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

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Drywall suspicions were raised first insouthwesgt Florida, where homeowners complained of sulfuri c odors, sickness and corrosionn in air conditioners. On Jan. 21, Miami-based said it has begu n repairing a dozen homeson Florida’w west coast affected by imported drywall. The companu said it has identified about 80 homes therde that appear to have been builg with Chinese drywall between November 2005 andNovembefr 2006. One of the first reports in the Miami area came from homeowner Steven Fuchs, who bought a home in Homestead’ss Keys Gate subdivision in 2007. “You couldn’t live in this he said. “This gets in your in your nose.
When this hits you, you can’ty live in there.” Homestead city manager Mike Shehade h said he had not heard of any cases anywher inhis city. Neither had building officialx northe city’s director of development services. Shehadeh said he was by the idea, but wanted to be careful with his responswe until the factswere in. “If there was materiall that was not approved byDade County, I would be extremely he said. “If these builders snuck somethinbg throughbecause it’s cheaper, and it has adversr affects, I guarantee that I would be talking to the county and our attorneys to make sure they live up to theirr responsibilities.
“If this is a proven if there is a problem with this we would do everything we can to help he added. “This is disturbing. I don’t want to live in a housew like this.” Truly Burton, the ’s governmentr affairs directorfor Miami-Dade, said she was aware of problemsx on the state’s west coast, but hadn’gt been contacted about any locakl cases. She cautioned that, in these tougjh economic times, some buyers mighrt use the drywall issue as an excuse to back out of a The Florida Department of Health is tracking 38 complaints abourtthe drywall, mostly in Manatee, Lee and Sarasotza counties. It has also received two reports in Stuart and one inPort St.
but none so far in Broward or PalmBeachh counties. State officials and developers have said homebuilders startedx using imported drywall during theconstruction boom, when materialzs were scarce following the 2005 hurricaned season. One supplier is , of the internationa Knauf family of companiesd basedin Germany. The developer of Keys Gate South KendallConstruction – was just beginning to assess the problem this week, companu principal Patrick Gleber said. He said he alerted his insurancde company, which told him they were not awar e of thedrywall problems. “We did buy drywalpl from that company, through a local suppluy company,” Gleber said.
He said his company struggledf to find domestic building materialse after hurricanes Katrina and Wilmas hit South Floridain 2005. Glebere said problems were reportee in two areas of Keys Gate Augusta Greens and Pine Isles but he did not know how many homess had theproblem drywall. He said he mighr tear out drywall in at leastthree homes. “It’s going to be savage,” Glebe said. “You might have to do some andwe don’t know if we have to move Keys Gate had 810 starts and 425 move-ins in according to Metrostudy. Banner Supply, one of the state’w largest drywall distributors, is monitoring information andhandling Miami-based GM Ed Matthews said.