Homes with Tainted Drywall Can Keep Wiring, Feds Say

By Josh Brown
The Virginian-Pilot
March 19, 2011

Federal product-safety regulators said Friday that there is no need to remove electrical wiring when fixing homes built with tainted Chinese-made drywall.

The announcement by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development comes nearly a year after the agencies recommended that the homes be stripped of all the problem wallboard and electrical wiring.

The commission, which is leading a $3.5 million multi-agency investigation into the imported drywall, has said the drywall emits higher levels of volatile sulfur gases than the typical U.S.-made wallboard and causes metal corrosion in homes.

The commission said it based its new recommendations on a study conducted on the agency's behalf by Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, which found no evidence of a safety hazard to home electrical systems.

The study was conducted over eight weeks and was designed to simulate how 40 years of corrosive conditions would impact wiring in homes with problem drywall. Scientists did not observe any long-term electrical safety concerns such as smoking or fire, the commission reported.

The agency's recommendations are not binding on homebuilders or homeowners dealing with the tainted drywall and come as regulators in Virginia are working on an official code for the state, which is expected to be released as early as May.

When supplies of U.S.-made drywall became scarce in 2005 during the building boom, a now-defunct Norfolk construction supplier imported enough Chinese-made drywall to build more than 300 homes. The drywall has since been found in scores of homes across the region.

More than 80 homes in Hampton Roads have been or are in the process of being remediated since the problem drywall was discovered in early 2009. While local builders have in many cases removed the drywall, some have not removed the electrical wiring.

The new protocol puts the federal agencies at odds with a federal judge in New Orleans overseeing hundreds of drywall cases. In an April 2010 ruling, Judge Eldon Fallon said the homes must be gutted, including removing all electrical wiring and appliances.

"The insulation jackets on electrical wires do not adequately protect them from corrosive attack," Fallon wrote. "Reactive sulfur gases permeate the sheathing and corrode wires from the inside out."

The commission's recommendations now include replacing all problem wallboard, fire safety devices, gas service piping and electrical distribution components.

Josh Brown
 josh.brown@pilotonline.com
This Article was published on HamptonRoads.com

Click here to read U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Report of March 18, 2011