In recent years, a housing boom in Florida combined with catastrophic hurricane damage on the East and Gulf Coasts created a soaring demand for building materials. As builders flocked to the Southeast to keep up with the demand for new homes and, later, to rebuild damaged properties the dwindling supply of sheetrock (also called “drywall”) available in the United States caused the price of building supplies to rise drastically. The first shortages were reported in 2001 during the massive boom in new home construction in Southern Florida.
To fill the need for affordable sheetrock, suppliers began importing drywall from Chinese manufacturers. Hundreds of new homes in Florida as well as homes damaged by hurricanes in the Southeastern states were built or rebuilt with the Chinese drywall. The hurricanes battering Florida in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina that decimated New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2005 led to a drastic increase in the amount of sheetrock imports as thousands of homes were repaired and rebuilt.
Problems with contaminants in the imported Chinese made sheetrock were first reported in Florida in 2004 and 2005. By that time, the sheetrock was on constructions sites or in newly rebuilt properties all along the Gulf Coast region. Homeowners in Florida reported a sulfur odor in their homes similar to the smell of rotten eggs. As complaints increased, home inspections revealed corrosion of metal components and traced the source to sulfur contaminants in the imported Chinese sheetrock.
Sulfur was present as a raw material in the Chinese sheetrock. The main ingredient in sheetrock is gypsum which may naturally contain sulfur. The concentration of sulfur can vary widely depending on location of the gypsum mine. Fly ash, which also contains sulfur, is produced as a byproduct of coal power plants is also a sheetrock ingredient used by some manufacturers. Under the right conditions the sulfur releases gases that can corrode metal surfaces.
Electrical wiring, air conditioning, copper pipes and metal fixtures can be affected and homes rendered uninhabitable. The southern portion of Florida and New Orleans seem to be the main problem areas at this time though evidence of contaminated sheetrock has also been reported in Virginia and, most recently, in Mississippi and other coastal states. As the damage occurs over time it is likely the problem will be found to be even greater than has been currently reported throughout the Gulf Coast. More than three dozen states have received shipments of the imported Chinese sheetrock.
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