Who are the Culprits?

The defective drywall - also known as wallboard, gypsum board or plasterboard - arrived at about two dozen ports around the country, seven of them in Florida and others in New York, Texas, New Orleans and California. During the construction craze that followed Hurricane Katrina and other storms, the strain on domestic drywall supply required many builders to use international suppliers to fill the demand at an increasing rate and exacerbated the problem.

Many imported drywall from a German-based company, Knauf, with subsidiaries in China (such as Knauf Tianjin). Reports show that millions of pounds of Chinese drywall entered the U.S. during this time and that it was used across the country in thousands of homes, condos, and office buildings.  Most foreign manufacturers stopped shipping drywall to the U.S. in 2007 as the building boom subsided.  However, there have been reports that another manufacturer, Taian Taishan (based in Taian, China), continued to ship drywall to New York and Port Everglades into the summer of 2007. It appears that at least 550 million pounds of Chinese drywall has arrived at US ports since 2006. That is enough to construct about 60,000 average-size homes.

Lennar Corp. of Miami, one of the first builders to investigate claims of defective drywall, acknowledged that gases emitting from some Chinese drywall caused corrosion of metal coils and wiring and other items with metal components.  Lennar has begun making repairs to some of the homes that they have identified as having the problem.