the air is going to turn copper no matter who made it."
Michael Reitmann, executive vice president of the Lee Building Industry Association, said homeowners with concerns should first contact their builder.
"You have to contact the builder because, ultimately, the builder is responsible," Reitmann said.
Reitmann said the building industry association is aware that builders such as Aubuchon Homes, Engle Home and Lennar are investigating claims of drywall related problems in homes, but the association hasn't taken a position on the reports.
"Until the research is done, we don't know exactly what the situation is," he said.
source:
http://www.news-press.com/article/20081223/RE/812230384/1075
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