Independent Home Inspections

The issue of toxic Chinese drywall may well become the biggest environmental crisis to hit North American homeowners and builders in decades.

The defective Chinese drywall emits toxic hydrogen sulphide, sulphur dioxide and other gases. It is believed that humidity in the air causes the sulphur in the drywall to off-gas, or migrate into the indoor air. This creates a noxious odour, and can result in serious health conditions and illnesses, such as breathing problems, eye irritation, fatigue, dizziness, insomnia, sore throat, bloody nose, and headaches.

When the sulphide gas comes into contact with normal home humidity, it gives off a rotten egg smell, and begins to corrode any exposed copper or lead in the home. Affected homeowners have reported blackened and scorched wiring behind wall plugs and switch plates, and corroded evaporator coils on air conditioning units. Light bulbs and fixtures may also stop working.

Appliances and other electrical equipment may fail prematurely, and personal jewelery and silverware as well as the wiring in cable televisions and converters can turn black.

Hundreds of millions of sheets of the defective drywall were imported into the United States between 2001 and 2007. It has been reported in as many as 14 states, and may have been used in an estimated 100,000 renovated and newly-built homes, with up to 40,000 in Florida alone.

In addition, an estimated 929,000 square metres arrived in Canada through Vancouver in the same period.

Much of the product imported into Canada was used in the lower B.C. mainland, but some may have reached the Prairies and as far east as Toronto.

In addition to being used in new construction and renovations, a huge amount of the Chinese drywall was used to repair thousands of homes damaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma in Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, and Texas. Sadly, many will have to be rebuilt a second time.

One prevalent theory about the toxicity in the drywall is that it was manufactured in gypsum mines in China using fly ash, a by-product of coal-powered electrical generation. Coal fly ash can become airborne and emit toxic sulphur compounds.

(Coincidentally, defective fly ash was the critical ingredient in ready-mix concrete used in the crumbling foundations of hundreds of homes in Eastern Ontario. This resulted in 16 years of litigation, almost $20 million in damages and another $20 million in court costs.)

Several lawsuits and class actions, including one by a group of Florida homeowners, have been launched against German drywall company Knauf Gips KG, a Chinese subsidiary and a number of American home builders.

The Environmental Protection Agency, the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Florida Department of Health in the United States are all investigating the extent of the problem.

In the United States House of Representatives, the Drywall Safety Act was introduced in April. Currently under study in a House committee, it would mandate a recall of drywall imported between 2004 and 2007.

Houses built or renovated with contaminated Chinese drywall cannot be repaired. The only possible fix for affected homes is to have the owners move out for several months, gut the house and rebuild the interior. Anything inside the house that may have been contaminated by the sulphur gases will also have to be destroyed and replaced.

Industry watchers have estimated that as few as three sheets of drywall in a house can be enough to contaminate it to the point of making it uninhabitable.

House insurance policies do not normally cover environmental issues, and there have been reports of some home insurers refusing to pay for replacement of drywall. In cases like these, homeowners could be facing financial ruin.

Thomas Martin, president of America’s Watchdog, says the crisis is “the worst case of sick houses in U.S. history.”

The full effect of the Chinese drywall crisis in Canada remains to be seen.

If you suspect you have this product in your home, consult an environmental engineer or qualified home inspector.

Bob Aaron is a Toronto real estate lawyer and board member of the Tarion Warranty Corp. He can be reached at bob@aaron.ca. His website: aaron.ca.

Some words of advice from the Canadian Association of Home and Property Inspectors of British Columbia — CAHPI (BC):

It used to be that a grow-op in a town or neighbourhood was used until it was publicly unmasked or the house was destroyed. Now illegal grow operators take a quick crop from a house, re-paint the interior to mask any obvious damage, then dump it on the

market.

With an increasing percentage of real estate available for sale in BC having previously been used as marijuana grow-op sites, CAHPI (BC) wants you to know some of the warning signs:

• Holes or patches in the ceiling in unusual places, or a patch in the drywall close to electrical services.
• Painted-over staple marks, or evidence of plastics stapled to walls or ceilings.
• Disconnected toilet or dismantled furnace makeup air connection.
• Extraneous ductwork, or a pile of unused duct pipe.

These indicators do not mean a house must have been used as a grow op, but they do mean you need to pay attention, and ask questions because buying a home represents the single largest financial decision people are likely to make in their lives.

Consumers who seek professional and qualified advice to help make the decision to buy a home deserve to know that the individual they hire is trained and qualified. With over 200 Registered Home Inspectors in 178 BC communities, CAHPI (BC) is the only
recognized national organization dedicated solely to home and property inspections, and the voice of home and property inspection industry in British Columbia.

So if you think a house may have been used as a grow-op, don’t take a chance, contact people who can help you make an informed choice.

Contact CAHPI (BC) toll-free at 1-800-610-5665.

Updated: Tue Mar. 23 2010 6:05:39 PM

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — Yvonne Kraft feels trapped between listing without using the most widely viewed service in Canada or paying commission on a house she’s confident will sell as soon as the sign goes up.

“There’s nothing in between, it would be nice to have a choice,” said the interior designer from Hamilton who has privately sold houses twice.

Kraft says when she sold her house five years ago, she was one of only a handful of private sellers, but a growth of do-it-yourself websites has made private listing more mainstream.

“The do-it-yourself real estate industry is growing in spite of the real estate board not wanting to budge on their regulations, it’s going to grow on its own and if they don’t want to join the party then they’re going to be left out,” she said.

The Canadian Real Estate Association, which represents about 98,000 realtors, loosened its rules Monday to lift restrictions on realtors’ minimum service requirements and allow consumers to use an agent to simply list their property and handle the details on their own.

But the Competition Bureau rejected those changes saying they do not create more choice for home buyers and sellers, and instead give realtors a “blank cheque” to impose new anti-competitive rules.

Commissioner of competition Melanie Aitken told the Calgary Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday that there is no guarantee the amendments are permanent.

“Until there is some certainty that the rules aren’t going to shift, that it’s not going to be a risk of a fleeting opportunity, (realtors are) not going to make the investment to offer up those innovative service and pricing models, she said.

“Until they do so, we’re concerned we’re not going to see the choice for the Canadian consumer and we’re not going to see the downward pressure on prices that we would otherwise expect to see.”

The bureau has said it will continue to pursue an application filed with the Competition Tribunal in February seeking to strike down CREA’s rules on the use of its Multiple Listings Service, which it has said restrict consumers’ ability to conduct real estate transactions without an agent.

CREA allows only its members to post homes for sale on its MLS database, which is operated by regional real estate boards and where 90 per cent of homes in Canada are sold.

Kraft says the rules preventing her from listing her home on MLS drive her to use smaller private web sites that charge a flat fee.

“(But) not everyone knows to look there, I don’t even look there myself,” she said.

Listing privately also reduces the number of potential buyers who see her home, she said, because part of the CREA rules require a listing agent to give the buying agent a percentage of commission, and they’re less inclined to show a home they won’t be making a profit from.

Kraft said she wants to be able to decide which services she would like an agent to provide and which she’d do herself.

“There’s people like me, if you’ve bought and sold a few houses you know exactly what an agent has to do, its no big mystery,” she said.

John Andrew, director of the executive seminars on real estate at Queen’s University, noted most buyers already do online research and no longer wait for an agent to present them with homes.

“Most consumers want to do at least the initial leg work themselves…and it’s bad for the industry that people haven’t really been able to do that.”

He added that CREA could have avoided the anti-competition troubles by updating the site and making more information available to consumers, to help turn casual shoppers into customers.

“The way it is now if you’re interested in possibly moving, possibly looking for another house, you’ve basically got no choice but to hire an agent.”

Philip Soper, president of Royal LePage, said the changes to the association’s rules do give agents more flexibility to offer “a la carte” services, which will prompt an increase in the number of discount brokerages.

He added the industry is seeing a number of consumer portals cropping up, adding that Kijiji, an eBay subsidiary that operates online classified, is already Canada’s second largest real estate site.

But Soper said even if the data available on the MLS system was opened to consumers, the industry wouldn’t change dramatically.

“There are many low priced alternatives already competing for the price sensitive portion of the market, so I don’t think rule changes will result in a big shift in the way real estate services are offered in Canada.”

Soper said it wouldn’t be any more complicated than using websites like Kijiji or Craigslist for a homeowner to list a home themselves, but added privacy would be a major concern.

“By far and away the majority of people pay a realtor to act as a screen in order to weed out serious offers from tire kickers or worse, people who are just trying to sell you something.”

Scientists addressing an early November conference in Tampa, Florida, on defective Chinese drywall have offered a more detailed explanation of why the material produces gases that corrode copper elements in buildings, such as wiring and air conditioner coils. According to reporters who attended the “Technical Symposium on Corrosive Imported Drywall,” a $300-a-head event sponsored by the University of Florida, a leading investigator into the problem says the gas releases can be traced directly to the presence of pure sulphur in the panels.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune says that toxicologist Tom Gauthier of the firm Environ International, hired to study the problem by builder Lennar Homes, has found that the elemental sulphur in the panels reacts with naturally-occurring carbon monoxide in the ambient air to form carbonyl sulphide. The carbonyl sulphide then reacts with moisture and air to produce hydrogen sulphide and carbon disulfide. All three gases have been detected in test chambers and in homes containing the Chinese drywall. And according to Gauthier, Environ was able to stimulate a much faster release of the offending gases by placing the drywall in a chamber rich in carbon monoxide.

Government scientists lag behind Environ’s investigators and other outside researchers, notes the Herald Tribune (”Federal scientists trail others on drywall,” by Aaron Kessler). Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) scientists in a report last month, the paper notes, “were not yet even able to state there was an association between the tainted drywall and the corrosion of copper wires, pipes, air conditioning coils, and other metal components” — even though “Florida, along with a host of private consultants, has long since determined that there is a strong association between the drywall and corrosion.”

Tom Gauthier’s results were corroborated by Michael Tuday, research and development director of California-based Columbia Analytical Services, Inc., and Zdenek Hejzlar, an expert in the environmental and toxic health fields with the Fort Myers office of Engineering Systems Inc., reports the Fort Myers News-Press (”Blame sulphur for drywall woes, experts say,” by Mary Wozniak). “The three scientists, in separate presentations, confirmed that the sulphur interacts with indoor air and other agents, like carbon monoxide, to cause different sulphur compounds to be emitted from the drywall in low amounts. It is enough to cause the drywall’s corrosive effect on air conditioning coils and other metal items in the home, they said.”

The sulphur explanation has the virtue of simplicity — unlike a competing theory that casts suspicion on a possible microbial source of the gas releases. “Some labs say Chinese drywall contains significant amounts of sulphate-reducing bacteria,” reports the Palm Beach Post (”Bacteria, chemical reaction debated as roots of drywall problem,” by Allison Ross). But “the bacteria theory needs a lot of work,” said Florida Department of Health toxicologist David Krause, pointing out that while the drywall may contain bacteria, no connection has yet been established between the bacteria and the sulphuric emissions. On the other hand, if carbon monoxide is the limiting element in the formation of carbonyl sulphide, then according to basic chemistry it would make sense that gases are emitted at a steady rate until most of the sulphur in the material is consumed — subject only to the continued availability of carbon monoxide in the ambient air.

Environ scientists also told the conference that in their view, removing the bad drywall and replacing it with fresh, sulphur-free drywall should eliminate the problem, according to the Sun Sentinel paper (”Rip out Chinese drywall and start over, scientist advises,” by Paul Owens). James Poole, an industrial hygienist with the firm, said, “If you remove it, clean up the debris, ventilate the home and rebuild, there’s no reason you can’t expect success.”

Lennar Homes, which has torn out and replaced the defective drywall in dozens of homes already, refused to comment, the Sun Sentinel reports. But Heather Keith, a lawyer for GL homes, which has replaced drywall in at least 20 units, told the paper that customers were “happy” with the fix, saying, “There are no reported or ongoing health or odour issues. I’d be surprised if the scientific community would say that the extensive repair that involves the complete removal of the interiors of a house is premature or insufficient.”

Many people have heard about Polybutylene piping.

But what is it? Why do we always hear about problems with it? And is it still a problem? Polybutylene piping has caused a lot of headaches, but still has come a long ways since it was initially introduced. Let’s take a closer look at it and see what the concerns are about the pipe.

What is it? Polybutylene piping is a gray or blue non-rigid water supply piping. Production and sale of this piping began in 1977. It was used because it is relatively inexpensive and easier to install than traditional copper or even CPVC water piping. The original joints utilized an acetal resin (an adhesive) with crimp rings to secure the pipes to the metal fitting.

The issues started surfacing in the early 1980’s in the form of leaks and major ruptures of the piping. The majority of these leaks occurred at the pipe joint fittings. The manufacturers of Polybutylene piping concluded that the majority of the leaks were the fault of improper installation. They believe that many plumbers used improper fittings to join the pipes and that the use of semi-skilled laborers has led to improper pipe joint installation. This may have contributed to the problem, but given the amount of problems seen, many feel strongly that there is more to it than shoddy workmanship. One current theory is that chemicals in the public water supply react with the piping and acetal resin in the fittings, weakening the pipes and joints.

Class action lawsuits against the Polybutylene piping manufacturers began in the 1980’s. The largest lawsuit to date was Cox vs. Shell Oil, in 1995, which resulted in a settlement fund near $1 billion. The manufacturers started a third-party administrator known as the Consumer Plumbing Recovery Center to handle the individual settlements. Additionally, the manufacturers sponsor the Plumbing Claims Group, which replaced the plumbing in homes with Polybutylene pipe leaks.

There were two major design differences created to correct the problems. First they changed the design of the pipe joint fittings. Now they are joined with a piece of copper tube with the pipe affixed to it by means of a crimped copper ring at each end. Also, the manufacturers changed the plumbing schematics to eliminate the majority of the “T” unions, since most problems occur at the joints. The new method utilizes a central manifold from which all the pipes originate. However, some in the industry are still leery about this product and suggest that these design alterations are not enough to solve the problem.

Unfortunately Polybutylene pipe makes the decision to purchase a house that has Polybutylene piping more complicated. It can not be overstated that the condition of a Polybutylene system cannot be determined in the course of a normal home inspection, since virtually all of the system is hidden behind walls and in the attic under insulation. Even if the home has this kind of plumbing there is no single course of action that is yet recommended for consumers with a Polybutylene system. Home buyers should be aware that problems might occur, and should arm themselves with as much information as possible about the Polybutylene system in the house.

My recommendation is for you to call at least three different Licensed Plumbers and ask them what they think of the pipe, is there a sincere need to replace the Pipe? Could the pipe begin to leak in the future? Would I be better off having the Pipe replaced with Copper, PEX Plastic, or CPVC Plastic Pipe?

I have my own personal opinion of the Pipe because I have witnessed failures in many homes and commercial buildings in the last twenty five years, I have never witnessed Copper, PEX, or CPVC Plastic Pipes fail because of the pipe in and of itself, therefore you should come to your own conclusion about the Pipe after talking to as many experts as possible before you close escrow. If you have concerns, I suggest having the Polybutylene Pipe replaced before you close escrow.

More information can be found at: http://www.repipenews.com

A quick look at why an independent home inspection is a good idea.