Lennar Files China Drywall Suit, Alleging Defects Found in Florid

[Coventina]

Source: Wall Street Journal

Home builder Lennar Corp. is suing two Chinese manufacturers of drywall, claiming the wallboard is defective and is causing electrical problems and emitting rotten odors in dozens of homes across Florida.

The lawsuit, filed in state Circuit Court in Miami late Friday, alleges that manufacturers, Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. and Taishan Gypsum, failed to establish effective quality control to detect defects in the drywall that was imported from China during the housing boom. Lennar is seeking unspecified damages.

In a statement, Knauf Tianjin says the drywall poses no health risk. The statement noted that Knauf has conducted tests in response to builders' complaints.

"The company will not be a scapegoat for homebuilders who would seek a quick and convenient bailout based on false claims," Knauf Tianjin said in a statement. "The company intends to vigorously defend its good name and reputation."



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123361908699541469.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[Kittycat]

1. Buy Crap - Build Crap - Lennar

They're in the Chicago burbs here, and are building paper houses with minimum code on everything, and cutting corners where ever they can. Even the brick they use isn't real - kind of like textured tiles that come in big sheets. I'd never live in a home built by them. They don't even build in some communities because of stricter code.

[Baby Snooks]

4. No one learned from Hurricane Andrew...

Lennar was sued by quite a few homeowners after their roofs blew off during Hurricane Andrew and the rain destroyed their homes. The focus of the lawsuits as I recall was the materials used and the question of whether the homes were built to code. You get what you pay for. Which apparently no one learned from Hurricane Andrew. No doubt Lennar is suing in expectation of being sued. But most builders in this country are the same. Bottom line is profit. And China means profit. With substandard materials at half the cost.

[whistle]

2. Sounds like the calcium sulphate in the gypsum was not adequately driven out

...during the production processes before the resulting plaster of paris material was rehydrated and sealed into the drywall.

How Gypsum Wallboard is Made

The raw material for drywall is gypsum, a whitish-grey mineral also known as calcium sulphate. This substance, mined from the ground, contains around 20% cystallized water, by weight, which gives gypsum wallboard the fire resistance it is known for.

After being mined, then crushed and dried, the gypsum is treated with a steam process called calcination, which removes much of the crystallized water. This takes about a half hour. The next step is add water and other ingredients to form Plaster of Paris (Named after a large gypsum deposit at Montmartre in Paris ). The plaster is then sandwiched between two sheets of specially treated paper to form the finished wallboard.

Other Possible Odor Causing Additives

Repulped fiber that has been treated with an aqueous solution of a caustic selected from sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide and sodium carbonate, is used to make wallboard paper that is used to make a gypsum wallboard having improved nail pulling strength compared to gypsum wallboard made with fiber wallboard paper that has not been treated with caustic.

[acmavm]

3. Those Chinese and their wacky sense of humor:

<snip>

"The company will not be a scapegoat for homebuilders who would seek a quick and convenient bailout based on false claims," Knauf Tianjin said in a statement. "The company intends to vigorously defend its good name and reputation."

<snip>

Yeah, the Chinese merchant class has such a stellar history of selling quality products.

Of course, we have the market cornered in the bad peanut area!

[antimatter98]

5. Oh, this is very interesting. Bad drywall in thousands of homes..Lennar is in NC too.

And of course, Lennar probably (guessing) didn't test this drywall,
but slapped it in and only customer complaints likely brought the
drywall issue into view.

So a new question from prospective home buyers: will the builder
attest to where the drywall came from and will the builder indemnify
the house to be drywall defect free and for responsibility for
illnesses due to defective drywall? The buyer should not have to
assume the health and resale burden due to bad drywall.

I see a whole new cash opportunity for product liability attorneys!

[shaniqua6392]

6. Drywall from China?? WTF.

I guess Americans do not know how to make drywall. :sarcasm: It serves that builder right. You try to cut corners by buying crappy products from the Chinese, and you get problems.

[dysfunctional press]

7. "...emitting rotten odors in dozens of homes across Florida."

how would you be able to tell...? :shrug:

[TheCentepedeShoes]

8. The woman

I purchased my condo from in Tampa in 95 worked for Lennar. They didn't have a particularly good reputation then either. She was selling to move into a Lennar (natch) house she was having built. Wonder how it worked out.