Chinese drywall issue pops up locally - South Florida Business Journal:

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Drywall suspicions were raised first insouthwestg Florida, where homeowners complained of sulfuric odors, sickness and corrosiob in air conditioners. On Jan. 21, Miami-based said it has begunm repairing a dozen homeson Florida’s west coastf affected by imported drywall. The company said it has identifiexd about 80 homes there that appeae to have been built with Chinesde drywall between November 2005 andNovember 2006. One of the firs reports in the Miami area came from homeownerStevehn Fuchs, who bought a home in Homestead’s Keys Gate subdivision in 2007. “Yoh couldn’t live in this house,” he said.
“Thias gets in your throat, in your When this hits you, you can’tf live in there.” Homestead city manager Mike Shehadeh said he had not hears of any cases anywhere in his Neither had building officials northe city’sx director of development services. Shehadeh said he was “disturbed” by the but wanted to be carefulp with his response until the factswere in. “If there was material that was not approvexd byDade County, I would be extremelty disturbed,” he said.
“If these builders snuck somethint throughbecause it’s cheaper, and it has adverser affects, I guarantee that I would be talkin to the county and our attorney s to make sure they live up to theirt responsibilities. “If this is a proven situation, if therew is a problem with this material, we wouled do everything we can tohelp homeowners,” he “This is disturbing. I don’t want to live in a housed like this.” Truly Burton, the ’se government affairs directorfor Miami-Dade, said she was awarw of problems on the state’s west coast, but hadn’t been contacted about any locapl cases.
She cautioned that, in these tough economic some buyers might use the drywall issue as an excusse to back out ofa contract. The Floridw Department of Health is tracking 38 complaints abougtthe drywall, mostly in Manatee, Lee and Sarasota It has also received two reportsz in Stuart and one in Port St. but none so far in Broward or PalmBeacu counties. State officials and developers have said homebuildere started using imported drywall during theconstructiohn boom, when materials were scarce following the 2005 hurricane One supplier is , of the international Knauf family of companies basesd in Germany.
The developet of Keys Gate – Soutyh Kendall Construction – was just beginning to assess the problekmthis week, company principal Patrick Gleberf said. He said he alerted his insurance company, which told him they were not awarde of thedrywall problems. “We did buy drywall from that through a localsupply company,” Glebed said. He said his company struggled to find domestic buildint materials after hurricanes Katrina and Wilmaa hit South Floridain 2005. Glebert said problems were reported in two areas of Keys Gate Augusta Greens and Pine Isles but he did not know how many homed had theproblem drywall. He said he mightr tear out drywall in at leastthree homes.
“It’sa going to be savage,” Gleber “You might have to do some rewiring, and we don’tg know if we have to move people.” Keys Gate had 810 startse and425 move-ins in 2006, according to Banner Supply, one of the state’se largest drywall distributors, is monitoriny information and handling complaints, Miami-based GM Ed Matthewws said.