Here is What You Do.

So you think you have Chinese Drywall in your home.  Here is what you do.

 Investigation– Preserve all evidence.  If you can not keep your coils take photos and make sure the A/C tech notes on his ticket the condition and color of the coils.  Next have your home inspected by a professional.  They should provide a visual inspection based on the Florida Department of Health guidelines.  Hang up on anyone one who try's to sell you a different method of inspecting.  There are dozens of untested techniques being pushed on to consumers.  If symptoms of Chinese Drywall are found samples of the drywall must be tested to confirm the presence of Chinese Drywall.  We can usually confirm the presence of Chinese Drywall with only testing one sample. Testing the drywall is extremely important as not all homes that have symptoms contain Chinese Drywall

 Who pays to fix my home?   I discus the status of pending resolutions to the problem with my clients once we find Symptoms.

 Can my home be fixed?  Yes, there have been hundreds of successful remediation's and a few failures.

 How do you remediate a home?  Well, that depends.  There are several suggested methods.  At this point you may want to determine the extent of the Chinese Drywall in your home.  We can help.   Before you start the remediation you will want to expose some drywall labels ( just to be sure) and preserve evidence. W e can help with both functions.

  We will discuss various methods of remediating homes, from the most expensive to the least.

 MDL Remediation Protocol– MDL stands for Multi-District Litigation.  This is where many of the class action suits have been brought together in New Orleans.  They have established many Chinese Drywall Protocols.  It benefits the attorneys involved to make the remediation as expensive as possible.  The MDL requires all the drywall in the home  (even if there is only one sheet of Chinese Drywall) to be removed, and none of the finished components to be reused.  You could not save and reinstall the cabinets and counter tops for instance.  They estimate this would cost $86.00 per square foot on a normal home.  Custom homes would cost more.  The $86 includes an amount for personal electronics. Homes have been remediated that were found to have little or no Chinese Drywall.

 The Federal Consumer Product Safety Commission-requires that only the corrosive drywall be removed.  In addition they require all the wiring and safety items like smoke detectors  be replaced.  Removing only the corrosive drywall is reasonable as most to the experts say that there is no long term cross contamination.  Removing all the wiring may not be reasonable in all cases.  If you only have Chinese Drywall in one bedroom is it really necessary to remove all the wiring in the home? Probably not.  Do you need to replace the wiring that is behind the CD?  Maybe not.  We will discuss this latter on.

 Major Builder Protocols-Some builders have been successfully remediating homes for over 2 years.  There protocols are based on science and that the homeowners want as full a remediation as possible.  For instance, the home owners usually demands all new appliances and gets them.  If you were paying to  remediate your home you probably would keep your working appliances. Most builder remove all the drywall wiring, insulation, ductwork and copper components. They do not remove tiled walls that do not contain Chinese Drywall. Most reuse as much of the finish products as possible.  All the protocols have methods for removing the drywall dust from the home.

 Economic Remediation– There are homeowners who have remediated their own homes.  The ceilings and garage walls should not be CD if built per code.  The ceilings and garage walls should be a special ceiling board and fire rated board.  If you can save these two areas, a lot of money can be saved.  If you can confirm the kitchen walls are not CD, you can save even more.  We have non destructive probes that can test the drywall. They are saving the wiring by confirming it is not corroded.  If something is damaged, like a granite top, they repair not replace.  Some have even saved their carpet.  This approach can be done for as low as $25.00 Per square foot.

 Partial Remediation– I have identified as few as 7 pieces of Chinese Drywall in a large custom home and as few as 2 pieces in a small home.  I don’t see why a partial remediation would not work if you can identify individual pieces or rooms of Chinese Drywall.  We can use nondestructive probes to do so. We would combine the above protocols with the proper protocols for Mold Remediation.  I conducted my first mold remediation in 1984.  You would want to contain the area to be worked on from the rest of the home.  We would set up air scrubbers and install air ducts to the outside.   You may have to set this up in more than one location.  Every home is different, but we would also remove the drywall adjacent to the Chinese Drywall to confirm we removed all the Chinese Drywall.

 Foolish remediation- There are some contractors who claim all kinds of cures such as a special paint or  treating your home with chlorine dioxide and eliminate the off gassing.  They offer a warranty.  If  (when) the their treatment fails, they will come back and repeat the treatment.  Great!  These treatments have been discounted by the government scientist.

 Warranties-There are many contractors who offer warranties.  All are worthless.  We offer a third party warranty for the finished items installed. There is a home warranty company that is offering a “warranty”. They appear to be the real thing.  There warranty is expensive and only guarantees that  they will come in and remove any Chinese Drywall found after remediation. If you are not taking all the drywall out of a home or need a warranty to sell the home, spending thousands may be worth it.  I can put you in contact with them if you want.