Tampa, Florida New Home Builder Southern Crafted Homes

Federal Government Acknowledges Chinese Drywall Problem

While there has been much argument over the issue of Chinese drywall in the homebuilding industry, the federal government acknowledged this week that there is in fact a strong relationship between imported Chinese drywall and the corrosion of pipes and wires. To understand the extent of the problem Senator Bill Nelson has actually made inquiries on behalf of homeowners to make federal funds available from FEMA for emergency relief. This comes on the heals of at least two major property insurers in Florida refusing to provide coverage and dropping homeowners policies on those homeowners who do not remediate their properties at their own expense. This is a severe catch 22.

While the building material has been shown to have corrosive effects on critical home operating systems such as plumbing, electrical and air conditioning systems the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission said that it’s investigation is revealing a possible link between the corrosive building material and reported health problems from homeowners. The combination of inflated levels of hydrogen sulfide gasses mixed with formaldehyde is suspected of being the root cause. Not only is the commission involved in the studies but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) have engaged in a study to determine the long term impact of this corrosion.

This has become the largest single consumer product investigation ever conducted in the United States with over $3.5 million dollars spent on the studies and over 2,000 homeowner complaints in 32 states with most (1,300) coming from Florida. Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against builders, contractors, suppliers and manufacturers. A class action lawsuit is being compiled by Attorney General Bill McCullom of Florida against Knauff Plasterboard Tianjin Co. with a deadline of 2 December 2009 to join. It is believed there are approximately 100,000 homes in the United States effected by this with over 35,000 of those homes in Florida.

Southern Crafted Homes has never used imported Chinese drywall in their homes.  All drywall is domestically produced at the National Gypsum plant in Apollo Beach in Tampa Bay. Quality control extends to ensuring that all products are able to be held to international manufacturing standards and measurements.

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